Pop quizzes are dead… and useless.

In today's world of technology, students are way out ahead of traditional teaching methods.  Back in my days of high school, pop quizzes were a real threat. I always had a few teachers who would pull one out and scare the class.  We would frantically look at our book and notes and sweat through the test. The only way we would know if a test was coming up was if we passed someone we knew who had the class before us and asked them or they told us.

‍

That is all over now.  As soon as something in school happens, students go into their chat groups and communicate faster than teachers teach.  I have had conversations with students about their communication methods and they are extremely savvy about it. There are chat groups on certain classes, grades, subjects… you name it there is an area the students talk about it real time.  Students use messenger, Instagram, SnapChat, GroupMe, and many more.

‍

Students know what is on tests, what the homework will be, what the class topic will be before they even step foot into your class if they want the information.  I know many teachers that are angry about this. I think that is funny. Were they angry when they ordered their last thing off of Amazon? Were they angry that they no longer have to wait until the 10 O’clock news to see what tomorrow’s weather was going to be?  How about having real time interactive navigation rather than waiting for the traffic report to come on the radio?

‍

We have changed our own lives around new technology... shouldn't we change our education systems around new technology?

‍

This is the life we live in now.  Knowledge is dead. The one person standing and lecturing all day is dead.  A student can literally look up anything at anytime on any subject. Educational systems need to accept this and move on.  Quickly.

‍

We as educators need to understand that change happens.  We need to prepare everyone for it including teachers, students, and … well… everyone.  Any knowledge we teach needs to have some sort of application. The application of skills in educational systems through practical skills will become more interesting and challenging to students.  These applications of skills through education is much better rather than having students regurgitate knowledge and facts that they can easily use technology to find the answer.

‍

#disrupteducation