Article written for Directions in Education:
Students who achieve well on narrow tests might not be our most resilient learners. By this time next year, Year 12 will have forgotten most of the content they are being taught this year. This should lead us to ask questions about what knowledge and skills we should be teaching and how we should test them (Daily Telegraph 17/12/08).
Gordon Stanley has warned against following the British and US examples of overtesting students and setting performance benchmarks that narrow the curriculum. “Testing is really only valuable in so far as it provides timely feedback that will help the teachers working with their students…Increasingly the research evidence suggests that the delay between testing and the feedback is critical in terms of developing student skills” (SMH, 26/3/09).
In the meantime, Second Life and podcasts are changing the way education is delivered. Students now regularly access materials online and interact with other students in discussion boards. Virtual worlds, mobile phones, wikis and blogs are creating dynamic learning environments. “People teaching language do really good things where they send students to another part of the campus and they have to dial their partner and describe where they are in English” (SMH, 2/3/09).
However members of the Net Generation often do not know how to utilise technology to optimise their learning and ICT can be counter-productive if it takes the place of complex thinking. Dr Mubarak Ali from Flinders University has found that internet addiction is a real consequence of too many hours online and it will soon be classified as a mental disorder. Oxford University neuroscientist Susan Greenfield warns that social networking sites can “effectively rewire children’s synapses, ‘infantilising’ the brain and eroding attention-span and empathy.” The consequence is that “the mid-21st century mind might almost be infantilised, characterised by short attention spans, sensationalism, inability to empathise and a shaky sense of identity.” (SMH, 4/4/09)
