New Literacies for a Complex World

We live in a time of great uncertainty and change. Economic, political, cultural, technological, and societal disruption are forcing us as educators to reexamine what it means to provide a quality education for our students that prepares them for the world they will face.

And, we are realizing that this reexamination will have to become the norm. Nothing is guaranteed in the future except for continued change.

Too often the discussion of how to shape our education systems revolves around the economic needs of our societies.

“What do our students need to find jobs when they graduate?”

 “How can we prepare students for the 21^st Century workforce?”

“What skills will our students need to be productive members in a time of rapid technological advancement?

This is the wrong focus, and these questions leave out some of the most important aspects of education.

The damage we could inflict upon an entire generation of children by reducing them to cogs in an economic machine designed to maximize profit would be devastating.

Education encompass so much more than “college and career readiness,” a term that is often used in the United States.

We must strive to ensure that our children get an education that allows them to be happy, healthy, and successful in life – with “success” being defined in a broad sense that includes much more than the generation of wealth. Of course, within this greater goal, students will be prepared for their future careers and potential further learning after graduation at an institution of higher learning. But, they will also be prepared for so much more.

In order to prepare our students for such a broad goal in this time of rapid change we will need to move beyond the traditional literacies taught in school. The importance of reading, writing, mathematics, science, and history will not wane in the future, but they will have to be intertwined with new literacies in order for our students to meet the complex demands they will face after graduation.

The questions we must ask ourselves must focus on both the old literacies and the new.

“How can we show our students ways to use the learning in school, their passions, and their talents to solve problems in their local and global communities?” 

“What experiences do we need to give students in school that will prepare them for a world that is complex, globally connected, and pluralistic?” 

“How do we help our students develop the ability to have respectful, nuanced conversations with others who have diverse perspectives?” 

“Can we prepare students for the workforce, while simultaneously preparing them to be civically engaged and reflective members of their community?”

Answering these questions means focusing on additional competencies and literacies that must be developed in our students. Here are a few of those “new literacies.”

Global Literacy – In the first decade of my teaching career it was either impossible or prohibitively expensive to provide my students with any kind of video conferencing or virtual experience outside our school. Now, children are routinely chatting face to face with each other from every part of the globe, a field trip to a museum on another continent is a Skype call away, and finding time disconnected is much more difficult than finding ways to connect. In fact, I’m even writing this blog post on an airplane 35,000 feet above the Atlantic Ocean. Our classrooms and lessons must reflect this interconnected world. We must be giving students access to a diversity of cultures, learning experiences from the globe, and collaboration with those applying concepts being learning in school in actual ways.

Global Literacy, featuring Michael Soskil from Discovery Education on Vimeo.

Emotional Literacy – Studies have shown that emotional intelligence and empathy correlate highly with success in business. Those who are compassionate are also better able to see their worth and are more able to use new learning and resources to help their communities. We must strive to provide opportunities for our students to feel the joy of helping others while they are in school. If we can find the intersection in our schools of technological relevance and strong relationships built on respect and empathy, our future generation will have the building blocks for a peaceful and prosperous society.

Informational Literacy – As information has become ubiquitous due to technology, the ability for manipulation of the public through information has risen exponentially. Our students must learn to identify bias in the information they consume, judge the reliability of sources, and seek multiple viewpoints in their research. They must learn to break out of ideological bubbles caused by social media and recognize the danger of confirmation bias. Success in the future will be dependent on one’s ability to navigate the complexities of constant and instant information. 

 

Learning With Students From Other Cultures Is a Key to Progress in Our Global Society

Last week I authored a blog post for EdWeek Teacher and NNSTOY on the importance of keeping empathy and the best parts of humanity at the heart of our education system. A few paragraphs from the article are below. You can read the full article at Education Week.

We live in interesting times. As our global society struggles to navigate problems brought about by fear and misunderstanding of those who are different, we have unprecedented access to tools that make connecting and learning with others easier than ever before. This is the great challenge we face as both educators and humans: As technology continues to advance rapidly with an increasing power to both divide and unite us, which course will we choose? The path we take--division or unity--will largely depend on the choices we make in our classrooms and education systems.

The key is to keep empathy, compassion and the best parts of humanity at the heart of our education system while still ensuring the learning in our schools reflects the technological realities outside them. This premise is the basis for Teaching in the Fourth Industrial Revolution: Standing at the Precipice, a book I recently authored with five other Global Teacher Prize finalists. While each of us comes from disparate experiences in a wide array of teaching environments, we agree that regardless of how fast computer processors become, machines will never replace teachers. Teachers will always be more important than the technology used in schools. Though they can be helpful tools to help us make positive connections with others, machines will never be able to love students the way we do as teachers.

A.I. and Big Data Are Not the Answer in Education

Today I came across an article in the NY Times entitled A.I. and Big Data Could Power a New War on Poverty. Since the implications of Artificial Intelligence and other technological advances in the 4th Industrial Revolution on education is a topic I've been delving into quite a bit lately, I was curious to see the perspective of the author.

