Causal+Arguments



National Academy of Sciences. "The Information Revolution Will Transform Education." //Opposing Viewpoints: The Information Revolution//. Ed. Paul A. Winters. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1998. //Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center//. Gale. Apollo Library. 7 Dec. 2008 <[|http://find.galegroup.com/ovrc/infomark.do?&contentSet=GSRC&type=retrieve&tabID=T010&prodId=OVRC&docId=EJ3010147215&source=gale&srcprod=] [|OVRC&userGroupName=apollo&version=1.0]>.
 * This text was adapted from: **

= = =Critical analysis of argument=

Technology is changing the world, and with it education. It offers many new ways of learning, of teaching, and of running schools. It provides new ways for everyone in education to communicate openly with parents, communities, and students.

Yet technology by itself is clearly not enough. Traditional schools have pushed individual performance and competition and have tried to stop students from working or even talking together. In the new model of school, the skills needed in today's workplace, such as, critical thinking, teamwork, compromise, and communication are important classroom experiences.

This model of education means that students, teachers and schools will need to change the way they work. In the new model of school, students do many of the things that teachers did in the past. In small groups, individual students help each other. Because they are often the ones who know most about new technologies like the internet, students lead by example, helping their classmates work on problems. In this way, students begin learning from an early age how to communicate and how to take on greater responsibility for their own education.

In the past teachers were the ‘bank of all knowledge’, but in the new model they act as guides who help students move through the information that technology makes available. They help students collect and organize information, decide on its value, and decide how to present it to others. Moving from group to group and from student to student, teachers help students stay focused and working at the limits of their abilities.


 * A New Model of Education **

In this new model of school, education looks different than it does in most schools today. Schools might be open all day and all year, with groups of students coming in and out of classes. Classrooms might have students of different ages. Traditional 50-minute classes will become longer or disappear to suit activities made possible by technology. Longer projects will include different subjects, bringing together information that was covered before in different classes.</range id="480795604_4">

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"><range type="comment" id="480795604_5">Schools could be found in unlikely places—such as office buildings—or more traditional schools may have classrooms connected to businesses, hospitals, or homes. Secondary schools may make new links with colleges and community institutions to make the move from school to work easier. Individual classes will be connected to workplaces, providing job training that is far better and more useful than what is offered today. Technologies used at home will share lesson plans, homework, and tests both with students and their parents.</range id="480795604_5">

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">The end goal of this new model of education is to encourage groups of lifelong learners, where thinking and cooperation is seen as very important. Within these communities, decisions will be made by those in the best position to make them—by students, teachers, and educational administrators.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">