By Keith Krueger, CoSN CEO
Do countries that are “succeeding” under the traditional educational assessments in math/science/reading (OECD’s international PISA rankings), have a more limited view for the role of ICT in education? While in Finland, which is number one on the last PISA rankings, officials and educators seemed to be talking to our delegation about using technology in schools to “improve” education. In the U.S. and other countries with lower PISA rankings, there seems to be more discussion (or at least rhetoric) about the role of ICT to “transform” education.
I suppose this makes sense. If your country already is a fairly high attaining education system (at least based on the standardized PISA rankings), why fundamentally reform the system? Certainly you would want continued improvement, but focusing on transformation or even highly innovative uses of technology might not make sense.
Yet, if I were a policymaker or educator in these countries I think I still would be nervous. Will these traditional assessments be the measure for future success? In a highly competitive “flat” world, I believe kids require other skills in addition to traditional skills – skills that are not currently assessed. In the U.S. we call them 21st century skills -- collaboration, creativity, critical thinking.
Therefore, does educational attainment with today’s assessments hold you back from innovating educational systems? Does success today mean you focus on incremental change vs. larger reform, even if the world is changing? In a decade from now, will Finland still be the model we strive to emulate?
As we have seen with the U.S., complacency kills innovation.
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