30. That’s a TTWWADI They are everywhere. Think about TTWWADIs in education! Watch this video Share experiences of your own schools and /or schools that you are familiar with.
31. How can we expect something new, when we haven’t changed our ways of doing it?
36. Tech Culture Source: AALF If a teacher today is not technologically literate - and is unwilling to make the effort to learn more - it's equivalent to a teacher 30 years ago who didn't know how to read and write.
But this is information and communication age. We are moving into an age of Genomics, where you can splice a defective gene and add a new normal one. We are moving into an age of nanotechnology where small molecular machines are capable of creating wonders and an age of Bio-informatics where biology and electronics are dating together to create wonderful things that this world has never seen before. In the near future, Nanotechnology holds promise for bloodless microsurgery, rebuilding nervous systems devastated by disease, allow people with spinal injuries to walk again and to reverse-engineer dozens of human processes gone bad.
Many of the recent brain researches have found out that the present day digital kids’ brain is completely different from their previous generations. Recent researches also found out about the brain plasticity which means that the brain is malleable throughout your life and the neural networks rearrange themselves depending on the usage. Today’s kids are exposed to much more visual information than their previous generation and so their visual cortex is 15% larger than the previous generation (15 years ago).
A research from 3M says that a teenager’s eye processes and interprets images 60,000 times faster than it does words. This is because the brain is much more suited to processing visual information than anything else. The reason is because nerve cells devoted to visual processing account for about 30% of the brain’s cortex, compared to only 8% for touch and 3% for hearing. Also, the study found out that the digital natives skim from the bottom and along the edges before coming to the centre. Our generation skims like a zee –starting at a point and go like a zee. It could be a simple zee or a complex zee. What implications do these have on education?
Moreover, the teen’s eyes are attracted to blood red first and then to neon green and burnt orange. They are completely averse to black. What implications does this have on the tests, exams and worksheets we give which is always printed in black? Such breakthroughs hold far-reaching implications for the way we will learn and the way we will experience life in the 21st century, not to mention the skills, knowledge and habits-of-mind that will be needed to operate in a very different environment from the world of Ford’s assembly line.
We are living in a world of information explosion, digital technology and communication revolution. This is an age of information and communication. Preparing the kids for this age as well as the age that follows is really a formidable task that requires clear understanding, preparation and planning on the part of the education system and its stake holders. This is not easy as we change or break a habit or updating something that exists before. It is a task that asks for a complete change with the way we think and with the way we have come to believe all about education. In reality, as educators we haven’t realized that and continue to do and believe what we are doing is right. That leads to a disconnect between the two generations that of educators and the students. This is a presentation that looks into our present day realities and emphazises the need for change and possibly show a direction which we could take.
It's amazing how we do and accept things the way they are, without even asking why we are doing them or where the original decisions came from. Also, we are pretty much stubborn in keeping the same and resist/oppose any new ideas for change quickly. We accept this mindset because this is the path of least resistance. This is TTWWADI. TTWWADI is an acronym for “That’s The Way We have Always Done It”.
Let me start with a preamble about monkeys. Put 5 monkeys in a cage and tie a bunch of bananas to the top of the cage and provide a stair for the monkeys to climb to reach the bananas. In no time, one of the monkeys would try to reach for the bananas. Then pour cold water on all the monkeys in the cage. They would retract from reaching the bananas. Then another one would try to reach for the bananas. Pour the cold water again. Now they would realize that if they reached for the bananas, they would get cold water showers. Replace one of the monkeys with a new one. In no time, the new one would try to reach the bananas. You know, what would happen now? The other monkeys would prevent it from climbing on to the stairs. Now replace another old monkey. This new new one would try to reach for the bananas. Now all the other monkeys including the new one would prevent the new new one form reaching the stairs. This is what TTWWADI is. Even if you replace all the old monkeys, this will continue. That’s the power of TTWWADIs.
Here is another classic example of TTWWADI. In the US (of course in many other countries too), the spacing between the rail road is 4ft 8.5 in. This is an arbitrary number. Not many people know why the rail road is spaced that way. We continue to use the spacing today. These TTWWADIs need to be questioned. When you question them, at least you will realize why they did it and do we really need to follow them or not? Let us question this TTWWADI. Why did they have this spacing? Because, initially the rail road was laid by the English expats who migrated to the US. They followed the same spacing as the English rail roads. Why did the English rail roads have this spacing? Because the axles of the wagon were of that spacing, so they made it that way.
Why did the axles of the wagons have this spacing? Because the original wagons were made by the horse-drawn wagon makers and they did it this way.
Why did the horse drawn wagon makers do this way? Because the spacing of the original English rut (road) was 4ft 8.5 in. That’s why they made it that way.
Why did they make the original English rut road that way? Because the English rut was made by the Romans and they made it to accommodate the imperial roman war chariot. See a modern transportation system’s specifications depend on an ancient war chariot. That’s not the end of the story.
If you question further, why did the Romans make the chariots with that axle size? Because this is the spacing of two horses’ assess standing side by side. The story continues further.
In a spacecraft, on the sides you can see two cylinders which are called SRBs (Solid Rocket Boosters). The engineers who designed them would want them to be bigger, so they can keep more fuel in those boosters. But they cannot. These booster are made in a laboratory in Utah and transported to the launch site in Florida by rail. The rail road from Utah to Florida has to pass thro’ some tunnels and the tunnels are slightly bigger than the rail road. So the specifications of one of the advanced transportation system in the world is based on what? Two horses asses. Is it not a classic TTWWADI?
TTWWADIs are everywhere. Think about the TTWWADIs in education. No of school days, School day divided by equally timed periods, the order in which the courses are taught, monthly tests and so on.
But the fundamental question facing the educators and schools today is For what world are we preparing our kids? Do we prepare them for the world of tomorrow, or yesterday?
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