Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Our Changing World and What It Means


My friend Benito Del Aguila Malvaez shares wonderful video clips from youtube on his Facebook page. This latest one is from 2008 and I had hoped my Library Services department would share it with our Teacher Librarians. It's titled "Did you know 2008 3.0" and asks "So what does it all mean?" Also available from Teachertube, it lists many facts about our changing world, including the fact that India and China are likely to become great powers soon. But it also emphasizes how much information is available to people compared with earlier times. China will soon become the number one English speaking country in the world. Our students are being prepared for jobs that havent been created yet. "We are living in exponential times." There are 540,000 words in the English language -- five times more words than in Shakespeare's time. Mind boggling numbers that make the job of teachers, especially teacher librarians, a challenging responsibility. I am grateful for School Library Learning 2.0 and for the CSLA Conference coming up in November. There will be many sessions devoted to library advocacy and technology for our changing world. One hot topic is the educational use of cell phones -- our students are always using them, how can we make this an educational tool? I have become addicted to my BlackBerry although I now wish I'd bought an iPhone. I'm sure that when I purchase my next phone, there will be many more uses for a cell phone. Pictured here is my almost four year-old granddaughter Elena who is being a DJ - one of the 34 jobs she might have in her lifetime. She loves to do puzzles on Jigzone. What will her world be like? Will her education be as good as mine was?

No comments:

Post a Comment