What What Socrates Say Response

My assigned portion of he essay "What Would Socrates Say?" was the 'Future Is Here-Almost' and 'What Would Socrates Do?'. The author of this essay, Peter W. Cookson wrote about how technology is used and how it affects people here and now inthe 21st century. He also talked about how the philosopher Socrates would feel about the way we are learning. In 'The Future Is Here-Almost' Cookson focuses on teachers, school, students, and the curriculum. He believes that a new curriculum called the LearningSphere should be used. The LearningSphere is a program that makes it so learning takes place in and out of the classroom. Cookson expresses how important he feels this currriculum is when he said, "There has never been a time in human history when the oppurtunity to create universally accepted knowledge has been more of a reality. And there has never been a time when education has meant more in terms of human survivaland happiness". He knows that technology is an important part of this century and instead of hating on it, he tries to find a way to embrace it and have it help people and society. He feels that Socrateswould fully approve of this curriculum and the use of technologyl. Cookson then goes on to talk about what Socrates would do. "I think Socrates would embrace the new learning area with all the energy he had". Cookson uses his thought that Socrateswould approve of the curriculum to catch people's attention and say what he thinks needs to be done. In his opinion, we need to "stop thinking of schools as buildings and start thinking of learning as occuring in many different places, we need to free ourselves from the conventional education model that still dominates our thinking". Overall, he is saying that we need to keep up with the times. The big deal of the 21st century is technology. We need to embrace technology and work it into every aspect of our lives. If we work it into the school curriculum, he feels that we will greatly benefit and that the future will be better and more promising. I am inclined to agree with Cookson on this. If we embrace technology instead of fighting it, good things are bound to happen.

-Heather Williamson