1st October 2007

Join online debates about education policy sponsored by The Economist

posted in 1:1, assessment, economics, politics, schoolreform |

One of the best decisions I made in college was joining the speech and debate team as a freshman. I am firmly convinced participating/competing in intercollegiate debate as well as speech events for 4 years (extemp and impromptu were my main other events) helped me cultivate my critical thinking, organization, and public speaking skills more than any course or other activity in which I participated during college. Although the majority of formal debating I did in college was Cross Examination Debate (CEDA), I did compete in the World Debating Championships twice (in Dublin in ‘90 and Toronto in ‘91) where parliamentary debating style was used.

I was glad to learn (via an email) that the Economist magazine is starting to offer a series of online debates held on its website this month, which coincidentally begin the first “regular” week of the 2007 K-12 Online Conference. The topic of the first series of debates is EDUCATION and people are invited to vote now for the education “proposition” which should be debated initially. The choices are:

  1. This house believes that the continuing introduction of new technologies and new media adds little to the quality of most education.
  2. This house proposes that governments and universities everywhere should be competing to attract and educate all suitably-qualified students regardless of nationality and residence.
  3. This house believes that companies donate to education mainly to win public goodwill and there is nothing wrong with this.
  4. This house believes that the “digital divide” is a secondary problem in the educational needs of developing countries.
  5. This house believes that social networking technologies will bring large changes to educational methods, in and out of the classroom.

I did cast a vote for one of the above choices, but I really don’t think any of these propositions are needed in our current educational climate. As the first proposition is worded, I would likely offer arguments in SUPPORT of it since the ways in which many teachers use (and fail to use) available technologies today in the classroom do NOT add much to educational quality. (This is why we need pedagogic change in schools to accompany technological changes.) Instead of debating one of those propositions, I propose the following as alternative propositions for consideration:

  1. This house proposes abandoning the use of high-stakes testing and mandated educational standards to improve student achievement, encourage creativity and the development of twenty-first century workforce skills in schools.
  2. This house proposes changing educational law requiring the purchase of “textbooks” to instead specify “instructional materials,” thereby increasing local options for schools purchasing curriculum materials for students and teachers. (Flashback to HB4 in Texas.)
  3. This house proposes amending current educational law to make public school attendance by students from the ages of 5 to 18 optional rather than mandatory.
  4. This house proposes structural changes in the schedules of elementary and secondary schools which encourage flexible and diverse scheduling of classes, as well as an alternate funding formula for education NOT based on “seat time.”
  5. This house believes it is in the interest of this government to equip learners in our schools with personal wireless, mobile computing devices so they can cultivate twenty-first century literacy skills unattainable with analog textbooks, paper and pencils.

I think we could certainly see some lively debates around those alternative topics. Whatever topics are selected, hopefully these online debates will encourage educational stakeholders at all levels in different countries to think beyond their own experiences and contexts in seeking ways to improve educational opportunities for the latest generation of school-age learners.

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This entry was posted on Monday, October 1st, 2007 at 8:41 pm and is filed under 1:1, assessment, economics, politics, schoolreform. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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