Educating the Dragon

 

Karen Boyes

21^st Century Learners

We so often expect for ‘me to win someone has to loose’ For so long Karen argues that has been the case in Education. Its about time we took a serious look at that. With the new possiblities through the new curriculum in New Zealand we have a opportunity to address this imbalance and make education a ‘win-win’ situation.

 

Technology is changing, REALLY fast now. Karen challenges us and asks: Are we keeping up? Are you? Am I?

Interactive Whiteboard are good and a step in the right direction but the kids very quickly ask, ‘yep…now what?” “What’s next?”

 

 

So what skills are they going to need for the 21^st century? We need to turn them into thinkers and Learners for the 21^st century.

Think of it: Wikipedia is the first port of call for information, youtube, iTunes two billion tunes available off the web. Gone are the days of “ooooo, I just bought my first stereo,/walkman.”

, access to the world…. TradeMe is fast becoming the first not the last port of call for purchases.

Everything is happening too fast.

There are six pionts that Ted McCain points to, to help us in developing the 21^st century citizen:

 

Resist the temptation to tell

Kids are different to in our day.. Opening the door through education is no longer required because now they have access. We need to teach them to inter-relate and use the information effectively. Why are we labelling kids so early when the brain matures at such a vastly different time from student to student. Educational milestones; reading this well aged 6,7,8 NUMP level 3,4,5 by such and such. They should be a guide and we rather than saying “They are not developing” we should rather scaffold their learning with the view to them ‘maturing’ in their learnnig later. (Karen said that bit better than I typed it but I hope you get the idea)

Back on track….. With Apollo 11 being only 3% ‘on target’ for its mission to the moon so our kids need to be, we as teacher spending 97% of our time on ‘course correction’.

Let them experience life and learning they have to do it for themselves; how does a child learn about ‘hot’ you can tell them off all you like be until they touch hot they won’t full understand the concept- My boy was like this, at 18 months he touched the bulb of the beside light when it had been on a couple of minutes, Now when I say ‘That’ll be hot’ he understands more fully- there is pain and discomfort involoved that he does not want to experience again.

 

Stop teaching decontextualised information

We need to give them a real world context. Dr David Sousa states that we needs to learning to:

1 make sense

2 have meaning

 

How do we get them to buy into learning?

 

Stop giving the final product of our thinking.

- Enpower them to do it.

 Why are they still dependant at Y13?

75% of tasks we do in the classroom kids should be doing. Sure we need to scaffold you can’t just expect them to that on Monday morning– Who decides what is important to learn in your classroom? You, the government or the kids! Who should decide?

 

Problems first teaching second-

Getting the children empowered through ‘role play’ Please see Edcast one or my example of Ian Jukes’ talk

 

Progressively withdraw from helping.

ICT stands for the progression towards independence : Independent , Collaborative, Teacher. Progress through the year. They become dependent and less reliant on teacher input

Re-evaluate evaluation.

Have we missed something. Is the written test enough??

Looking below the surface- what is it we are about- what is the best for their futures?

 

 

Teacher make every other profession possible- 21^st Century.

Ian Jukes “We are doing a great job in educating our kids for the 1970’s”

 

Recommended reading:

 

“The tipping point” by Malcolm Gladwell.

 

“The World is Flat”  by Thomas Friedman.

 

“A whole new Mind” by Daniel Pink

 

“The singularity is near” Ray Kurzweil

 

‘Teaching for Tomorrow’ by Ted McCain

 

“The necessity of experience” by Edward Reed

 

 

Contact details:

karen@spectrummeducation.com

www.spectrumeducation.com

Here are my six ideas for developing ICT in your classroom. They are designed to take the load of the teacher, develop the thinking skills involved for the students and be generic.

1. Peer tutoring – take skills teaching off the teacher.( having to teach someone else is great reinforcement)
2.  ICT buddy system- working with a partner on a project will more than double the learning going on, feeding ideas from one another will intensify the higher order thinking going on- plus using the computer/software/ application as the focal learning object will mean more ‘on task’ conversation and less chatter.
3. Software ‘experts’ in the class are a useful thing. ( Where Jane is the ‘go to’ girl about powerpoint and Adam knows all about imovie)
4. Teamworking is perhaps an extension of 2- but with more people =more ideas- but be careful of the ‘slacker’ in the group they can hide.
5. Make use of skills checklists, cards, mini tutorials
6. Get your groups  in 4 to work on a application and produce the cards, video tutorials, checklists mentioned in 5.

Please add more…..

I’ve been reading The world is Flat and I promised myself I’d refrain from commenting until I’d read it all but the chapter on the Untouchables got me thinking and when I think I’ve got to blog otherwise my thought may be lost. Thomas Friedman talks about us becoming one of the untouchables if we are to make our living in on Planet Flat. The four untouchables are: be special, specialized, anchored or adaptable. I’m from the UK originally so this is said with all due respect but are we in New Zealand encouraging our kids in the right way?

