“It's quite fashionable to say that the educational system is broken. It's not broken. It's wonderfully constructed. It's just that we don't need it anymore.” - Sugata Mitra
After listening to his Ted Talk I was really rendered speechless and yet thoroughly energized. Someone was speaking right to my heart and I loved it. Many times I have this vision in my head about what education should look like and it is nothing like what education is now it is much more like the school in the cloud. I once saw a presenter give a talk on the future of education in which he compared schools in 2000 to schools in 1950 and they were almost identical. Still classrooms with desks in neat rows, teacher led with kids taking paper pencil tests regurgitating knowledge. Now while some of this has begun to change in the last 5 years is it going to change fast enough or be big enough changes to bring about true educational reform that will make a difference? That is why I love the quote from Mitra above. The former education system we had worked wonderful for its time it produced my parents and grandparents and even me and they all did very well in that system but that system does not work for today's students and their futures. As the 2013 Gallup Poll on what Americans Say U.S. Schools Should Teach indicated, Americans want students to learn skills like critical thinking, communication skills, how to set goals and collaboration. If you read up on the Common Core you will see that the 4 C’s of the common core are “creativity, collaboration, critical thinking, and communication”, exactly what Americans think American schools should be teaching. Many people want to argue that the Common Core is just another program like No Child Left Behind that is doomed to failure but I disagree. The Common Core is the push that American education needed to make effective change in schools. But is it enough? Probably not. I have implemented the last two years the common core, flipped my classroom, integrated technology and really focused on the 4 C’s and yes I believe it has had a large impact on my students. More than anything it has changed their view of education and school. They stopped seeing my classroom as a place where I was out to get students with paper/pencil tests of memorization. But many times I still don’t think I have gone far enough to reform my practice of education that is why I loved Mitra’s ideas. Children and all humans are naturally curious so why take that away from them? Could the 4C’s of the common core be learned in an environment where kids teach themselves? I think that answer is yes. I envision a school without compartmentalized subjects taught in periods throughout the day but rather a no wall school just as mitra suggests, “a school-in-the-cloud, a self styled, self-organized learning environment , to be structured and managed by cloud computing, and overseen by a global village of teachers and facilitators. A student-driven, technology-based, self-directed learning may work, and it will have a profound impact on how we will re-engineer and drive schooling in the years to come.”
I truly hope that this is the future of education and I hope it is sooner rather than later.Mitra's Hole in the Wall Project
School in Cloud Article
Genius Hour Video - Is this the first step toward Mira's Vision?
Melissa,
ReplyDeleteAfter listening to Sugata Mitra’s Ted Talk, I was also energized and inspired! However, I was also a little overwhelmed. While I fully believe in student-centered classrooms in which students pave the way and take responsibility for their own learning, I am also aware that we as educators have a long journey ahead of us in order to make that goal possible.
As you mentioned, schools have been textbook driven and teacher led for decades. I know I hold high standards in my classroom, require students to answer thought-provoking and critical thinking questions and work daily to incorporate new technology into the curriculum. However, I also know that many of my colleagues still believe that the “paper and pencil” technique is effective and they refuse to alter their practice simply because it has become routine. When we begin to teach using the Common Core State Standards for the 2014-2015 school year, I hope my colleagues become rejuvenated and inspired to teach students in a more interactive and collaborative way, so students will gain the twenty-first century skills they need in order to thrive in our society today!
I, too dream of the day when school is not compartmentalized. A day where students who are focused on and engaged in a science topic (for example) do not have to stop their learning simply because of an age-old time restraint in which subjects are restricted to. A day where students see themselves as the leaders of the classroom!
Hi Melissa!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your thoughts on this. I always enjoy reading your work.
I wanted to take a moment to comment on something we both find particularly compelling: the Common Core movement and how it impacts our thinking about thinking. By that, of course, I mean focusing on fostering an environment in which students use metacognition and are focused on processes more than those surface-level questions that we have posed for so long!
What I struggle with, though, is the fact that Common Core is supposed to support this idea of learning that the Four C's support, but in some ways, don't we have to consider that "assimilation and control" fear that way brought up in our readings this week? We know there is a lot of money at stake in the Common Core push, and the more we try and align, the more we see districts purchasing similar materials. So, if we are standardizing the materials teachers are using (because, let's be honest, we all consider our scores on some level), we are not fostering the Four C's for teachers... and I fear we then won't be able to do so for students to the extent that you and I hope to eventually get to! I hope I'm just being a pessimist about it, but I have to admit that I have some fear about the Common Core push because, at least in my district, the idea of independent thinkers is there only in rhetoric.
What's going on in your district? Are you seeing similar pushes or more creativity and variety?
Thanks again for your thoughts!
Melissa,
ReplyDeleteI think Mitra's ideas are compelling, too. I do wonder, however, about the limits of a school in "the cloud". There is definitely something to be said about the affective elements of physically going to school with other children and adults. By that I mean, that they've done studies on the effects of physical presence in the classroom and the findings are pretty clear that there are just some things that can't be replicated in online environments. Perhaps it seems weird that as an online instructor myself that I would say that, but I think it is especially true for young students. I think it is important that children physically go to school and have other adults see them and be present with them every day. I wonder what might be lost if all of our schooling was cloud-based.
That being said, I wonder what we might gain from using some of Mitra's ideas in the context of public schooling. Can we shake up the way we do school and the things we teach to focus more on problem-based learning, as he suggests? Do you think we could implement models that allowed students to teach themselves and teach one another...where the "teacher" becomes more of a "coach"? If we did, how would we have to change the way we prepared teachers? What kinds of knowledges, skills, abilities, and dispositions would become important for teachers to have in that kind of model?
Lots to think about!
amanda