Scientia Potentia Est
I have been having on-going conversations with some educators about why we educate, what is it that we ultimately want students to be able to do, what do they need for be successful, what is it to be successful, where are they going after they leave us? Though these on their own are topics worthy of discussion I ultimately here the following response to these questions: Students need to be life-long learners and good/productive citizens.
Life-long Learners
Members of my PLN are life-long learners, they read, question, explore, challenge and re-define themselves continually. Are the teachers down the hall from you life-long learners? If they are not life-long learners how can they model, create the desire and habits needed to be life long learners in their students. Those that are, do you see a different buzz in their classrooms? In today’s economic, political and environmental climate it is important to be continually learning and updating your knowledge and skills so you can actively adapt and participate.
Good and Productive Citizens
To me being a “good and productive” citizen means to be able to contribute to the community. That contribution can come in many forms; service, an educated vote, being employed, inventing new products or markets, among others. This means being educated and continuing to pursue learning (formal or informal).
Scientia Potentia Est.
Knowledge is power. This is an idea that has been instilled in me since my childhood. Knowledge provides opportunity and potential. The more you know, the more options you have in life. You have a greater choice about colleges, careers, and even social connections. As citizens of a country where the government is the people, it is extremely important that we have the ability to access and analyze information to be educated about what is going on in our world. As educators it is our responsibility to assist our students in mastering the skills to be life long learners and to understand the importance of continued learning. Knowledge is power, knowledge is potential.
Proverbs 24:5 A wise man has great power, and a man of knowledge increases strength.
18 thoughts on “Scientia Potentia Est”
I agree, in fact one of the reason I became a 21st Century Learning coach was to inspire teachers who are not yet life-long learners to become so. Once teachers see the difference in student engagement and work in a classroom that is focused on life-long learning and citizenship, they want to be involved. After all, isn’t that why most of us became teachers?
Hey, great blog! I just came across it together. I struggle with these same questions. They have become even more apparent since I began my masters program on integrating technology into the classroom. It seems to me that our public school system lags behind the reality of the times. We seem to be overly concerned with content, rather than the students’ ability to question, collaborate, and produce. As a history teacher, my 8th grade students need to take this ridiculous mid-term which covers so much content it disgusts me. What is the point of knowing so much “stuff?” Today’s students can simply log on to the internet and discover the answer to anything they want. What is the point of closed-note map tests? Yes it is important to have a general idea of where geographic locations are, but it is silly to memorize them now.
Let me try to provide an example. Instead of a question such as “What is the Boston Massacre?” Why not have the students work together, research, and produce a product that answers the question “Who was responsible for what happened in the event known as the Boston Massacre?” Information is so readily available today I am really starting to think that content is given too much importance.
I think time in the classroom should be dedicated to teaching research skills and teching kids how to understand point of view, bias, etc. Perhaps this only holds true for history teachers! Thanks for the article I enjoyed reading it.
I would think it holds true in all subjects. Just think about “climate-gate”. In science it is equally true. In fact I think in all areas. Why can we not question everything? How do you know? Why not this? What are the implications? What other options are there? The more we questions, the more we seek answers the deeper our understanding will be.
As educators, our goal is to create life-long independent learners, in order to achieve this goal it is imperative that every educator is a life-long learner. Educators need to be up to date with technology and its applications. Students today are over whelmingly more adept with technology than many of the educators including myself. I feel that school districts need to acknowledge this discrepancy and gear our professional development days toward innovative technology development. We need to be teaching these important 21st century skills in order to continue to create life-long learners for this day and age.
As an educator I believe it is my role to produce productive citizens who will be beneficial to the community as they continue to grow up. Teachers should encourage their students to think for themselves and develop their own thoughts about material they learn within the classroom. Students should be learning how to work cooperatively in groups with other students to prepare them for the real world and the collaboration that takes place. I work with a group of teachers who I believe are life-long learners. Many of the teachers at my school have a Masters degree and are always researching new ideas and methods to use in the classroom. I believe that students need to see that their teachers are continuing to learn even after they have finished college. The teachers I work with are continually planning new, engaging lessons to instill knowledge into their students and get them excited about learning. They try to include technology in their lessons because students seem to be more attentive when technology is involved. These days, it is very hard to hold a student’s attention by simply using bright colors on poster board. Students in classrooms today want to see technology involved. If video games can hold their attention for hours, I believe an interactive lesson incorporating technology can do the same thing.
Becoming a life-long learner requires passion. I often feel that many educators enter the profession not fully aware of what they are committing to. They lack the passion needed to continue the ongoing process of learning. When you combine that with a world that is constantly changing, presenting us with new technology and different things we can do as teachers, it becomes clear that not everyone is cut out to being the life-long learner needed to have the great classroom that comes as a result!
