Chapter 2: Educational Technology for school leaders

Russ Cole
Chapter 2 Reflection
Dr. Cullen

                No more cookie cutter high schools? This chapter means to say that it wants more customizable high schools and makes a reasonably strong argument for them.  The world is changing rapidly, and it has been for some time. We do ourselves no service by trapping the education system behind, ensuring it stagnates. As times change everything, in order to be successful, has become fluid and able to change with the needs of those who use it, except for public schools which appear and work much as they did years ago.

                We have new technology, as do schools, but we also have new needs and a new world that changes at a new pace and our schools are not matching it. Students today need classes customized to them if they are to learn the skills they will need in life. Likewise they need school to offer teaching styles that are effective for their particular type of learning. Finally, students will need schools to meet their hectic schedules if they are to be able to make any use of it at all. To do this, a school building would need to exist and function in no way which any current school exists or functions. A seemingly impossible task faces our school system if it is to meet the needs of its student population.

                Unfortunately, few of these suggested changes are new. Many have been suggested over and over for years, but are strongly resisted. Not only by school boards and principals, but also by the teachers within the schools who respect the ideas as novel and well meaning, but inapplicable.

                As a prospective instructor, I can do little other than offer my support of schools effectively meeting the needs of people in changing times. I do believe that our schools need to change in order the meet the needs of students and I also believe that it will take radical and effective long-term change before we see a real impact on students. I also believe, however, that too much freedom can send the wrong message.

                Part of school, indeed, what I believe to be one of the greatest strengths of school, is the presence of discipline and rigor. Adhering to schedules and meeting standards is the driving force behind life outside of school. Those who can will succeed and those who cannot simply cannot hope to. Students must learn math through algebra II and would do well to learn the principles behind biology and English, as well as history and encountering foreign language. Anything beyond that should be, and currently is, elective to the student and in this I do believe the school system has met its duty for variety.

                What I must also agree with, however, is that schools could do far better in enabling their students to pursue those subjects that will best prepare them for their aptitudes and talents. We do ourselves no favors by letting students mill through course catalogs without guidance, and even damage by providing singular methods of instruction across multiple sections of classes.

                It is my current plan to contribute as much variety to my classroom as possible and encourage personal growth within my students so that they can find their passion and follow it. I also hope to have an open mind to new concepts that stand to revolutionize and evolve the classroom, even if I am at first uncomfortable and unfamiliar with those ideas.