The final disruption in the series
of five educational disruptions is something called “shareable cities”. This disruption is aimed more at urban areas,
but the underlying assumptions supporting this disruption also speak to all
educational and geographical settings. Basically
this assumption states that networks for learning resources and experiences
will become more important (and easier to access) for students, parents and
educational institutions in the future. In
major urban areas these networks become more dense and easier to access for
citizens. I think this is an important
disruption because the “denseness” of the networks also translates to suburban
and rural areas. I would like to think
that education will become closer aligned to the beliefs of John Dewey by
understanding that experiences in real life situations are an essential (if not
the most essential) aspect of education.
By accessing experiences and learning resources embedded in our
communities, education will become more “real” for students. “Sharing” resources and experiences that are
not traditionally within the scope of education will help our students prepare
to thrive in the 21st century.
Is this disruption a reason for consolidation of school districts? Almost everyone agrees that Pennsylvania has too many school districts. This means that we have higher local property taxes to fund unnecessary duplicate costs that could be used to fund the districts building or cyber objectives. This could be a Harrisburg problem, but has the school board considered merging with neighbering districts? Or at least consider sharing administrative processes, maintanance resources, or teaching resources?
ReplyDeleteI deleted a comment that was made in response to the above comment. In the past, I have deleted comments that I thought were promoting an individual cause or group. People that want to promote their organization are welcomed to do that on their own social media site. I always notify blog readers when I delete a comment.
ReplyDeleteTo answer the above comment, I believe this disruption is about blending community resources into our educational system. This will give students the opportunity to have real life experiences while at the same time giving educators and parents more choices in providing a great education for their children. School consolidation may be a valid strategy to increase efficiencies but that is not what this disruption is discussing. School consolidation only deals with one aspect...the school system. To fit in this disruption we must consider the school and the outside resources in the community.
I deleted another comment. The comment referred to a Facebook site that used "Penn-Trafford Report" in its name. I tried to access the Facebook page to review it (I did not create the page) and could not access it. I believe people may be confused that the Facebook page is affiliated with this blog (which it is not) and I do not want to confuse readers of my blog who may think I am promoting (or creating) a Facebook page.
ReplyDeleteThank you. I'm sorry I caused you trouble. I am a college student doing a term project with a mentor from the site to revise their website,and my idea was to change the name so search engines draw people to the site.
ReplyDeleteI just changed the name to The Penn Trafford School District Register. When I type that name in my own Facebook name search block, it does take me to that site. If your blog works, clicking the name of this posting should direct to the site too. Is that OK?
The comment you deleted simply said that I posted a single overhead on the website in case anybody wanted to see a summary. Thats because after I read them, I was a little confused about the total message. I took text from your descriptions to make that summary.