CoLearners

It is a pleasure and privilege to be able to share ideas about literacy and learning with members of the boards of education of Georgia.  The Georgia School Boards Association has chosen one of the most beautiful cities in North America to bring together education leaders from across the state to learn, share, and grow in their leadership.

My contribution will be a general address to the entire conference, demonstrating some of the trends of this time of rapid change, and their impact on what and how our children should be learning.  Advances in technology have revolutionized our culture and economy, but more than the tools, it is the shifting nature of information that has had the biggest impact on how we accomplish our goals.

Information has become increasingly networked, digital, and overwhelming – and a fundamental question that faces every educator today is, “What does it mean to be literate in this new and changing information landscape?”

• What does it mean to be a reader, when networks provide direct access to the author?
• What does it mean to be a processor of information, when information is increasingly digital – made of ones and zeros?
• What does it mean to be a communicator, when the overwhelming abundance of content forces our messages to compete for the attention of their audiences?

In this presentation, I will not try to redefine literacy, but to expand our notions of the 3Rs, suggesting skills that, today, may be as basic and as essential as the ability to read text from a piece of paper.  I’ll will also become apparent that in today’s information environment, a fourth basic skill has emerged, one that demands a new angle for education, endoctorinating a new sense of responsibility in every one of our children.

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