Vicki Davis reflected on something she read on the Google blog. The Google folks were writing to “students” about what they’re looking for in future hires. Problem solving skills. Tenacity. Creative thinking. Davis goes on to describe a “problem” one of her students faced in turning in a web-based project summer assignment. The student herself chose to create an Animoto video, something she hadn’t done before. Ultimately, the student figured out a workable solution. What Davis was mainly interested in was having her students learn something new on their own. She says we have to move away from “point and click” teaching when it comes to introducing new technology. Our goal, she says, is to teach problem-solving skills that they can apply when they’re staring down some new piece of software.
I found this intriguing because this summer I’ve had to figure out A LOT of new tech stuff with a few support videos and some text help for each application. Not once could I call someone over. And I think if I’m going to introduce any of this I’m going to have push my students to figure out as much as they can on their own. Fortunately, most of the sites have FAQs and other kinds of support. Nevertheless, it’s daunting. I’ll certainly be happy to have the 23 Things wiki to use as a reference.
Ultimately, this is going to be about creating GOOD problems (by trying new things, by having students express themselves and collaborate and research in new ways) and solving those problems.
Then maybe we can all work for Google.
