A New Culture of Learning: Chapters 2-3

In this modern era of available technology and education, our nation's approach towards learning has changed vastly over the past 10-20 years. As a "next generation" college student, the internet has readily been available since my inception; truly changing the process of gaining knowledge through a common household desktop. While some of the more impoverished groups in society may not have access, I feel the public school system has done a fine job towards introducing/using various systems and styles of learning- such as the smartboard or tablet when I was in high school.

Once my first research paper was assigned in 8th grade, I didn't visit my local library. Not only was that access archaic and unfamiliar, it mostly came down to convenience- and convenience is the single most dangerous gift in our society.

Obviously a free education is an excellent choice to help benefit a growing job market, industry, and economy; just like the introduction of technology can help integrate accurate knowledge at the touch of anyone's fingertips. So on a lighter note, yes we should incorporate as much technology as possible into our classrooms.

On the other hand, the United States ranked 36th in an international test given to a variety of 15 year olds across the globe. Now run that number across your mind- 36th. Not top 5 or even top 30, 36th. How is it possible the most influential and powerful country in the world is outranked by 35 other countries? While a number of poor teachers and unnecessary curriculum may be blamed, I feel it comes down to the students lack of motivation and drive when it comes to knowledge- and when everything is given to them freely in society, who can blame them? Take the basics of life: clean drinking water or a comfortable bed for example, because our country has such vast access to these two necessities, we tend to overthink their importances.

Day in and day out, the U.S. puts millions of children and teens into the same meat grinder in hopes of one day capturing the same diploma. Despite this however, companies are outsourcing jobs elsewhere in countries such as India or East Asia- places that ranked higher on the international test mentioned earlier.

In conclusion, while the access of technology is becoming more and more important, it is also becoming more and more dangerous. More than anything we should restructure our school systems before pouring billions into touchscreen projectors or electronic keyboards because I can't see that helping us break the top 30.      



Link to Educational Survey Article:
http://www.cnycentral.com/news/story.aspx?id=978874#.UvkCjPldWSo