Important Conversation
Posted: April 23, 2012 Filed under: Contributing, Thinking Leave a comment »Will Richardson’s post Wake Up Call carried on the conversation which took place last week at the Education Innovation Summit at Arizona State University. It’s very telling that so many business are featured at this conference. Where are the innovative teachers? Administrators? Oh, right, they’re at their schools making sure that their students can perform on the standardized tests … the standardized tests that are produced by some of the businesses represented at the Summit. Hmmmm.
I’ve been talking about the imposition of the business model of accountability on education for years. Now, with so much money involved (projections of over $24 billion by 2015) businesses are coming out of the woodwork to get their share of the bounty. It’s only going to get worse if we do nothing …
In 1927, Metropolis, a German film, directed Fritz Lang, was released. Metropolis has been interpreted by many … in my simple interpretation it’s all about the powerful and the disempowered – ultimately the two are united for the common good. If you haven’t seen this silent film, get your popcorn and soda and settle in for a glimpse at the present through the lens of the past: YouTube version.
I’m not sure how … or if … the powerful who are influencing education will unite with those of us in the trenches. So I put the questions to you:
- If had been at the Education Innovation Summit, what questions, comments, statements would you have posed?
- Who would you go out of your way to talk with?
- How would you communicate the issues of the disempowered?
You can take a look at the Tweets during the Summit here: #eisummit. By scrolling to the bottom you will be able to see the conversation from its beginning.
Now that you’ve read some of the comments and learned more about the Summit, what are your thoughts?
