With the advent of the Internet, education is currently in the midst of a massive shift in the way we educate America’s next generation.
As our previous generations were educated, information was only available by the distribution of knowledge through books and the individuals with access to them.
The early educational model in the United States was based around the understanding that the teacher had been exposed to a great pool of knowledge, acquired through the opportunity to peruse the great books of college and university libraries, and the teacher was responsible for slowly passing out that knowledge to a room full of eager students who knew this was their only chance to attain this wisdom.
We now face an entirely new situation. Students today are only a Google search away from worldwide knowledge stores that far surpass anything the developing teacher of the 1900s could have found in a college library.
At Tippecanoe Valley School Corporation, we are focused on achieving student success through character education, leadership and literacy. Part of these efforts involves providing an education that prepares students for a life in this new knowledge-rich economy. Essential 21st century skills must be developed.
The National Forum on Information Literacy defines information literacy as “... the ability to know when there is a need for information, to be able to identify, locate, evaluate and effectively use that information for the issue or problem at hand.” Thus we know that students in this environment must develop three critical skills.
First, they must have real-time access to the latest data and information. Every computer in Tippecanoe Valley School Corporation has access to the Internet and we are in the process of deploying wireless networks in all of our buildings. This means that our students have access to a wealth of resources from around the world.
All over our district, teachers share students’ testing data with them so students develop an understanding of where they are in the learning process. This helps students possess the information necessary to set growth goals for themselves. Second, our students must be able to evaluate the relevance of the information they find. When the teacher was passing out knowledge to classrooms of students in the 1900s, the information was assumed to be reliable. However, when the Internet is utilized, students must evaluate the credibility of the information they find.
Finally, students must be able to use reasoning skills to apply the information they have gathered to solve complex problems and to gain deeper understanding of new challenges. In our fast-paced world, businesses are increasingly relying not on workers that they can train in a confined set of skills that will serve them throughout their career, but employers are dependent on employees that can acquire new knowledge and skills to meet the challenges of jobs that have yet to be created.
Teaching students how to use these digital resources ethically and effectively is critical as we seek to develop the next generation of leaders and ensure that they will have the integrity and information literacy necessary to be successful 21st century employees.
