Do Educators Have A Duty to Prepare Students for “Digital Age”?
By Kim Brown

Cheryl Lemke caused quite a stir when she asked a room full of educators if they are committing malpractice.

The CEO of Metiri Group, a learning technology consulting firm, Lemke has more than 20 years experience in public education. In the year 2000 she was identified as one of the 20 most influential educators nationally in the field of learning and technology. Her lecture titled “Technology-Based Solutions that Work,” was part of the conference “Making Technology Work in Our Schools.”

Lemke cited a study that showed when teachers use visualization in the classroom to solve real world problems, four times more students gain understanding “in a deep way.”

“If we know what students need and we are not getting it to them is that the equivalent of malpractice in the medical world?”

After the silence several audience members spoke up. The consensus was the system, administrators and teacher education programs are also to blame for the misuse and lack of use of technology, not only educators. But Lemke got people to pay attention.

“Are your students ready to thrive in a knowledge based society?” she asked. The unspoken answer was that many students are not prepared for the digital age.

Lemke pointed to the WISE web site (www.immex.ucla.edu), a product of the University of California at Berkeley, as a way for educators to start using technology for learning. Students can use the site as a guide for scientific research. One example she showed the audience was the web-based project about how deformed frogs grow that way. Students navigate through the site as they complete their research with the help of online guidance and clues.

The WISE site qualifies as authentic intellec
tual work, Lemke says. “These projects are relevant beyond the school day, they foster disciplined inquiry and require students to do something with the knowledge they gain.” Teachers can use the web site with their classes free of charge. WISE only asks that educators notify them in advance.

Another example of project-based learning on the site utilizes a battleship game to teach students about slopes on a graph.

Visual literacy and self-directed learning are two important skills that students gain when they work on web-based projects. Lemke showed a simple visual map that students created, linking the causes and effects of bad breath. (Some effects are the loss of friends and visits to the dentist, according to students who developed the map.) Lemke also showed a more advanced project on www.pbs.kids.org that teaches girls about the reality behind the myth of modeling. One little known fact: models use Preparation H to get rid of bags under their eyes.

What actions can educators take to encourage problem solving and research based learning? First, get the digital age on your school’s radar screen, Lemke says. Next identify things that work and make decisions based on students’ learning needs. Finally, redefine success to include information literacy and self-directed learning.

Lemke suggests that educators read professional journals so that when they are asking for things in their school it is research based.

“There must be high expectations for schools and pressure on schools to change,” Lemke says. “It’s a matter of being a squeaky wheel.”

This conference was coordinated by Carolyn Everett, Director of Special Projects at CUNY Central. email: carolyn.everett@mail.cuny.edu