Dr. Lowell pointed out a blog written by Stephen Downes: Half an Hour: The Village on Stilts and after reading his take on his visit to Malaysia, a comment was made regarding a statement made by Thomas Friedman indicating that the world was flat (in technological terms) but I wanted to stop and assess that comment for just a moment. Yes, the world is becoming flat because of technology but I feel that we have a long way to go to get there.
For those of us who live in the United States and don’t really travel to “see the world” (which most of us don’t because of money) we are very “narrow minded” about what is really out there. I love the US, don’t get me wrong, but we are a very spoiled nation in that we have everything that we want or need at our finger tips – literally! But other areas of the world are not so lucky; they do well just to have safe drinking water.
We are very fortunate in that we do have technology and that our educational system along with our culture embraces advancement but other areas are not so lucky and when we are stuck in the classroom and not experiencing the world, I think we have a tendency to forget what goes on in the “real world”. As educators, we must remember, that since we do have the “tools” to know what is really going on in the world, it is our responsibility to educate our children and hopefully provide them with the knowledge on how to help change the world to where it really is flat!
January 25, 2008 at 3:53 am
I agree…we are so blessed here in the United States. I traveled to Peru last semester and I really began to see how blessed we are. I actually had some people ask me how to protect their kids from the evils of the internet when they didn’t even own a computer. The change is coming and faster than you think.
January 26, 2008 at 5:25 am
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