Get with the program

“…the change is all about thinking power. In today’s information economy what everyone needs to do is use their brains. More than 70 per cent of Australians now make something at the workplace that you can’t drop on your foot: it’s some form of information…This is the big difference between the old education that helped students study (and memorise) the information that was set down in textbooks (or set out in training guides) and was already known and the new education, which should provide the resources to make sense of, and manage, the unknown. It’s the difference between being a receiver of information and a creator of information in an ideas economy. This information making is highly skilled work and requires the most advanced form of education. The job of delivering the right information calls for more than raw creativity; it relies on experimentation and evaluation. These are the high-order thinking skills, and there is a greater demand for them today – for more individuals – than there ever has been…This is why the educational debate is not about content; it is not about whether the curriculum includes black armband history or civics – although both could be equally useful as sources in a classroom. The educational challenge is about how students manage information – it’s what they do with it that counts. The old ways of teaching and learning don’t go far enough; another level has been added. Students need to learn how to manage, manipulate, and modify the content, how to use it to make something new…they are desperate for expert supervision and guidance from teachers and coaches who can provide meaningful feedback on their information performance for 21-century life.” (Dale Spender, SMH 10 Feb 2007