What strikes me as most radical and refreshing is his position that we should rethink our whole "industrial model" school environment, not trying to fit new Web 2.0 tools into existing school environments. Right now, the students' job is to "do what we tell you, study and get good grades to prepare for the future." Every student should be an active contributer like children on the farms…with real chores (like his youth in
His call to recognize and make use of virtual environments in education caught my attention when he described applying game theory to teach Mandarin online...available this summer! As protective as we are of our schools and jobs as institutions, we'll need to be prepared to participate in educational outsourcing (e-sourcing?) from different environments (cultures, countries...swapping teachers and curriculum). It is amazing to consider the potential flexibility for students, teachers, school...like this course :)
Finally, his position on 1:1 computing (a laptop for every student) caught my attention when he said, "we don't see results or real creative uses of them because the use of technology is still bound & controlled by what adults know and what adults think is appropriate. I must admit that allowing chatting, student email accounts, allowing YouTube and MySpace is a hurdle when we've spent so much time,effort and money on communicating and maintaining school appropriateness. The challenge is to strike balance between keeping an open mind integrating Web 2.0 tools with the need to keep our children safe!
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Yong Zhao's podcast has changed my thinkng of computer usage. He was right on when he said computers have not had as great an impact on the educatioanl world as in other professions - they have changed the business world and made huge impacts in other professions but why not education?
Online learning has many possbilities and the impact can be huge. Giving students the tools to reach people around the world at the click of a mouse is so powerful. But we need to get all teachers onboard with computer technology to give all students the opportunity to use computers as a learning tool.
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