It’s Sunday morning, and we are railing west on board a really fast train toward Penzance — final destination? A tiny town called Saint Ives. We spent yesterday walking (and walking) around in London and got to see Westminster Abbey, Buckingham palace, lots of swans, The Tower of London, and track 9 3/4 at Kings Cross. Actually, we finally decoded the Underground subway system, to a point where we could navigate the city fairly well, regardless of the two (essential) lines that were down due to engineering.
The only problem, all day, was a lack of Internet. Even though home broadband seems to cost about half of what it does in the U.S., the cost at the Hilton Green Park (12:00 to 12:00) was about three times what I usually pay at hotel in my country, on the occasions that I have to pay at all. No problems. We’ve been too busy to spend any time working on the Net. However, in planning our excursions, I found myself constantly needing the answers to questions that I was accustomed to finding easily with ubiquitous access the the Net. I’m certain that if I’d had a data plan here in the UK, my iPhone would have been out constantly, to Wikipedia this and Wikipedia that. I actually had to walk up to a security officer and ask if just one of the towers in front of me was The tower of London, or if the whole thing was The Tower of London.
Anyway, at this moment, while sliding past house boats docked on the canal to my right, I am reminded of the lamenting blog entry (Local Control and Other Educational Myths) that Doug Johnson posted on The Blue Skunk Blog a few days ago. Dispite intense lobbying by Minnesota’s school library/technology assocation, the state legislature’s Senate Education Committee declined to pass on a bill “…that would have given all Minnesota students access to the services of a professional library media specialist throughout the school day…“
I’m reminded of Doug’s post, because it occurs to me that a school, without a full time information specialist (librarian), is a lot like me trying to plan the most efficient use of our few hours in London, without Internet. So many of my questions demand the Internet. So much of what happens in 21st century schools demands an information specialist.
The saddest part is that many schools today simply are not asking those questions. They’re still teaching students from package-published information sources, based on 15th century technology, and, as a result, teaching them to spoon-feed themselves from safe and sterile information sources that prevent them from thinking, rather than helping them learn to solve problems and accomplish goals by effectively navigating today’s prevailing information environment.
I think your post touches on what is becoming one of the most important 21st century literacies: Information analysis & filtering.
With simply massive amounts of information now readily accessible from nearly everywhere, it’s becoming more important that students understand how to go through all that information to find reliable sources for what data they’re looking for.
As a result of the ubiquitous-ness of easily accessible information, I see the textbook as no longer being a necessary institution within schools. Textbooks are expensive, and I feel the money would be better spent by schools on bringing technology and training to students and teachers.
Hi David, I enjoyed this post. Couldn’t tell if its irony was intentional—that you (quite rightly) bemoan the 15th century technology used in many American school sysytems, but the lack of your own (technology)in London on Saturday provided you with a great moment of live, human interaction: –to ask a question about the Tower, something that extends much farther back than the 15th century.
Just found that interesting.
Best,
Grant Mudge
Maggie Walker Governor’s School
Richmond, VA
Welcome to England … I hope you enjoy your stay.
Can’t be at the Naace Conference in Torquay so will miss you and Ewan … pity … expect a compete blog post so that I can keep up.
These thoughts are spot on. The library staff are key here. However they still have the power to mislead students by not allowing access to sites like wikipedia. Just the other day i heard library staff getting angry at students for using wikipedia for research. I almost cried….. 🙂 continue to enjoy your trip. A tip for access – when I was there I got great access to a service called “the cloud”
Hope that helps….
Your post caught my eye because I am a former library (academic, not media specialist) from Minnesota, currently living in Ireland and maintaining a blog on broadband. So your post hit many chords with me. First – yes the price to access broadband in hotels here can be crazily expensive. (Cost for home isn’t as terrific as it sounds either.)
I had to write because I really I love your description of a school without a librarian being like a day in London without the Internet. The saddest part of all is that without the guidance of the librarian, the kids will leave with the skills built on the curriculum that uses 15th century technology but will be unleashed into a world that is drowning in information – all information, the good the bad and the ugly. And kids will not know how to decipher the good from the bad or defend themselves from the ugly. It’s a disservice that will get us in trouble sooner and later.
Enjoy your trip! Ann
When you speak of ‘packaged’ instruction I am not entirely sure what you mean. I am a teacher/librarian in a secondary school in Canada and the ‘fifteenth century’ technology to which you refer comes in the form of thoughtfully constructed texts that are carefully coordinated with curricular guide lines developed by the Provincial Ministry of Education. They take into account the latest research into learning styles and best pedagogical practices. It seems to me that your reliance on the net verges on a level of dependency usually more often associated with narcotic addiction. Although I see the net as a useful tool,(one among many)I am always aware that it is a mile wide and an inch deep, and that the real job of the ‘information specialist'(how I resent that term) is to help students sort through the druck. We would do well to remember that information is not knowledge…that knowledge is the wise use of information that has been assembled into a systematic view of how the world functions. The ‘factoids’ often found on the internet are mere building blocks. Uncritically accepting them places a value on them that they do not have. If you don’t know how to sort them, grade them and assemble them, you have a pile of rubble. Its why so many students are net surfers..just skimming over the superficial surface of things. The library in which I work requires that I balance net based resources (a lab with 24 on-line computers) and text based resources (fiction, non-fiction and reference materials) and that in building both parts of the collection I do so with an eye to integrating the materials to classroom curriculum because the library (including the net) is an extension of curriculum, not a replacement.
And by the way, there is nothing wrong with having to ask a flesh and blood person for information about the Tower of London. Its called human communication…its almost as critical to our survival as water. And you probably got your answer a lot faster.