In education it’s been widely hailed as a revolutionary device, promising to transform education as we know it. Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as bulk purchasing iPads and deploying them into the wilds of education. Innovation can’t be installed. It has to be grown — and generally from the margins.
改革是进步的通行证。在我们这个日新月异的世界中,改革已经成为引领我们在这个充满了不确定和变化的时代里前进的圣杯。跟平板电脑相比,没有一个更加明显的标志了。它很好地捕抓了各种不同的文化群和组织的核心和思维。
The profusion of digital technology at work, home and everywhere in between is evident to even the most causal observer. In this climate, it’s understandable why many schools are interested in technological integration and innovation. While it seems clear that students will increasingly be expected to be adept at using digital tools in their professional and personal lives, there isn’t great clarity on how exactly these tools should be used. Often visions and goals are nebulous — if they exist at all. We can’t just buy iPads (or any device), add water, and hope that strategy will usher schools to the leading edge of 21st century education. Technology, by itself, isn’t curative. Human agency shapes the path.
就如我们所知的它将改变整个教育体系,目前它已经成为一个引起了广泛注意的一教育个改革的武器。但是很不幸的是,这并不只是大部分人购买平板电脑和把它运用到教育的方方面面那么简单。改革并不能被安装。它必须得成长——从大众中顺其自然地成长起来。
In light of this dynamic, two critical questions need to be asked and provisionally answered when integrating technology into education. The first question, while obvious at first glance, isn’t always fully articulated: “What are the educational goals of technology integration?”
甚至对于一个随随便便的观察者,在工作中、在家里到处都可以看到数字资源的浪费。在这种风气下就不难理解为什么很多学校对技术交流和改革很感兴趣。尽管这看起来似乎很明显,学生们会被期望在他们的专业领域和私人领域越来越多地运用数字工具,但是关于这些工具应该怎么样运用并不存在一个准确的模式。经常地,各种存在的版本和目标都是模凌两可的。我们不能仅仅通过买平板电脑或者其他的设备,加上水就希望它们成为21世纪教育的导向。技术本身不是万能的。是人类塑造了科技之路。
The second question is equally important and often more elusive: “Do the current systems and processes support the integrative and innovative goals?”
在这个时代的照耀下,当我们将技术融入到教育当中时有两个主要的问题应该被提出来还有优先地回答。第一个问题,一眼就可以看出,并不是经常连接得很好的,到底把科学技术融合到教育当中的目的是什么呢?
Adapting Teaching To Technology
第二个问题是同等的重要并且更加的难以理解,那就是我们现阶段的体系和进程是否支持这个综合的革新的目标。这个目标就是把科技运用到教学当中。
The answer to the first question — about the goals of technology integration — often orbits around 21st century skills. The problem is that most of the curriculum within schools today is distinctly tied to the 20th century. The first phase of technology integration usually focuses on the transition from an analog to a digital environment, but after that happens, the use of technology raises deeper
对于第一个问题的答案,关于科技整合的目标与整个21世纪的各种技能息息相关。问题是今天学校里的很多课程都明显地与20世纪的联系在一起。科技整合的第一个阶段通常是把重点放在从理论向数字环境的转变,但在这之后,科技的运用又会引起更深层次的教育问题。
The best schools throughout history prepared their students for the social and economic realities of their time. Our system of universal education was designed to meet the social and economic needs of the industrial revolution, which was defined by a world of standardization. While the industrial revolution has been added to the annals of history, our system of education has not.
历史上最好的学校都是是学生能适应他们时代的经济社会的发展。我们的大学教育就是为了满足工业革命下的经济社会的发展,这已经被定义为一个标准了。虽然工业革命的成果已经深渗入到理论知识当中,却没有深入到教育体系中。
The social and economic world of today and tomorrow require people who can critically and creatively work in teams to solve problems. Technology widens the spectrum of how individuals and teams can access, construct and communicate knowledge. Education, for the most part, isn’t creating learners along these lines. Meanwhile, computers are challenging the legitimacy of expert-driven knowledge, i.e., of the teacher at the front of the classroom being the authority. All computing devices — from laptops to tablets to smartphones — are dismantling knowledge silos and are therefore transforming the role of a teacher into something that is more of a facilitator and coach.
现今和明天的经济社会要求人们能够以团队的形式严格地创造性地来解决问题。科技开拓了个人和团队获取,创造和交流知识的空间。教育在很大程度上并不是按照条条框框来塑造学者。同时,电脑也在挑战着专家知识的正统性以及教室里老师的权威性。所有的电脑设备,从笔记本到台式电脑到手机,都在破坏着知识的完整并且在另一方面是教师的角色变成了不仅仅是一个给人提供便利的人或者教练。
This isn’t to say that teachers are becoming obsolete. Great teachers are needed now more than ever. But what it means to be a teacher and student is changing — as it has throughout history. The main point is that technology is helping to drive a pedagogical change, and schools need to be mindful of this influence and thoughtful of how they’d like to facilitate this transition. This is why linking technology to learning objectives is so important. Otherwise, schools could find themselves in a position where the cart (technology) is before the horse (pedagogy).