This is one of the most refreshing blogs dealing with education that I’ve seen! Your personal comments and reflections on your students and what we do as teachers reminded me why I became a teacher.
I like what you said about knowledge being power, but sometimes I think we mistake quantity for quality, and we forget that knowledge is useless unless we learn how to use it effectively. This becomes more clear to me every time I find myself involved in discussions of technology. Too many of us are so dazzled by the amount of information we have at our fingertips that we forget that it’s possible for some (most?) of that information to be inaccurate.
I shudder whenever Wikipedia is used as a positive example of the potential of technology.
I right there with Ken. I am also working on a masters degree and focused on updating my personal technology realm. I watch my children embrace every technology as soon as it emerges, yet I hesitate in case it’s just a passing phase. I need to put my life-long learning commitment to the test.
I was just reading an article where the author – Dr. David Thornburg used the term constructivist to describe the process current students use to internalize information. I think it really gives a clear picture of who we are teaching today – and how we should engage the students in front of us. These young learners are forming their own understanding of material all while using current technology. They don’t hesitate to utilize every available medium or component of technology they can get their hands on. The use their cell phones to access the internet and capture images and video as things happen. Yet our schools hold them back by failing to keep current with technology trends. The difference between what students are capable of doing with the technology they have and what our schools offer conflicts. We need to encourage the life-long learner in ourselves as teachers and administrators and embrace the information age.
Elizabeth,
I agree that students today are more comfortable with technology and just dive right in. But I do not think they know what to do with it or how use it effectively. Just like with any tool some people are quite skilled and others can barely get the hang of it. In my hand a chisel would be useful only for breaking a rock, in the hands of Michelangelo you get a David.
Caitlyn,
Student engagement is key to student success if they can connect to the lesson, activity, content then they will learn. It takes a very creative teacher to get all the varied students engaged in the learning process. I do think video games, interactive lessons and technology tend to reach more students then other learning activities.
Aaron,
To some degree I think that is true, some people just do not have the energy or the drive to continue learning. I feel these people have lost their passion for what they do. I have worked with some educators who I though would not adjust to all the changes but they have surprised me. When they focus on students and why they became educators in the first place, many can re-kindle that passion and begin to move forward. Everyone can learn new ideas, they just to be engaged and see how it connects to and benefits what they do. Directives from on high is just not going to cut it.
Miyeun,
Thank you for the compliment.
Knowledge is power – knowing what is worthy to know is wisdom. We have information galore, we have search engines a plenty, only our minds and not technology can provide us with wisdom. We need to help our students develop the critical thinking and reasoning skills so they can develop wisdom.
Donna,
I am a constructivist in my thinking. We experience, we interact, we communicate, we collaborate and we build our understanding of the world – we learn. The tools today help us interact, communicate and collaborate with more information and people then ever before. If these are the activities which foster our learning, then these are the activities which we must foster in ourselves and our students.
I love your post and agree with it completely. In my daily work, I notice how focused the education system is on transmitting content (from teacher to student) and how hard it is for many students to make sense of any text they read. I always wonder why our education system did not find it appropriate to teach learning, critical thinking, and collaboration skills. As a technology specialist, I try to explore ways to use existing web 2.0 technology to create tools that help students make sense of the large body of information they are exposed to when conducting research. Teaching how to research and instilling learning skills are high priority in my classes. Unfortunately, my impact as the technology specialist is limited in time.
Beth, you are absolutely correct. That passion can be rekindled. It’s something I don’t see often, but if teachers can tap into how technology can benefit them, they certainly can make the change. It also has to be something that comes from within!
Miriam,
I wonder if as tech specialist we are more attuned to the need to re-focus on critical thinking and reasoning skills because we are immersed in information. We read, communicate and collaborate continually to help make sense of all the new tools and strategies that we must evaluate. I believe this has changed how I interact with and think about information.
Creativity is the key to successfully incorporating technology in the classroom and catching the attention of all students. This blog is very encouraging and it makes me proud to be among educators who want the best for their students and the people they work with.
I agree that our work with technology has influenced the way we think about education. In fact, working as a programmer for many years, issues relating to a systematic approach for handling information and understanding it, are very important in my education arsenal. It stems from the fact that without breaking a topic to its core components and understanding each one very well, you can’t really create a program that will work. This simple principle can be applied in any discipline and contribute to a greater clarity when studying any subject. By the way, I was one of those who was disappointed when in the 80s, after an initial surge in teacher interest for Seymour Papert’s Logo programming, teachers dismissed learning it because they said that only those who seek careers in programming should continue to pursue it. Besides programming, there was so much to be learned by engaging in Logo Programming.