I found this post on Chris Walsh’s Blog Epoch Learning and what I read made sense to me. He basically points out, like many others, that schools can’t sit back and continue the same way of teaching than before. The world around us has changed and is continuing to change at a rapid speed.
The deeper cultural shift towards personalized services will require educators to invent entirely new schools that support truly individualized intruction. [...]
A personalized, flat world has important implications for pedagogy. When students have instant access to the world’s body of knowledge, they’ll be more interested in learning “why” and “how” than “what.” 21st century students will define “school” as any place that they can learn more than they could on their own. Similarly, a “teacher” will be anyone that can help them learn how to navigate through the sea of knowledge and use it to produce something of value i.e. learn how to think for themselves. As a result, “schools” will need to be much more focused on “outputs” than “inputs”, on individualized results rather than the time and place of instruction.
The technological infrastructure to make this happen is already in place. The proliferation of high-speed Internet access, the near ubiquity of mobile communication devices, and the efficiency of today’s collaborative tools make it nearly impossible to reverse these trends. With the help of place-shifting and time-shifting technologies like the iPod, students and teachers now have the ability to learn everywhere, all the time.
The quote that resonated with me the most was “a “teacher” will be anyone that can help them learn how to navigate through the sea of knowledge and use it to produce something of value i.e. learn how to think for themselves”. This goes hand in hand with the imperative for anyone today to know how to continue learning and knowing how to teach students (and other teachers) to learn how to learn on their own. The tools are there. What is missing is the right mindset. Teaching kids, especially elementary school children to learn how to wade through the immense amount of information available, distinguish between legitimate and manipulated, misrepresented or false information is imperative, but opens up a complete different can of worms.
I recently read the article “Global Superpower” by Fran Smith in Edutopia Magazine from the George Lucas Educational Foundation. It talks about the International Baccalaureate (IB) Programs across the country with its vigorous academics and global perspectives.
The program focuses on getting kids to think deeply about disciplines and about learning and about themselves [...] IB isn’t just about scholarship, however; it also offers a specific worldview. The academic rigor of IB is important, but its humanitarian values are everything, [...] The IBO is unapologetically idealistic in believing that education can foster understanding among young people around the world, enabling future generations to live more peacefully and productively than before.
This all sounds all great to me, inline with global education, teaching kids to think and learn for themselves rather than reciting facts and answering multiple choice questions.
But IB’s global vision nettles critics. In spring 2005, two school board members in Minnetonka, Minnesota, called IB un-American and un- Christian, and tried unsuccessfully to dump it. Last February, five of nine members of the school board in Upper St. Clair, Pennsylvania, voted to end the program. Parents protested and the American Civil Liberties Union, fresh from its victory over the teaching of intelligent design in Harrisburg, at the other end of the state, sued. The district reinstated the program until 2008.
Opening someone’s world and broadening their horizon and teaching students to think and learn for themselves needs to be a priority in todays flat world.
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I am honored to be able to cross-post Stephen Wilmarth’s blog post below on Langwitches. If you are interested to read more about Steve’s International Experimental program at the Number One Middle School in Wuhan, China take a look at: Take a Peek into China’s First 1:1 iPad Class Learning…Young …
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Heather Durning who blogs on Mrs. D’s Flight Plan has graciously allowed me to cross post her latest post here on Langwitches. I believe her blog post is invaluable as it fulfills the need to document, summarize and assess learning outcomes when leading your students with new forms of teaching …
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I am thrilled to be publishing a guest post by Andrea Hernandez, cross posted from EdTechWorkshop Blog on Langwitches. In an earlier post, The Science of Play, I shared my ideas about the importance of playful learning, the type of learning observed in very young children. In my personal experience …
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I have been blogging for 6 years now… I have written extensively about blogging (131 posts categorized “blogging” on Langwitches) I have shared two guides for teachers to start blogging with their students “Stepping it Up: Learning About Blogs FOR your Students” Part I: Reading Part II A: Writing Part …
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This is Part VII in the series “Stepping it Up: Learning About Blogs FOR your Students” Part I: Reading Part II A: Writing Part II B: Student Writing Part III: Commenting Part IV: Connecting Part V: Reciprocating Part VI: Consistency Reading, responding, assessing and monitoring our students’ progress on their …
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This is Part VI in the series “Stepping it Up: Learning About Blogs FOR your Students” Part I: Reading Part II A: Writing Part II B: Student Writing Part III: Commenting Part IV: Connecting Part V: Reciprocating I have seen many teachers start blogs (professional and classroom ones), only to …