这并不是说教师已经过时了。现在好的教师比以往任何时代都更加地需要。至于这对于教师和学生来说意味着什么已经是贯穿到整个历史中了。关键的一点是科技正在促进教育的改变,学校应该关注这种现象并且深入思考如何为此提供方便。这也是把科技和客观事物联系起来如此重要的原因。否则学校会发现他们处于这样的一种处境,教育永远落后于科技。那么我们现在的体系是否支持改革呢?
Does Our Current System Support Innovation?
对于第二个问题现在的体系和程序是否支持综合和改革性的目标的答案则很少被提及因为这个问题很少被问起。
Answers to the second question (Do the current systems and processes support the integrative and innovative goals?) are rarely offered because the question is seldom asked.
不确定和实验在现在的模式下被理解为浪费时间因为还有课程需要按照固定的计划来学习和研究测试。
The organization of schools — their systems, processes and values — were deliberately designed to accomplish specific objectives. Departments, 50-minute classes, bells, rows of desks, lectures, textbooks, standardized tests, and grades are all aspects of schools’ organizational structure that were conceived to train students in the image of industrial society. Within this model, standardization and mass production rule supreme.
学校的组织包括他们的体系、各种程序和内在价值都是为了来完成具体的任务。各个部门、50分钟一节课、铃声、一排排的课桌椅、文化、课本、标准化的测试还有分数都是学校组织结构的各个方面,这些都被构想出来训练工业社会的学生们的思维。在这种模式下,标准化和大量产品将会破坏最重要的东西。
The systems and values of industrial education were not designed with innovation and digital tools in mind. Innovation, whether it’s with technology, assessment or instruction, requires time and space for experimentation and a high tolerance for uncertainty. Disruption of established patterns is the modus operandi of innovation. We like the fruits of innovation, but few of us have the mettle to run the gauntlet of innovation.
这种体系和工业化的教育并没有以改革创新运用数字工具为目的。改革,不管是否和技术、评估和建设联系在一起,都要求试验时间和空间以及对不确定性的宽容。所谓破旧建新是改革的惯例。我们都喜爱改革的果实,却很少有人有接受改革的严酷考验的勇气。改革往往是从社会的边缘发起来的。
Because integration and innovation with technology can be so disruptive to established systems, innovation is more likely to take root if it is grown on the margins. The margin can be a small percentage of class time that’s carved out each week for experimentation, or it can be a technology incubator designed to function beyond the conventional boundaries of school systems.
因为科技的融合和创新当建立新的体系时是具有破坏性的,改革更像是把生长中的植物的根部抓住。它的枝叶只是作为课堂上一小部分被分割到各个星期的试验中,或者它可以作为在传统的学校体系的边界之外的一个培养器来起作用。
Wherever the appropriate margin is identified for technological innovation, the climate within the margin needs to be such that teachers and students are supported in exploring the edges of uncertainty. This is critical because uncertainty and experimentation are perceived as a waste of time within the current model because there is curriculum that needs to be covered and tests that need to be taken within a prescribed schedule. One can’t begin to have more time and space for innovating in class unless one loosens the reigns on traditional objectives and creates more flexibility and leverage within classrooms and schools.
无论在什么地方合适的空白地带被确认为科技改革,这种氛围需要学生和老师去探索不确定性的边缘。这是很严格的因为不确定性和不断地试验在现在这种模式下被认为是浪费时间因为还有一些课程需要按照一定的计划来实践和测验。一个人不可能一开始就拥有很多课堂上的时间和空间除非他放弃一些传统的东西并在学校课堂上创造出更多的便利和影响力。
This is easier said than done. To varying degrees we’ve all come through the traditional model of education that has trained us to seek certainty. Combine that with the fact that we are wired to look for negative information — and uncertainty would definitely fit into the negative category for most of us — and we have a compound society that is increasingly risk averse. Yet without taking risks, we can’t have breakthroughs.
说总是比做要容易得多。我们都或多或少在传统模式下被训练成寻求确定性的人。结合现实我们不得不看到消极的一面,不确定性又会加剧我们大部分人的消极意识。我们这个复杂的社会越来越充满着不确定的危险的因素。但是如果缺少了冒险,我们也无法取得突破。
Learning environments of the future are in incubation. And therein lies the challenge: Learning environments that don’t exist can’t be analyzed. Moving into the unknown requires a pioneering spirit. Helen Keller reminds us that is the truth of not only our age, but of all ages: “Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.”
未来的学习环境正在形成之中。所有这些都存在挑战,毕竟不存在的学习环境是不能被分析的。向未知的世界进军是需要先锋者的精神的。海伦凯勒这样告诉我们,安全在很大程度上是一种迷信,它并不是自然地存在,并不是对于孩子大人所有人来说都必然存在。逃避危险从长期来说不会比完全暴露安全多少。生活除了冒险就什么都不是。
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