My friend, Scott Mcleod (Dangerously Irrelevant), posed a challenge for educational technology advocates a few days ago. Since he invokes my name in the post, I feel that I should in some small part, engage. He asks, in Vision Challenge – Part 1…
Can we articulate in a few short sentences or paragraphs what the end result looks like?
Scott continues..
Children learning collaboratively, students as self-directed learners, a computer in every kid’s hand, ubiquitous Internet access, creative problem-solving rather than rote memorization, global interconnections, etc. Whatever we think the desired end point should be: can we articulate it in a clear, concise manner that’s easily conveyable to others? Can we describe what students and teachers and administrators are doing and why (i.e., the educational purposes and benefits of doing so)?
What Mcleod is looking at is important, what the teaching and learning experience should look like. But I wonder if this is a bit premature, that perhaps we should go back to his question and take it out another notch, What should the end result, the person who graduates from our schools, look like? It seems that with the answer to this question, we might better envision what their schooling experience should be.
First of all, I see graduates who can teach themselves. I’m starting to call this learning literacy, and I think that it is THE literacy we should be teaching — the skills to resourcefully use your information environment to help yourself learn what you need to know, to do what you need to do.
I would also want to see graduates who know who, what, where, and when they are. They need to have developed a comfortable and confident sense of their culture, their physical environment, their geographic environment, and their historic circumstance — a context for their experience, one that they hold in common with people they will interact with, collaborate with, and enjoy the company of. They would also be skilled in adapting to new circumstances — able to learn, unlearn, and relearn (Alvin Toffler).
Then we think of what the classrooms, teachers, textbooks, technology, blah blah blah, need to look like to accomplish this.
Image Citation
Sciamano, Luca. “The World Through My Eyes /2.” Sciamano’s Photostream. 3 June 2006. 9 Jul 2007 <http://flickr.com/photos/sciamano/159269931/>.
I like “Learning Literacyâ€. For a concrete example of what it looks like see David’s own post in mid June- Hypothetical (http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/2007/06/15/a-hypothetical/).
Thanks
Barry
Your question about what students should look like at graduation is a fundamentally important question for setting direction in our school communities. We discuss this regularly and define what we call our Student Learning Expectations- the name has some intrinsic problems but the process is valuable.
We are currently rewriting them (the SLE’s) and as a point of discussion and as a possible framework we are looking at the refreshed NETS. Not so much their detail but the categories. Do they outline the essential learning we need to embrace? I have also posted on my blog a set of interesting questions I picked up at NECC that might further frame these reflections.
Learning Literacy is a helpful term, as it nicely encapsulates an important overall objective. I believe it should be global in another sense as well. Learning literacy needs to be a goal for every learner, not just for self-starters or for those with strong visual literacy aptitude, verbal literacy, numeracy, or whatever. Learning literacy needs to be a significant part of a universal design for learning.
Articulating the end result in a clear manner is as simple or as hard as you make it.
The major swing that needs to occur in education: dependent to independent learners. Being an elementary school teacher, this is what I focus on every day. I work with a population of students that have no idea what this model looks like until they enter my class.
Summing up the end result: A population of lifelong independent learners.
The current model: A population of dependent learners that do not enjoy school and can’t wait to go home at 3:15 when school lets out.
I often read your (David) blog as well as several others from a Bloglines playlist I call “Controversy”. These bloggers, “parentalcation”, “Kitchen Table Math”, “From the Trenches of Public Education”, etc. contend that there is a huge lack of academic rigor in schools today (duh!) and students are not getting a body of knowledge that they need to carry on their journey through life.
What I think the educational technology folks need to remember is that body of knowledge–The big question for me is how do we mesh the teaching of this body of knowledge with the use of the new technology tools.
Yes, I agree that …” Children learning collaboratively, students as self-directed learners, a computer in every kid’s hand, ubiquitous Internet access, creative problem-solving rather than rote memorization, global interconnections” are certainly wonderful learning goals but kids also need to know how to read and interpret what they read, how to solve a math problem, how to disect a frog (OK, maybe not).
I’m retiring in a couple of years–I hope one of you young guys figures out how to couple the beauty of technology with the need for a “classical” (too much?) education. Just a thought N
David,
I’m having trouble keeping track. How many “literacies” are you up to now?
I love these discussions.
Not just an old idea dressed in digital gadgetry, but truly Lifelong Learner 2.0.
“Learning Literacy” works too.
I’ve been retired four years, and a lot of this discussion would have been meaningless had I not kept my oar in the water by running for the local board of ed.
