A new idea?

Education is evolving. New schedules. New rules. New mindsets. New curriculum. New teacher practices.

Those of us who are in it daily understand this. We see it, plan it, practice it, think about it, and do it on a daily basis.

Last summer I enrolled in a Master's program. Since that time I have immersed myself in teaching and learning. I have tried to look at both sides of the coin. I even challenged myself to write every day (blog) in the month of July last summer! It was eye-opening!

So, here I sit, trying to write a paper for one of my graduate classes. And I had to think to myself, "If education is changing, why do I have to write all of these papers?!" Surely, I was skilled at writing papers by high school, if not by the end of my undergraduate. But again, in my Master's? Really? In this age of new technology, isn't there any other way to assess my learning and reflection? I wish the professor would set up an individual chat session with each of us where he could ask questions and we could have a dialogue about the subject. That would probably be less time than reading and grading my paper. I would surely be more interested in that kind of assessment than a 3-5 reaction/research paper!

All I'm saying is, if education is changing, then why are research papers still the "go to" assessment for higher education?