Finding Common Ground

My daughter celebrated her second birthday this past weekend and it really made me think about what her schooling will look like down the road. Will she use textbooks? Will she use a laptop? Will she use something to learn that I can’t even envision? Most likely it will be some combination of the three. Maybe those aren’t even the correct questions. I’m sure that by the time she’s in school, the focus will shift to what she’s learning, not how she’s learning it. It’s probable that she’ll be learning things that I didn’t learn when I was in school.

I’m amazed at what kids are doing these days. A prime example is related in Thirst for knowledge leads to court. School children responsible for truth in advertising!

There’s much talk about where education is going and it seems to me that in many cases, it’s slow to get anywhere. It’s historically been the case that students learn and do things that their teachers do not teach them. I’m sure my elementary school teachers weren’t all playing Pac Man like I was. However, at that time there was no talk of using technology to teach kids. Technology was so new and used only for entertainment purposes. But these days there are all kinds of technological ways to teach children information in new and exciting ways.

It’s my opinion that things really have to change if we’re going to keep the kids motivated, interested and on the edge of their seats when it comes to learning. It might not be enough to make changes one teacher at a time. Consider Alvin Toffler’s Future School article from February’s Edutopia issue. It may be time for a change in public education - continue to be student centered, but refocus on what that really looks like.

Filed under: Learning From and