Fish Bowl

How are these changes manifesting themselves in your personal lives?
Professional lives?

Everyone's life is effected by these changes. Personally I buy and sell things on e-bay all the time. I do my banking and pay my bills by computer. I download music and videos constantly. I use e-mail to communicate with my friends and family all the time. This course and others I have taken use the computer extensively. The majority of my research is conducted on the computer. I use the computer to make reservations on airlines, hotels and rental cars. I play video games online. When I was in high school most of this did not exist, although my parents were computer dates. In high school, I was one of the few who knew how to use a computer. Today , I am only one of many.

I have a BS and an MS from Kean University in Graphic Communication, Technology Management. Before I graduated companies were offering me starting salary of $60,000 a year. After I graduated, all of the jobs I was looking for had outsourced to India and China. I then went back to school and changed my carer to teaching. So these changes have profoundly effected my professional life as well.

I use technology to great extent as a teacher. I look for creative lesson ideas on the computer that I can use in my classroom. I use computers and digital cameras in lessons. As we saw on the presentations, the classrooms are changing and I am changing with it. By taking this program at Montclair, I am hoping to become Director of Technology in my school system some day. I am presently on the technology committee and I am trying to get grants that will increase the technological capacity of our school system. This is one way I have of trying to change my school system to meet the needs of the 21st century.

My response will answer both these questions. What skills do students need to survive and thrive in this new era? What do we think it means to prepare students for the 21st century?

According to Friedman, Oink and the presentations I viewed, learning how to learn is one of the skills that companies in the future will be looking for. It is wrong to train children to think they will get jobs based on the technology of today, when that will change too. Only people who are willing to change and able to learn new things will excell in the future so that is what we must prepare students to do.

Beeing able to collaborate and cooperate with others is another skill that business looks for. It is a global market. Business wants to deal with as many people and countries who can successfully work with others. This is another skill we must teach our students.

Friedman Pink & the presentation also advocate fostering creativity. This is very important. A company's profit and, loss can be dependent on its employees' creativity. This creativity manifests itself in several ways. One is: Can the employee find a creative solution to the company's problems. Creative solutions, without spending money, can mean the difference between profit and loss. Secondly, a company is dependent on the creativity of its employees to come up with new inventions, products or modifications of existing products. This is how a company stays competitive.

I have a television with 900 stations, but I still get bored with what is on. I go to the movies to see the new and creative pictures that are out. One of Americans largest exports is movies and TV shows. This market is growing and not shrinking. China and India are becoming hungy for these creative products. Our music is another creative product we have successful exported. So fostering creativity is another area we must use to prepare students for the 21st century.

One idea that came to me that I did not see on the presentation was preparing students by teaching them how to communicate. All this technology still depends on a person's ability to communicate. The computer is no good as a marketing tool if we cannot communicate with the public about how superior a product is. Advertising will not disappear. As more products and services get created, the more there is a ned for advertising. While advertising in newspapers has declined, advertising on the computer has increased exponentially. Advertising requires good communications. So does collaboration and creativity. So I believe preparing a tudent for the future requires preparing him/her to be a good communicator.

What supports will we need as we more forward?

Money! Money! Money and more money. Our society has to learn to put its mpney where its mouth is. Business says it wants changes in the education system but they don't really want to fund it. It will give its CEO millions of dollars in perks but ffight the state to the last penney when paying taxes that go to education. Business is putting one country against another to pay for educated employees. It has been successfl, but in the near future countries might not have the resources to do this. Businesss must start helping.