Nguyen 1 Hanh Nguyen Dr.

Erin Dietel-McLaughlin Multimedia Writing & Rhetoric Monday April 7th, 2014 The Lack of Innovation of the Twenty-First Century Education System Smartphones, tablets, laptops are the few of many forms of technology that define the Information Age today. From personal life to workplaces, these multifunctional, high resolute pieces of technology penetrate the daily tasks of our lives. In the 1970s and 1980s desktop computers was the piece of technology that was mainstream; evolving within thirty years the big, clunky computer is replaced with sleeker and much faster computers and laptops (Dartnell). High school and college students are seen today with their own personal laptops, taking notes, doing assignments, and carrying it to and from classes. The transition from the Industrial Age to the Information Age began with the Digital Revolution that was most prominent in the late 1970s. Parallel to the Agricultural Age and the Industrial Age, the Digital Revolution marked the advancement of society into a new period. Analogous to the improvement of the proletariat, education was the next biggest system that should have been greatly advanced in the Information Age. Yet education system that is presented today, having been in the Information Age for over forty years, is not doing what it should be doing to prepare young people for the workforce. With the technology being offered in the classroom today, education in the transition years of high school and college are still grounded in the teachings of the Industrial Age, impeding the progression of education alongside with the rest of society.

Nguyen 2 The Industrial Ages education system is built on the foundation of specialization, economics of scale, and its byproduct of standardization (Reynolds 3). Before industrialization, most skills were taught as one-on-one instructions, not in a classroom setting but through apprenticeships. Factories emerged and agrarians began leaving their farms and moving into urban cities in realization that substance farming was a gamble that they could not take anymore. Divisions of labor emerged and assembly lines appeared in factories, large groups were organized to bring efficiency to production. Those who were specialized in a task all had to work together but there was a problem, each had a different method in producing their merchandise making it inefficient in factories. Factory workers had to be standardized to gain optimal efficiency, in the way they worked and the amount of time that they did it to obtain a minimum efficiency scale. According to Reynolds, the cost is the same, and the return is smaller (5) such that the factories are working at its lowest point where the long-term average costs are minimized. To achieve the minimum efficiency scale, factory workers had to have the basic common knowledge, basic literacy, arithmetic, and measuring skills (Reynolds 5), skills that they did not have to know as a farmer in the Agricultural Age. Glenn Reynolds mentions that these workers not only needed the rudimentary knowledge of literacy, arithmetic, and measuring skills but also the important skills of punctuality, orderliness, and precise attention (5). It is not surprising that the Prussian military was teaching these skills to their own civilians and so the Americans adapted their militaristic education system model into its own. Horace Mann, the Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education in 1837 proclaimed the Prussian model of education would meet the

Nguyen 3 economical, political and social needs of the Industrial Age (Horace Mann 1796-1859). This laid out the foundation of the education system of America in the Industrial Age. The traditional public school is run like a factory, from the classroom structure to how subjects are taught, everything is the same. In the classroom, the desks are lined in neat and orderly rows, all facing one direction to the teacher. The subjects are taught in a similar structure, having the same allotted time to learn each subject and the same types of examinations to test all the students despite the characteristics of each and every individual student. In higher education, the Industrial Age model of learning was not only about large lectures in auditoriums but has evolved into also having the interaction of teachers and professors through seminars and research (Reynolds 9). Universities and colleges were no longer just finishing schools for gentlemen but a training ground for the new economy and society of the Industrial Age. Mark Moss explains after World War I there was an influx of money in the United States for expansion such that modern American universities were created like John Hopkins and the University of Chicago that became, rather quickly, top notch education and research institutions (132), being the education system that the Industrial Age needed. Throughout the twentieth century the model of a college education developed into large, expanded, mass institutions of research and scientific study of the Industrial Age to the progression of the Information Age. The establishment of the Information Age is notoriously known by the wide-mass use of computers in the Digital Revolution. The Digital Revolution most prominently in the late 1970s marked the beginning of the availability of mass information, something that was previously unobtainable and had only been available for government usage. The

