Web 2.0 Adventure

I am feeling a little more comfortable with the Reader, especially relative to my “overwhelmed” state of confusion when I first set it up.  I have tried to take Jerri’s advice and mark things as “read” even if I just read the subject line and dismiss it as “not interested.”  I found two articles this evening that caught my attention, one involving a new service, BrightStorm.  A very creative entepreneur, hoping to revolutionize the video learning world has recruited “stellar” educators with proven records and made the service available to parents for $49 a year.   The plan is to capitalize on kids’ learning styles, with short (10-20 minute) lessons created in a fashion to appearl to students’ “digital consumption habits.”  — could be brilliant!!

The other article that I keyed in on tonight was one from the Fischbowl that promotes abandoning our efforts in high school to Prepare Kids for College — what utter blasphemy!!  Is he suggesting that college is not to be encouraged?  Of course not!  After making a strong case for college graduates earning much more money than their high school counterparts, Fisch retaliates with his own research which shows that very few employers feel that the content covered in college really prepares individuals for what the employers are seeking in employees.   But then he acknowledged that college degrees are still essential. 

The best quote in his article was:  “Let’s make their high school experience meaningful and relevant, so that they rarely feel the need to ask the question, ‘When are we ever going to use this?’ because the answer will be so darn obvious.”

He made a great case for moving away from the Preparing Students for College to a posture of making their learning relevant, which would in essence prepare them for college, life, work, etc.