On My Humble Opinion
Learning to learn what you want to learn
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In our daily practice many of us constantly work with what we call "limited resources". We often highlight all the things that we cannot do because we do not have "this"or "that". How can we think about 21st century learning without having a computer available for each student? "The Hole in the Wall" project made me think that we may be missing a very important point. Are we focusing on what is really important? Professor Mitra says that ".... if children are interested education happens". The children who took part in the study came from very different places and yet all of them learned not only valuable information but also critical thinking skills, collaboration and even more importantly they learned how to learn! They not only learned from the computer, they learned from each other and how to teach each other. A true community of practice! We constantly make decisions regarding what and how our students learn in our classrooms, particularly at the high school level. Students have a very long list of of "must know" and we keep "stuffing" their heads with what is already "stuffed in Google". Are we truly empowering our students to learn the core skills that will teach them how to learn what they want to learn? |
Ken Robinson: schools kill creativity
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More often than not children are faced with the big question: “what do you want to be when you grow up?” You can see the adults around them filled with pride and hope for the future when they child gives the socially acceptable answer or the concerned expression when the answer is not what we consider “a way to make a living”.
I do not know if schools kill creativity or not, but I do know that those of us who don’t fit in the mould of what is acceptable have to face a “reshaping process” in order to meet the expectations of what it means to be successful given by the society we live in. Even Sir Ken Robinson seem to fall for the accepted definition of success when he makes reference to Gillian Lynne story as example of the importance of giving children the opportunity to bloom on what comes natural to them. The happy ending of Ms. Lynne story is becoming a famous dancer and choreographer and being a multi-millionaire. Can all those creative kids become successful as defined by society? I am sure most of them dream about it but I am not sure that the majority of them will. Shall we then change our perception of what it means to be successful? Shall we instead ask them what will make them happy when they grow up rather than what expectations are you planning to fulfill when you get older? It seems to me that we work on killing creativity long before the kids come school. |