Now Here: The Century of Socrates?
My issue of Educational Leadership arrived a few days ago. It included an intriguing piece (What Would Socrates Say?) that contrasts the view of Socrates with the pop culture of today’s digital generation.
The author, Peter W. Cookson Jr., sums up his worry for today:
My greatest fear about 21st century education is that Socrates’ humility will be turned on its head. The noted philosopher once said, “I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance.” My fear is that instead of knowing nothing except the fact of our own ignorance, we will know everything except the fact of our own ignorance. Google has given us the world at our fingertips, but speed and ubiquity are not the same as actually knowing something.
I share some of his concern. We stand surrounded by a fog of information, a mist of data and opinions that often does more to obscure the truth than to help us discern it.
I liked the article in part because it gives me a chance to use one of my favorite words: epistemology. I’m not quite as humble as Socrates. I know a few things – and I know how I know them.
I Google. I Twitter. I blog. Those tools serve their purpose. But the idea that I found something on Google (and that that somehow makes it true) is a pitiful epistemology.
Cookson’s article reaffirms for me the need to teach digital literacy as an essential 21st Century skill. I agree with him that critical thinking skills (even when they are not used in a technological context) are more important than ever today. And I think Cookson’s has an insightful point when he argues that metacognition (or ability to monitor our own learning) is growing in importance.
You can read What Would Socrates Say? here.
