Web-based services such as Uber, Facebook and Airbnb by themselves don’t own cars, content or real estate. Yet once someone uses those websites, anybody can get access to personal information.
Bill Daggett, founder and chair of the International Center for Leadership in Education (www.leadered.com/about-us/our-team.php) based in Rexford, N.Y., discussed the paradoxes of technology use by students at a Thought Leader session at AASA’s national conference on Friday.
Students today use technology constantly, but don’t necessarily understand the danger of leaving a digital imprint. Daggett asked aloud why don’t schools teach digital literacy to their students? Are educators trying to make 21st century technology conform to 20th century rules, or is the converse true?
“As a superintendent, you don’t want a parade that comes after you,” said Daggett. “You want a parade that’s behind you.”
Daggett said there are two central elements for the nation’s most rapidly improving schools: Culture trumps strategy and schools need to be future focused.
“Those darn kids, they may use resources or work with others,” Daggett said joking, when discussing the influence of technology in rapidly improving schools.
The key is recognizing how technology is changing the world. That is the world that current students know and live in — what Daggett termed the 4th Industrial Revolution.
(By Rebecca Shaw, a reporter for Conference Daily Online)