Let me start by saying that I think the author, Elisabeth A. Mason, has a solid premise; we should look beyond the disruptions and chaos that new technologies like artificial intelligence will have on our lives and instead look to the benefits that they can provide society. On this I agree. There are many exciting applications for new technologies that can help alleviate human suffering and can potentially even combat poverty. 

However, I have to take issue with her second main point in the piece that connect directly to education. For reference, here are the three paragraphs that relating to education: 

Second, we can bring what is known as differentiated education — based on the idea that students master skills in different ways and at different speeds — to every student in the country. A 2013 study by the National Institutes of Health found that nearly 40 percent of medical students held a strong preference for one mode of learning: Some were listeners; others were visual learners; still others learned best by doing.

Our school system effectively assumes precisely the opposite. We bundle students into a room, use the same method of instruction and hope for the best. A.I. can improve this state of affairs. Even within the context of a standardized curriculum, A.I. “tutors” can home in on and correct for each student’s weaknesses, adapt coursework to his or her learning style and keep the student engaged. 

Today’s dominant type of A.I., also known as machine learning, permits computer programs to become more accurate — to learn, if you will — as they absorb data and correlate it with known examples from other data sets. In this way, the A.I. “tutor” becomes increasingly effective at matching a student’s needs as it spends more time seeing what works to improve performance.

Those of us who are teaching actual children can see some problems here. Let's take them one at a time.

First, the idea that people learn better through different learning styles is a myth (Pashler, et. al.). It has been debunked (Association for Psychological Science). There is no credible evidence to support it (letter to The Guardian from 30 prominent researchers). Even if A.I. was going to lead to an incredible revolution in education, basing that revolution in learning styles is akin to having A.I. teach children differently based on their zodiac signs.

Second, the criticism in the second paragraph that our schools are overly standardized is both harsh and somewhat accurate. For almost two decades now, our education systems have increasingly become driven by big data - generated by mass-produced standardized tests and compiled with the processing power available due to technological advances. This has led to misuse of educational technology, the narrowing of curricula, and a lack of compassion in schools. Children are seen as numbers on a spreadsheet rather than unique individuals with wonderful potential.

Artificial intelligence may be able to adapt to a child's curricular needs, but this is but a small part of what it means to be an effective teacher. Every day, teachers make 1,500 educational decisions. I would bet that the majority of those educational decisions are not curricular in nature and are based in relationships, empathy, and emotional intelligence. This is what makes teachers effective.

Machines may be able to crunch a child's data, but they will never be able to love a student the way a teacher can love a student.

Understanding a student's needs will always be more complex than simply analyzing answers on an assessment. Anyone who has taught understands this. If students in one of my science classes fail a test, I have a responsibility to figure out why. It may be because they didn't study. It may be because they didn't have breakfast that morning. It may be because they misunderstood the lesson. It may be because their baby brother cried all night and they didn't sleep. It may be because they are stressed over a parent's substance abuse. It may be because I did a lousy job of teaching. Each reason demands a different and nuanced response that fits both the child's academic and emotional needs. This is what teaching is.

Graphic from
Teaching in the 4th Industrial Revolution:
 Standing at the Precipice

Assuming that education is only about the transfer of content from teacher to student is a recipe for disaster, especially in our increasingly complex world.

Third, this article is focused upon the ability for artificial intelligence to help alleviate poverty. Our children in poverty are the ones who are most in need of the compassion that robots will never be able to provide. According to the American Psychological Association the psychosocial outcomes associated with children living in poverty include:

• Children living in poverty are at greater risk of behavioral and emotional problems. 
• Some behavioral problems may include impulsiveness, difficulty getting along with peers, aggression, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and conduct disorder. 
• Some emotional problems may include feelings of anxiety, depression and low self-esteem. 
• Poverty and economic hardship is particularly difficult for parents who may experience chronic stress, depression, marital distress and exhibit harsher parenting behaviors. These are all linked to poor social and emotional outcomes for children. 
• Unsafe neighborhoods may expose low-income children to violence which can cause a number of psychosocial difficulties. Violence exposure can also predict future violent behavior in youth which places them at greater risk of injury and mortality and entry into the juvenile justice system.

There are important ways that the technological explosion can have a positive impact on education. We must make sure, however, not to repeat the mistakes of the past by believing that technology is the answer to our problems. It is not. Teachers are, and will remain, the most important in-school factor in helping children learn. 

If we really want to overcome poverty, we need to stop looking for easy fixes and cheap solutions. Along with addressing the societal problems that lead to so many of our children living in poverty, we must focus on recruiting, retaining, and supporting excellent teachers so that every child, in every location, receives a quality education.

Michael Soskil is co-author of "Teaching in the 4th Industrial Revolution: Standing at the Precipice." All profits from the book are being donated to promote teacher education, development, and collaboration around the globe.