The 21st-Century Disconnect

Technology has transformed the process we make the most of our life, the system we manage, what we do to be existed, how we survive, and even how we understand. We can notice the proof by looking around at any family, any workstation, any organization. Technology is controlling trucks, driving cars, operating washing machines, transferring the news, guiding us connect knowledge about almost anything through the internet. It also frames the education scholar (and the rest of community) desire and what it means for getting young people ready for life after school. Technology has affected on every aspect of our public, technical, educational, individual, and monetary lives. Core subjects are crucial but, they are no longer the main part. We call for new skills to succeed what we learn; assess and critically check out both the date we are given and its origin. As information users via technology we demand to be able to identify how to do things without explicit guidance, to locate a solution to a problem using an IPad or other mobile device. As data and understanding builders we need to be savvy to build data through Wikis, blogs, and other social media, and how to construct that data to guide others perceive and contribute or critic our ideas. Dr. Thornburg (2010), on one of the media segment, said that the working environment has changed rapidly. One example is telecommunicating and collaboration at a distance will increase. I still remember when I was working in Indonesia we had seasons as our topic. It was quite challenging for us to show to the students about spring, autumn, and especially winter because in Indonesia we do not have that. We have rainy season and summer. We do not have snow. There is a possibility that we show the students to a TV program or video about the season, but that learning engagements are not so interesting for them. Now, as the technology has helped us, those Indonesian students can get a better understanding about season. The teachers contacted me and asked for a Skype activity between Norway and Indonesia. It was a great activity. The students who live in another part of the world who have never experienced snow can have access to the primary resources, the students who live in Norway and the other way around. Using life skills such as collaboration like this is very important for the to understand and master. They created the list of questions for the interview by themselves. They managed their time effectively and appropriately by making an agreement between the two parties on what time they would have the Skype activity. The flexibility of using the schedule as mentioned by Dr. Thornburg (2010) once again can be seen from this learning engagements. There are 6 hours time difference between Norway and Indonesia. If we are starting from now, preparing students to work collaboratively at a distance, hopefully when they enter the working environment, they are ready. The ability to use technology has taken us further than we might be aware. Technology had led us to changes in our live that before they occurred, were not predicted, and once they taking place, were not understood. We must provide the direct involvement of skills and get the students ready properly to live and survive in a new technologically driven world. 

References 

Laureate Education, Inc. (Thornburg, D.). (2010). The Changing Work Environment: Part 1., MD: Author.