Nguyen 4 Internet was one of the biggest innovations of the Information Age; it gave many possibilities to the consumer world such as communication in and outside the workplace. In this age, society especially in the workplace has continuously evolved; in the United States, the factory jobs that only needed workers who had basic knowledge of following orders in parallel with the Industrial Age have moved to developing countries like India and China. Knowledge has been key to the success of the Industrial Age, Everette Surgenor describes organizations that specializes in specific knowledge areas were the power that provided access to scarce resources and influence as well as prestige (48). It is still the key power to economies today but it only holds power when it is shared across a system for the purpose of knowledge building, application, and the creation of meaning (50) that cannot be met by the system of the past. Fast-forwarding to the time of today, technology has improved drastically to adapt to the massive accessibility of information particularly on the World Wide Web. Moss agrees that it allows for a quick and convenient way to share information and to publish. No longer does one have to waitin order to get something out there or to have information made public (155), instead the accessibility of information is almost instantaneous. Through the Pew Research Centers Internet Project, Kathryn Zickuhr a research associate have anal yzed studies that show an overwhelming 95 percent of teens ages 12-17 use the Internetmost teens (78 percent) now have a cell phoneabout three in four (74 percent) teens are mobile Internet users (33), teenagers now access the Internet daily on cell phones, tablets, and other mobile devices. Yet despite this cultural shift, high school education is still stranded in the system of the Industrial Age resisting any initiatives that would bring any change. The many

Nguyen 5 fundamentals that were taught a hundred years ago are still taught today. According to Reynolds not much has changed except, of course, by [the education system] becoming much less rigorousvastly more expensive without producing significantly better results (64) with the subjects that are still taught that same way they in the past fifty years . The curriculum fifty years ago was claimed to be far more demanding, far more difficult, and far more intensive than what students in most high schools are now taught (Moss 141). High schools are seen to have two discrete goals in mind according to Smerdon; whether it is to prepare students for college or prepare students for work (1) the high school system is barely advancing with the rest of society. In todays world, according to Surgenor having the ability to read, write, and apply information from technical documents are just as important as literature-based literacy (11). A recent study revealed that 42 percent of the adult population does not have posses the literacy skills that is needed in the Information Age (Surgenor 12) further suggesting the lack of necessary skills being taught in the classroom. Even with the influx of information flooding the classrooms today through the Internet and digital technology, teachers are still the crucial element to a students learning in organizing the social and cultural milieu of the classroom so that students can begin to use the language; practices and tools that are a central part of a particular knowledge world (Sutherland et al. 412). Teachers are consistently going to workshops to improve on the implementations of information especially for preparatory classes like AP and IB. Recent statistical data from the U.S. Department of Education shows that not only have students been earning more credits since 1982; they have been earning many of those credits in higher level courses (Smerdon 7), although GPA has risen, data on standardized tests show that

Nguyen 6 students are not learning more. The NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) most recent test (2004) shows the twelve-graders scores have either flat lined or gone down (compared to 1992), less than 25% of twelve-grade students could perform at a twelve-grade level of proficiency (Smerdon 20). The problem is that this cause affects the students entering college, since first off, they cannot write very wellalmost half must take a remedial English or fundamental composition course (Moss 144), in other words students are mostly unprepared for higher level courses which sets them back to take rudimentary classes that should have been taken when they were in high school. The credits act as a gateway into advancing to the classes they want to take in high education. The education system of higher education is like a business; students take tens of thousands of dollars in student loans carelessly thinking, that college is an essential ticket to the middle class, regardless of whatever actual value it might provide (Reynolds 14), only focusing on the economic value that the college education would provide. Colleges and universities are pressed to provide more useful majors rather than other majors that do not have much of a value in the twenty-first century, considering the college degree is becoming more like the new high school diploma. The issue according to Reynolds is in the traditional colleges, core subjects have been shortchanged (42), through a survey of more than seven hundred schools by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni discovered than many did not have any university requirement classes. Another survey done by Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa shows 45 percent of students did not demonstrate any significant improvement in learning during the first two years of college [and] 36 percent of studentsover four years of college (42). The