(7 Comments)
I previously published a chart of Bloom’s Taxonomy and iPad Apps, which I use regularly when planning projects or look to reinforce certain skills and literacies. Since I also rely heavily on The Digital Learning Farm concept (based on Alan November’s work), I felt it was time to create a …
(23 Comments)
In an attempt to document the trials and errors of using a classroom set of 20 iPads in our K-8 school, I am adding a new post to the collection of iPads in the Classroom: Transliteracy- QR Codes and Art Working on iPad Fluency with Lower Elementary Students Step-by-Step: How …
(29 Comments)
This is Part VII in the series “Stepping it Up: Learning About Blogs FOR your Students” Part I: Reading Part II A: Writing Part II B: Student Writing Part III: Commenting Part IV: Connecting Part V: Reciprocating Part VI: Consistency Reading, responding, assessing and monitoring our students’ progress on their …
(22 Comments)
I previously published a chart of Bloom’s Taxonomy and iPad Apps, which I use regularly when planning projects or look to reinforce certain skills and literacies. Since I also rely heavily on The Digital Learning Farm concept (based on Alan November’s work), I felt it was time to create a …
(23 Comments)
Teaching ourselves, our students and other educators how to use screenshooting (images) and screencasting (video) tools is a relevant skill to have that integrates in so many areas. Think Tutorial Designers (A role from the Digital Learning Farm) or the Flipped Classroom model. Being able to create, share and take …
(7 Comments)
Should Teachers Be More Like Conductors? This bog post from 2009 took me to the following TED talk by Itay Talgam. Although I am not a musician, nor listen to much classical music, I was mesmerized. This TED talk was geared towards organization leaders, but I so agree with Tania …
(4 Comments)
I have been blogging for 6 years now… I have written extensively about blogging (131 posts categorized “blogging” on Langwitches) I have shared two guides for teachers to start blogging with their students “Stepping it Up: Learning About Blogs FOR your Students” Part I: Reading Part II A: Writing Part …
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I had the opportunity to speak to Vicki Davis and Julie Lindsay. Two educators who are making a difference in their students’ lives as well as thousands of other students and teachers from around the world. Vicki is a teacher from Camila Georgia. She blogs on the Coolcatteacher blog and …
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This is a short TED talk by Raghava KK, the illustrator of the iPad book POP-IT – Raghava KK Inc. This video is not a commercial about the artist’s iPad book though, but shares a message about the importance of raising our children with PERSPECTIVE. In his book, children …
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I have been blogging for 6 years now… I have written extensively about blogging (131 posts categorized “blogging” on Langwitches) I have shared two guides for teachers to start blogging with their students “Stepping it Up: Learning About Blogs FOR your Students” Part I: Reading Part II A: Writing Part …
(2 Comments)
This is Part VII in the series “Stepping it Up: Learning About Blogs FOR your Students” Part I: Reading Part II A: Writing Part II B: Student Writing Part III: Commenting Part IV: Connecting Part V: Reciprocating Part VI: Consistency Reading, responding, assessing and monitoring our students’ progress on their …
(22 Comments)
This is Part VI in the series “Stepping it Up: Learning About Blogs FOR your Students” Part I: Reading Part II A: Writing Part II B: Student Writing Part III: Commenting Part IV: Connecting Part V: Reciprocating I have seen many teachers start blogs (professional and classroom ones), only to …
(7 Comments)
I previously published a chart of Bloom’s Taxonomy and iPad Apps, which I use regularly when planning projects or look to reinforce certain skills and literacies. Since I also rely heavily on The Digital Learning Farm concept (based on Alan November’s work), I felt it was time to create a …
(23 Comments)
In an attempt to document the trials and errors of using a classroom set of 20 iPads in our K-8 school, I am adding a new post to the collection of iPads in the Classroom: Transliteracy- QR Codes and Art Working on iPad Fluency with Lower Elementary Students Step-by-Step: How …
(29 Comments)
Transliteracy is defined on Wikipedia as The ability to read, write and interact across a range of platforms, tools and media from signing and orality through handwriting, print, TV, radio and film, to digital social networks. The modern meaning of the term combines literacy with the prefix trans-, which means …
(11 Comments)
Transliteracy is defined on Wikipedia as The ability to read, write and interact across a range of platforms, tools and media from signing and orality through handwriting, print, TV, radio and film, to digital social networks. The modern meaning of the term combines literacy with the prefix trans-, which means …
(11 Comments)
I posted a few weeks ago about the ongoing Teddy Bears Around the World (now in its fourth year) project. The project blog and hub can be be found at http://www.langwitches.org/blog/travel/teddybearsaroundtheworld/ I have created a How-to-Guide in order to articulate how and why to join such a project, to make …
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I am honored to be able to cross-post Stephen Wilmarth’s blog post below on Langwitches. If you are interested to read more about Steve’s International Experimental program at the Number One Middle School in Wuhan, China take a look at: Take a Peek into China’s First 1:1 iPad Class Learning…Young …
(No Comments)
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