Contribution to Book
Opportunities and opportunity cost in preparing millennium teachers
Encyclopedia of Distance Learning, Second Edition
(2009)
Abstract
The millennium teacher is presented with two powerful conceptions. One is expressed in Pogo’s observation that “…we always seem to be confronted with insurmountable opportunity.” The other is presented best in T.S. Eliot’s poem, “Choruses To The Rock.” • Where is the knowledge we have lost in information? • Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Both of these conceptions have direct implications for teacher educators and their work with the next generation of teachers. “Insurmountable opportunity” is the reality for teachers who have not developed the ability to make “enlightened choices.” Enlightened decision making in a sea of opportunity requires the foundational understanding that information, knowledge, and wisdom represent different ways of knowing. Information is one dimensional. It is linear or horizontal, fragmented, and quite useless in and of itself. Knowledge is structured information; it shows relationships between and among bits of information. Knowledge is best represented by theories about natural and social phenomena; it is created basically within content areas, and it tends to be field-specific. Wisdom is the organic application of information and knowledge to human dilemmas, desires, and dreams. Wisdom is that quality of thought and imagination that ties us to our cultural heritage and gives us the ability to find and build the moral framework upon which human life is defined and within which meaning resides.
Disciplines
Publication Date
2009
Editor
Patricia L. Rogers, Gary A. Berg, Judith V. Boettcher, Caroline Howard, Lorraine Justice, Karen D. Schenk
Publisher
IGI Global
ISBN
1605661988
DOI
10.4018/978-1-60566-198-8.ch230
Citation Information
Michael Hartoonian and Vivian Johnson. "Opportunities and opportunity cost in preparing millennium teachers" 2ndHershey, PennsylvaniaEncyclopedia of Distance Learning, Second Edition (2009) Available at: http://works.bepress.com/vivian-johnson/3/