Nguyen 7 overwhelming mass of information is both an support and struggle to students. Described by an engineering student through a study done by Head and Eisenberg, none of the oldtimers the old professors can really give us much advice on sorting through and evaluating resources. I think were kind of one of the first generations to have too much information, as opposed to too little (9), all these issues hindering the maximum capability of learning by students. The main issue that is halting education reforms at the high school level is the lack of understanding of policymakers on the topic of how society is moving forward in the Information Age. The blame of high schools being obsolete is assigned to socioeconomic difficulties which Surgenor explains as low literacy levels, a negative attitude, a poor neighborhood, bad nutritional habits, and increase of single-parent families, a lack of standards, cultural diversity, and so on (10), all these items may contribute to the impediment of the learning environment but these issues have always been present throughout the past century. What policymakers need to understand is the students problem comes from the process for training teachers, curriculum models in use, classroom practice, instructional methodology, and limited use of the research on learning (Surgenor 11), skills such as literacy are not taught to the fullest extent in classrooms. Literacy is defined as the ability to read and write [and] knowledge that relates to a specified subject (Merriam-Webster) but this definition needs to be expanded in the Information Age. According to Surgenor, literacy should also include technology, knowledge about science, especially life sciences, as well as the ability to interpret visual images in both a print and digital format (11) even financial literacy is sometimes mentioned as also needing to be added in the definition.

Nguyen 8 One of the biggest issues that policymakers consider when they are looking at innovations is whether or not technology is assisting with the learning curriculum. Mitchel Resnick points out that even the newest technology are used simply to reinforce outmoded approaches in learning (32), classrooms are not using the technology provided to its fullest potential; hindering the full usage and teaching of the seamless boundaries of technology and information. Most students are typically taught how to look up information on the Web, how to use a world processor, how to send e-mail (33), but the issue with this are students not being fluent with the digital technology. Being digitally fluent is to not only know how to use the digital technology but to also know how to construct things with it, digital fluency will become a prerequisite for obtaining jobs, participating meaningfully in society, and learning throughout a lifetime (33) present with the Information Age. The twenty-first centurys American education system has shown very little improvement on bringing education into the Information Age. The system is still tied down by the structure of standardization that the Industrial Age was most prominent on. High school students, although taking more high-level courses, are still not readily prepared to enter universities and the workforce; lacking both the understanding of digital literacy and how to manage the mass information provided by the Internet. As most high school students enter into higher education, their absence of literacy knowledge inhibits their potential later on in society. Education, especially the transition years of high school and college, being ground in the system of the Industrial Age is hindering the growth of both the economy and society. As these graduates enter the workforce, dominated by the ever-changing digital technology, they are placed at a disadvantage with only knowing

Nguyen 9 the knowledge of the Industrial Age. Overall affecting the efficiency of the workplace, the economy, and the advancement of society.

Nguyen 10 Works Cited Dartnell, Lewis. "A Brief History of the Digital Revolution, Part 2: They're Everywhere! Computer Science for Fun. Queen Mary, University of London, n.d. Web. 30 Mar. 2014. Evering, Lea Calvert, and Gary Moorman. "Rethinking Plagiarism in the Digital Age." Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 56.1 (2012): 35-44. Web. 31 Mar. 2014. Frand, Jason L. "The Information-Age Mindset: Changes in Students and Implications for Higher Education." Educause Review 35.5 (200): 15-24. Web. 30 Mar. 2014. Head, Alison J., and Michael B. Eisenberg. Truth Be Told: How College Students Evaluate and Use Information in the Digital Age. Rep. N.p.: Macarthur Foundation, n.d. Free Web Journals. Web. 31 Mar. 2014. "Horace Mann (1796-1859)." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 30 Mar. 2014. "Literacy." Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 01 Apr. 2014. Moss, Mark H. Education and Its Discontents: Teaching, the Humanities, and the Importance of a Liberal Education in the Age of Mass Information. Lanham, MD: Lexington, 2012. Print. Resnick, Mitchel. "Rethinking learning in the digital age." 2002. Web. 01 Apr. 2014. Reynolds, Glenn H. The New School: How the Information Age Will Save American Education from Itself. New York, NY: Encounter, 2014. Print. Smerdon, Becky, and Kathryn M. Borman. Pressing Forward: Increasing and Expanding Rigor and Relevance in America's High Schools. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Pub., 2012. Print.

Nguyen 11 Surgenor, E. W. The Gated Society: Exploring Information Age Realities for Schools. Lanham : Rowman & Littlefield Education : Published in partnership with the American Association of School Administrators, 2009. Print. Sutherland, R. R. "Interactive Education: Teaching and Learning in the Information Age." Journal of Computer Assisted Learning 20.6 (2004): 410-2. Web. 02 Apr. 2014. Zickuhr, Kathryn. "Teens and Tech: What the Research Says." Young Adult Library Services 12.2 (2014): 33-37. Web. 31 Mar. 2014.