I have really enjoyed this class. I learned a lot, but my biggest take away is that there is so much history and there is so much more to the history of education than I realized. The funny thing is, based on my 11 years in the field of education, there have been so many changes, why would I not expect that over hundreds of years there would be more history than I can even sift through in a summer class. What I appreciated about this class is that it exposed me to so many facets of history and to so much more of the details of how we got to where we are than I realized. In fact I have often felt that classrooms today still seem so traditional that it really seems like education has not changed much at all over the last hundred years, but after all of the readings, I realize that there has been a lot of thought into how we pursue education for our children. It still does not change the fact, for me, that there seems to be the need for change in the classroom in terms of differentiating education. I do think that over the last few years there has been exponential growth in the right direction here and I am really excited looking forward in so far as how technology will begin to inundate education. I think it took a long time and technology has taken way longer than it should have to filter into education, but it is and I think things are going to change quickly now. I am sure that there were times in the past that people felt just like that, that things were going to change quickly. In the mid 1700’s Ben Franklin along with many other like-minded people met regularly to discuss education and share knowledge. This pursuit of knowledge and finding more effective ways to educate our children is not new and I am excited to be a part of this exciting time of new technologies in education. There was even an article about Sal Khan in Costco’s magazine this month!
“Franklin also noted the value of individual correspondence as an enterprise in self-education. He engaged in extensive correspondence with knowledgeable men and women on both sides of the Atlantic, tapping into their investigations and opinions on matters relating to science, religion, politics, agriculture, and scores of other topics” (Jennings & Urban, 2008, p. 60). The engaging discussions across the world have been happening for generations and will continue in the years to come.
Wagoner Jr., Jennings L.; Wayne J. Urban (2008). American Education: A History. Taylor and Francis. Kindle Edition.
rebeccaaf 