In a rapidly changing world, the need to memorise is becomes defunct, and what is more relevant for our students and all of us in the 21st century is know how to navigate around the wealth of information we are presented with, and learn what is trustworthy. After following a link from Ruth's tweet, I watched Digital Media - New Learners of the 21st Century, and this fact has never been more apparent to me. Professor James Gee, from Arizona University, sums up the challenge facing todays educators; "How do we get people prepared to learn in the future for things that don't even exist now and how do we prepare them to innovate and solve problems and not just know a bunch of facts they can't use?" The world has changed, and we must too.
One inspiring model that responds to that question is a digital school in the USA called Quest To Learn. The whole way the school is organised has been rethought and re-evaluated. The founders of the school have not taken for granted that they way we have done anything traditionally is automatically best, and instead they have have created a new structure based on digital literacy and 21st century learning... Amazing... Games and play, especially designing games, has a central role in the curriculum, and is used to cover other areas of the curriculum. Will this be a model that is adopted by most schools in the future? This really has to be seen to be believed, so do yourself a favour and watch the show!
My favourite segment of the show was that featuring the Smithonian Institute, which is the worlds largest museum and research complex, made up of 19 museums and galleries, a zoo and more! The centre runs programs which looks at using digital media to get young people into the museum to learn and explore in a hands on way. Too often museums require passive observers, which appeals to less and less people. One workshop that the Smithsonian Institute runs gets teenagers to work in small groups to create a scavenger hunt designed for other teenagers. To do this they need to work in groups, explore the exhibitions, use their imagination, write questions that are carefully worded, be creative and entertain, and use mobile phones with digital cameras to record their findings. They give feedback to other groups on their scavenger hunts, so they are learning, creating, collaborating, sharing, playing and building relationships all at once. Incredible. When can I do this (for myself or with a group of students)? One of the reasons that this stood out to me so strongly, is that I believe we need to use new technologies to enhance other forms of learning and discovery, not just to replace them. I would hate to think that all of the culture and history and beauty within the worlds museums would be locked up and ignored, only to be replaced by digital technologies... A digital tour of a museum or art gallery (whilst better than nothing) is not the same as being there in person, and projects that are innovative such as this one should be applauded!
Do yourself a favour, and watch the show!
Thanks to flickr for Image: 'iphone' http://www.flickr.com/photos/62337512@N00/3601525070
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