Marc Prensky

I am listening to Marc Prensky at the Kansas Career and Technical Education Conference, Feb 20, 2007. Some interesting points to consider:

• Listen to your students (or teachers). They know what they want. Really? I think students don't know what they want, they need exploration opportunities.
• Without support from the base (students/teachers/community) you cannot make higher level decisions (bottom up vs. top down)
• Today's learners are no longer limited by their teachers' ability and knowledge - Mark Anderson
• We shutoff students connection to the world (put them in the dark) instead of showing them the light
• School is about standards/credentials. After school is about learning (itunes, lego clubs, etc)
• The bureacracy of schools is limiting the programs and learning we can provide for students. Other organizations (Van Go, LAC, etc) will provide these opprtunities and reap the success of them.*
• If your kids don't learn, will you be fired? If you don't supervise your students, will you be fired? Security and safety more important than learning. I have to disagree here. Without safety students could not learn.