Quote:
Originally Posted by German guy
It is a reality that there is a shortage of skilled workers but I would hesitate to blame it on 'smart phones' or any other electronic media. Easy access to information does not negatively impact the application of higher order skills (think Bloom's Taxonomy) such as Assessment, Evaluation, or Creativity. These adult thinking skills are as important to mechanical skill development as they are to academic work. This deficit comes from a society ravaged by the idea that 'believing' is the same as 'knowing', and that everyone's opinion is of equal value. There is an absence of epistemological methodology in the parts of society which have not moved into higher education...with the average US high school grad leaving 12 years of school reading at or below the 6th grade level (depending on state...with Texas and many southern states resting at the 4th grade level) and never having been exposed to the rigors of having to validate an opinion with fact. It becomes very difficult to train an apprentice who is convinced that his/her opinion is as valid as the master mechanic. This becomes increasingly problematic when higher salaries and benefits are available elsewhere. The US is suffering far more than other industrial countries which have maintained a more rigid education system. "Diplomas for everyone" simply does not work.
|
I definitely agree with you on many of these thoughts.
I do have a question though. You made the statement that many students graduate high school reading at a level of a 6th grader. Who established the benchmark for what a 6th grade level is? Since generally nothing seeming is as it really was any longer (i.e.: 50 is the new 40, etc.), has the Regents now lowered the benchmark of a 12th grade education?
Ohh, and the reason why I say the 'smart phone' has ruined this country is because much of what you are saying was a direct result of usage of a smart phone. For example, some 50 years ago as a teenager, I probably had 40-50 telephone numbers memorized of friends & family. I struggle remembering my own telephone number now since my 'smart phone' remembers them for me. When I was in school, I memorized how a word was spelled, -and even learned to recognize if a word was misspelled. Now, my 'smart phone' corrects my spelling (-whether I want to or not). Some 50+ years ago I needed to be able to do math (addition, subtraction, multiplcation,etc.) in my head when calculating numbers required for everyday tasks. My 'smart phone' as taken the need for us to be able to accurately do math in our head. A great for example, when we had an appointment to keep, we factored in the approximate distance, speed traveled, and how much factor for delays to know when to leave to go to an appointment. Now I tell my 'smart phone' where I want to go (-not the address necessarily but the place) and my phone tells me when I will arrive and how to get there. Sure all of these examples are for convenience, but we are now seeing the effects of how our problem solving abilities, and/or our memorizational or knowledge retaining skills have greatly deteriorated. People's nature is to be lazy, ...if enabled to be lazy. It is my opinion the use of the 'smart phone' has enabled more people to become lazy instead of them becoming smarter.