Since the ultimate billpayers are the citizens, I think the audience needs to be broadened to include them. Any ideas on how to do that?
To your “the skills to resourcefully use your information environment to help yourself learn what you need to know, to do what you need to do.” I would add ‘ethically’ as you usually do! To this day, I’m amazed at the number of those who still don’t understand the importance of this concept!
You’ve not been paying attention, Gary. I’ve always maintained that there is one literacy (the skills involved in using information to accomplish your goals). It’s just that I am coming to believe that that one literacy should be thought of and even labeled, learning literacy.
Dave, Not sure I agree about kids teaching themselves …. at the primary (K-12) level almost all kids will require direct instruction in most of their learning. Kids will not learn to read simply by sitting in a library, or learn how to utilise technology by being put in front of a laptop and told to ‘go play’.
I believe that we are ultimately wanting children to be metacognitive (what you are calling learning literate) in terms of being ‘third-person observers on their own learning’ (Jeni Wilson). They DO need to be able to manage their learning conditions – internal and external to themselves – to maximise their learning. But their teachers do still need to be TEACHERS. The need to INSTRUCT children in the things/skills/understandings they need to have to get to this point.
Dave I think I understand the learning literacy concept – but I was wondering, if it can come back a step earlier by suggesting a need for students to learn how to have ownership over their learning. In actual fact, a DESIRE to own the learning. This I think is a skill that needs to be emphasised more than anything else, as it is so foundational. Students who will survive in this rapid change will need to become more adaptive, which I think requires a desire to want to learn.
Brett,
I agree with your point and with the power of owning your learning, the motivation (DESIRE) to call what you learned a part of you. I think that it is what happens when you have learned or discovered something as a result of some action you (the learner) have engaged in.
I really do not see the dichotomy that Greg Carroll implies. I think that self-learning can happen, and should happen in many circumstances (especially younger children) at the direction of teachers. My vision (which is what Scott McLeod is calling for) is schools, classrooms, and learning experiences that help students learn to be learning literate, with many more opportunities to practice observing, questioning, experimenting, and discovering.
David, I think you are misinterpreting Greg’s point a bit. I don’t think he is seeing a dichotomy as the point he was countering was “graduates who can teach themselves” when the goal is “learning literacy”. Teaching is not learning – if you had written “graduates who can learn what they need when they need it” which is like the “just-in-time learning” concept used in Australian education a lot, then he may not have been in disagreement with your points. Like Greg, I teach in the primary sector and there are many concepts and skills kids need exposure to before they can successfully make choices about what they should be learning. What he writes rings true to my experiences with or without technology – he quotes Jeni Wilson, who with Kath Murdoch is amongst the best thinkers and researchers on effective classroom practice in our part of the world on inquiry learning. What you are suggesting has already been researched and started to be implemented in many classrooms in New Zealand and Australia – but I suppose it depends how you define self-learning. I’m jumping to Greg’s defense (as I know you have been his guest in the past) a bit but I think you’ve dismissed his point a bit quickly.
There were two cartoons in my daily paper today that reflected the world 2.0:
“Zits” represented the parallel universes that students and adults sometimes inhabit
http://www.arcamax.com/zits
and “Sherman’s Lagoon” introduced Second Life to a skeptical shark
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/fun/shermans.asp
I teach small 7-12 public charter school. We are a project based school using standards based assessments. Each student has their own computer, work station and filing cabinet. They have access to online resources on continual basis. We provide laptops for checkout as well as digital cameras and recorders and iPolds.
Within the framework we have developed, students decide what they want to learn, how they want to learn it, and how they will communicate what they have learned. They are, in essence, building their own curriculum. There are no formal classes, no bell schedules, no assigned homework, no tests.
Students are encouraged to collaborate with each other students and adults – including those outside the walls of the school. We don’t segregate students based on grade. Middle school students regularly collaborate with high school students on shared projects without giving it a second thought. Students regularly seek out community experts to assist them in project development and design.
When you allow students to take responsibility for their learning and study those things they are interested in thoroughly and deeply, their learning becomes relevant and meaningful to them and they produce work that sometimes surprises even them.
Our students are learning how to work collaboratively and independently. Our students are learning how to manage their time and be organized. Our students are learning how to be tenacious as learners, problem solve and think critically. Our students are learning how to set goals and meet deadlines. They are learning how to learn. I feel fortunate to be a part of it all because I’m learning too. Isn’t that was education should be about.