Episode 20: Transforming Education for the Connected Generation feat. Jordan Shapiro, Ph.D., Author and Thought Leader
If you make it all the way to the bottom of Jordan Shapiro’s extensive and impressive biography, you will learn that he once won the $10,000 grand prize on television’s America’s Funniest People.
While that achievement is remarkable in and of itself, it is just a small part of the transformational work Jordan is doing for technology, education, and parenting. Currently, he's a senior fellow for the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop and Nonresident Fellow in the Center for Universal Education at the Brookings Institution. He is also the author of two books: The New Childhood: Raising Kids to Thrive in a Connected World (an international bestseller), and Father Figure: How to be a Feminist Dad, to be released in May 2021.
Jordan joined Kiran on this episode of Illuminate Higher Education to discuss key ideas from Jordan’s books and experiences: the role of technology in education, what turns education into learning, bridging the digital divide, and more.
Read the following Q&A for a few highlights from the conversation, then listen to the full episode for more details.
Q: In your book The New Childhood: Raising Kids to Thrive in a Connected World, you talk about continued resistance to using technology in education. What is your opinion?
Our kids are growing up in a world that is simply different. Anything that shapes a child’s life is always changing and always connected to the socio-economic, cultural, and technological paradigms in which they live. It is absurd that we are still worrying whether children should or should not have access to tech when the tech is not going anywhere.
That means the real question is, what is the right way to raise and educate kids in a world where tech is different? It is challenging, but it comes with a lot of positives. As teachers, parents, caregivers, and mentors, we can help prepare young people to leverage all the benefits of technology, and cope with the potential hazards.
Q: You also discuss a unique school model in Bilbao, Spain. What made that model different from schools in the US?
It is crazy to think that we are still organizing desks in rows, like a room of patent clerks in the 1920s, rather than designing in ways that help kids get acquainted with what it means to do work. Several Bilbao schools had already converted classrooms into spaces that reflect a real-world workplace. They serve to facilitate collaborative work and effective communication, critical skills for jobs in the information age.
Q: Can you give us a sneak peek into your upcoming book, Father Figure: How to be a Feminist Dad?
I asked, what is essential about being a father? Does it mean anything to be “man of the house”? What I found is, ultimately, nothing. There is no argument for gendered parenting. Fathers have an important role to play, but research does not support the idea that certain behaviors have something to do with sexual anatomy.
That being true, many of us will still enter typical heterosexual nuclear families. How do we do so in a way that does not continue to normalize and naturalize gender inequality? If you want to be a dad in the traditional sense, how do you eliminate patterns, behaviors, and biases that put those without privilege at a disadvantage?
We need all parents, but I was writing to fathers in this case to normalize a level of total inclusivity—every single person deserves to live their life in their way with dignity.
Listen to the full episode, then connect with Jordan Shapiro on LinkedIn and Twitter @jordosh.
Visit JordanShapiro.org for his remarkable full biography. You’ll also find links to purchase The New Childhood and pre-order Father Figure.
—
This episode is brought to you by N2N’s Illuminate App, the iPaaS for Higher Education.
About N2N Services
Founded in 2010, N2N is committed to serving educational institutions and helping them figure out how to serve their students, faculty, and staff using the most innovative technologies and solutions available in the marketplace. Over the last decade, N2N has served over 300 academic institutions and enabled their student success journeys.
N2N Services Inc. is a leader in enterprise application integration and strategic advisory services for higher education, At N2N, we are committed to providing the highest quality solutions and collaboratively building student-centric solutions.
Learn more at https://illuminateapp.com/web/higher-education/.
Subscribe and listen to more episodes at IlluminateHigherEducation.com.