Sure we have role model assemblies, Duffy awards etc, the kids all want to be All Blacks/ Black Caps/ Silver ferns/ Black Ferns/ Black Sticks* (*delete as appropriate) but all these people are special. And as Friedman points out there are only a few ’special’ people in the Flat World.

What about specialised, then? Are our Universities, Colleges and institutions encouraging our kids to become specialised? Whether its graphic design or brain surgery is the government providing the right sort of incentives to become specialised enough to survive in the flat world?

What about anchored? Friedman talks about the types of jobs that are location specific, that demand face-2-face time. Are their enough of these types of jobs to be spread around a working population of 2.1 million. Perhaps…..not.

Adaptable- ‘become a lifelong learner’ continues to be banded around schools and institutions like a well worn catchphrase; but are people fully aware that in this flat world being a ‘life long learner’ is an essential part of the survival kit? For without this kids will not survive, let alone thrive, in the flat world. New Zealand has a small population which offers huge advantages- fewer workers to have to secure jobs, a smaller budget for upskilling the work force, lower cost to get a laptop in the hands of our kids-

We are not donig our kids any favours by inspiring them ALL to be sporting heroes and NZ idol winners- few will achieve it. Rather let’s start preparing them for the future. Let’s prepare them to be adaptable. 

This is not a carbon copy of Vicki’s post but what the words of her favourite song, Anyway, by Martina McBride have encouraged me enormously.

Those you that follow my ramblings may have picked up that discouraged and sad tone that I try so hard for my blog NOT to reflect.

Anyway allowed me to reflect constructively on several areas in my life:

Build Anyway

You can spend your whole life building
Something from nothin’
One storm can come and blow it all away
Build it anyway

This is about my home, my family. I moved to
New Zealand some three-bit years ago with my life. Wanting to build a better life for ourselves. We came for a year and realised this was a place we felt we belonged. We have a family here now, my son is charging towards 2 as I type. We bought a house, 100 years old, the roof is likely to leak anyday now, the floor is crooked and the walls are rotting away in places. But we saw the potential, the potential of a home, of a life, and we continue to build that home. Tragedy or misadventure my force us to abandon this home and return to  England, but we build anyway.  What will you build anyway?

Dream Anyway
You can chase a dream
That seems so out of reach
And you know it might not ever come your way
Dream it anyway
To say I chase a dream would be a fib. Thinking about these different ‘anyway’s I’ve realised that all my hopes and dreams and aspirations are complete. Maybe that’s a good thing maybe not. But I do dream of an educational system that reflects how business and the world runs today. What’s my part, my role? I’m working on that. I don’t know the answer to those two questions but I dream it anyway.What dream will you dream anyway?

Love AnywayYou can love someone with all your heart
For all the right reasons
In a moment they can choose to walk away
Love ‘em anyway

I love my wife and my son with all of my heart. God has blessed me with a wife who knows me, understands me, puts up with my ways. I am blessed and I love her. My boy is a delight to me. He looks at me with love and affection. His sense of humour is developing, and personality growing- I hope he takes after his mother! God has truly blessed me with a gorgeous family. I am so thankful. Their presence at the end of a frustrating day draws my life into focus and my work into perspective. They could be taken from me anytime. But I love ‘em anyway.
Who will you love anyway?

Sing anyway You can pour your soul out singing
A song you believe in
That tomorrow they’ll forget you ever sang
Sing it anyway
Yea – sing it anyway Vicki’s passion echoes my own: 

In the sharing of how I teach and how I am learning to teach. Of the bumps and bruises of this new thing we’re all discovering together called Web 2. Of the frustration of the three steps up, two steps back of helping others discover it too. Of the frustration of being misunderstood with people thinking I must have “too much time on my hands” if I am blogging.Knowing that should I stop blogging tomorrow, that my name will be forgotten and my blog will begin gathering dust — because that is the way it works in the blogosphere.But I’ll sing this song anyway.The chorus of my life

God is great
But sometimes life ain’t good
And when I pray
It doesn’t always turn out like I think it should
But I do it anyway
I do it anywayThis world’s gone crazy
It’s hard to believe
That tomorrow will be better than today
Believe it anyway

So, when you feel down about all you’ve done. All the kids that have forgotten. All the people who’ve never said thank you. The dreams you wish you’ve done. The messes people dump in your lap. Brush off the dust, take a moment and smile.This is life. Life is good… it doesn’t always turn out like I think it should.

But I’m going to live it, bruises and all, with all I’ve got…anyway.

What will you do anyway?