For my 10.5 blog post assignment, I will be posting about A World Where Grades Will be Left Behind. This article was written by Mary Beth Marklein. This article focuses on free and individual learning. Udacity is a online start-up program that is overseen by Sebastian Thrun. This article explains the change that is happening in education. This vision states that there will be no grades and that each student will learn individually and have fun doing so. This idea is all about individual learning.
I can see that this has a lot of controversy, at least in my mind. This article states that one class will have tens or hundreds of thousands of students in that one class. Where is the instruction? Where is the teacher? Where is the relationship that is so important between a student and the teacher? Students learn in many different ways and making the learning fun is a great idea, but I think that this approach is stepping over the line. It is too radical in my opinion. Free classes is a great idea, I would love that. I don't see this as a possibility in such a capitalistic society.
As I have said so many times before in many of my previous posts, I believe there should be a decent median between traditional teaching and the use of technology to classrooms. Grades are a difficult topic for many educators and students. I have grown up in schools that use grades to decide practically everything. Grades can be seen as a hinderance in a student's education. Students begin to focus on their grade, rather than focusing on if they are learning the information. I think grades give students something to strive for. Sometimes that student goes too far and misses the point. I believe that grades need to be in school, but there needs to be a change in how they are perceived and handled by students, teachers, parents, and the educational boards. Overall, I do not agree with this very visionary approach to learning and teaching. This is my opinion and others will disagree with me and I expect that and welcome it. I love a little debate!
Nancy,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your blog post. I have to agree with you on some of the points you made. Students need that student teacher relationship. It makes learning much more direct. However, I like the idea of having them to know how to solve problems and research on their own. But they have to have someone there to show them how to move forward in thinking independently.