There is something in the air, and it is nothing less than the digital artifacts of over one billion people and computers networked together collectively producing over 2,000 gigabytes of new information per second. While most of our classrooms were built under the assumption that information is scarce and hard to find, nearly the entire body of human knowledge now flows through and around these rooms in one form or another, ready to be accessed by laptops, cellphones, and iPods. Classrooms built to re-enforce the top-down authoritative knowledge of the teacher are now enveloped by a cloud of ubiquitous digital information where knowledge is made, not found, and authority is continuously negotiated through discussion and participation.
Michael Wesch, "A Vision of Students Today (and what Teachers Must Do)," Encyclopedia Britannica blog, Oct. 21, 2008, http://www.britannica.com/blogs/2008/10/a-vision-of-students-today-what-teachers-must-do/
I am interested in what the implications for Primary schools is given the ubiquitous access to knowledge. The NZC is a huge leap in the right direction, how is this impetus to be continued though? I purchased an iPod Touch yesterday. This device will allow anyone to have access for $299nzd to this 2000 gigs/second of information (admittedly only 2-3% may be worthwhile!) but should access to this information be seen as a right today?
