Not So Distant Future

I just caught the end of the Democratic “YouTube” debate.  As I was watching the follow-up discussion by some of the “you-tubers” who prepared videos,  one of them mentioned that he thought we could never go back to the traditional debate format.   This format felt much more spontaneous and authentic.  Others, including the candidates, seemed to agree.

After watching this, I think about those of us in education.

Are we doing enough to incorporate these tools which can turn a sometimes static and prepared presentation in a classroom into something spontaneous and more authentic? 

What issues are raised when you mix the “new” tools and the “old”?   What happens to the idea of journalism, teachers, television?

How does connecting and networking with people you might not normally encounter bring something new to the table?

Did this “mash-up” work?  How can we use mash-ups in schools with the “old” and the “new”?

And if it did work, (as I think it did), would we ever want to “go back?”

  I was fortunate enough to hear Molly Ivins speak at the University of Texas in November, when she won the Mary Alice Davis Distinguished Lecturer award.  

Her concern that night was the future of journalism; specifically, the future of newspapers.   I have thought of her insights often the last few months.

She was aware that because of the instant availability of news online, that newspapers were going to have to change, and she felt that because large conglomerates have been purchasing many urban newspapers, their main concern has been profits, and not the reporting.   Because newspaper profit margins had increased in the 90’s, owners now have the expectation that newspapers should make higher profits than they had made in the past.  So reporters have been laid off at many large newspapers, and there is more use of “headline” stories, etc.  

She felt that the antidote wasn’t firing good reporters–the antidote was newspapers becoming independent entities, and  in-depth reporting  was what newspapers should focus on.

How does all this relate to schools and to this blog?   Access to information online is changing everything–from businesses, to newspapers, to television….to, yes, schools.

We need to pay attention not only to our students’ interests (would the Boston incident yesterday have happened if anyone there was aware of what their teenagers were watching on t.v.?), but also how access to everything online may ultimately change our schools.

So, thank you Molly, for your insights.