“Real learning happens anytime, anywhere, with anyone we like- not just with a teacher and same-age peers, in a classroom from September to June”
This nods to the changing times of expectations of learning. Learning is no longer or should no longer describe as solely memorizing fact or passing tests. We wants our students to develop lifelong skills, independence, critical thinking and more. Life itself is a learning opportunity. Anything around us we can teach to. The rocks the students love to collect- geology lesson. COunting who has more cookie- math. I say seize the opportunity and incorporate much more real world thinking into classrooms.
He continues this thought by adding, “It happens around the things we learners choose to learn, not what someone else tells us to learn.”
Giving students ownership over their learning is one of the most powerful tools. Students learn better if they are engaged and giving them ownership helps them engage. When they are learning about topics they are interested in; students should be more interested.
Richardson Asks “why schools” and “what's the value of schools now that opportunities for learning without it are exploding all around us?”
I have been struggling with this same question since technology and the digital age have arrived. What will my place be in the classroom if all these students can learn so much on their own. I understand I can still teach skills that computers can't how to work in groups and encourage. Kids to think on their own. I unlike technology also have the ability to push encourage and scaffold my students. Despite these things I still wonder will teachers still be around in 20 years?
He continues this section by explaining that schools will not be completely gone for at least a while because of the, “.. [schools] remain the places where every one of our kids can go (in theory, at least) to get equal access to education. Between that and ancillary child care functions they provide, schools provide places where children come to learn together.”
I don't want schools to remain just as a daycare a place to watch kids while parents work. I want to educate. Not hand my students a tablet or computer and say go for it. Equal access to education is a key reason to keep schools around even though we are not providing that to the best of our abilities currently.
“The test doesn’t come close to capturing what our kids need to know and to be able to do at this moment of rapid and radical change.”
I, as well as many other colleagues have agreed with this theory for a long time. I don't want to write off tests completely because in some senses they do help gauge students understanding. However they should possibly hold less value or be strongly modified. knowing the history of the U.S. in chronological order will not allow you to succeed in this world unless you plan on going on a reality show and list the chronology in under a minute or some odd skill like that.
“Doing school ‘differently’, instead of simply ‘better’,”
Great quote and way of thinking. I had not thought about this idea of different not better. We are in such a time of change and schools are so far behind we don't need to make them better. They need to change to fit the 21st century learner. As November say in his book having students type essays on a computer is not utilizing technology it's just another form of the pencil. What can we do change the way schools function to better serve our students?
This essay is inspiring and truly aligns with many of the thoughts I am having as a developing educator.