Anyone else feeling overwhelmed trying to keep up with all the incredible big-picture thinking floating around these days? It's like a hundred of the best ed.tech bloggers included "revolutionize education" as their only New Year's resolution.
In Learners as Contributors -- The End of the Industrial Model, Harold Jarche uses some great personal examples of the contrast between his kids' learning in school vs outside of school. He bounces off a fantastic (and in-depth) Think : Lab post from a designer of physical learning spaces on how blogging will change the future of learning.
Christian Long also bounced off of David Warlick, and in the process declares (rightly, methinks) that "school is no longer the default 'place of learning' or the 'center of information'." This from a designer of schools! Occasionally cantankerous Tom Hoffman is in the mix as well, and he linked to this fascinating historical account of educational revolution: The New Curriculum brought about by students at Brown University in the late '60s. Brain. Turning. To. Mush. And. Loving. It.
4 comments:
Yes, definately feeling overwhelmed. And am noticing that many of my staff and learners are also. The sheer volume of interesting and relevent material has exploded in the past year. I am now focusing on edutainment via games and video in my curriculum if for no other reason than to keep their attention lol.
Great blogs btw and most excellent blog name lol
And then there's Will's post with the side bar, "My students know more than I know".
Studnets have an abundance of information and connections to worldwide specialists, so educators had better figure out how to involve students or they will lose them.
Thanks for the comment, Jamie -- we're only a few hours down the Coquihala from each other. And yes, great blog name.
: )
I suppose you could look at any area of interest right now and find proliferating information as more people contribute to the web with news, opinions, audio, video and writing of all types about their pursuit.
When I was a young teenager, we were really into motocross, but we were starved for information about it -- there were two American magazines that were always a month or two behind what was happening on the race circuits. Now a 12-year-old motocross fanatic could spend hours a day consuming and adding up-to-the-minute content about the sport.
Harold, I think you're right. I guess students have always disengaged from school (dropping out, going to work), but it seems like the potential to engage in something more valuable and benificial is improving. Reminds me of the continuing increase in the homeschooling ranks. It used to be perceived as an all-or-nothing thing, but our district now has a program where kids can attend up to three course each term and participate in extra-curricular teams and activities. This frees up more time for them to pursue their own learning projects with the help of engaged parents.
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