I have 5 implementable ideas how to bring out schools into the 21st century:
1) Let children solve real world problems. They learn skills that they can use in most every job.
2) Let the children decide which problem they want to tackle. Excellent skills to have: Coming up with ideas, convincing your fellow students to focus the rest of the year on that one problem and focusing on the solution for the rest of the school year. [I can't wait to find out what they will do.]
3) Share the problem, proposed solution as well as the whole process on the web with the world Wikipedia style. We live in a networked world, let’s use that opportunity to the fullest. Track progress weekly for a great review at the end of the year and for others to learn from everyones else’s progress.
4) Big hand-over of the solution via a presentation in front of students, teachers, parents, … Great skill to have to be able to present your ideas and solution in front of a larger audience.
5) Project Fridays: Every Google employees is allowed to focus 20% of their time on a project of their choosing. Let’s do the same with our children in school. 20% is the equivalent to one school day a week. Let’s do it on Friday.
My hope is that the first thing the children will do is create the environment for them to tinker to try out solutions in their schools.
Most of those ideas are nice, but not very practical. Some thoughts:
1) Real, actual, real world problems can't be solved in a class room. They are solved in 'the real world', i.e. business and government. Business and government won't let kids have a go at such things because it's too expensive, risky and messy. Companies continually complain about young employees' lack of (VET/STEM)skills, yet when it comes down to it they're really not prepared to run the risk that comes with having young kids (not) solving their actual problems. Now, schools could 'simulate' real problems, and do try to do that, but it's enormously expensive and difficult and not very practical.
Also, in our services-based economy most problems are solved through repetitive procedures. This is why there's such a focus on 'transversal' skills these days. Learning how to do look up information, read texts etc are important skills to have. They're the foundation underpinning those transversal skills. The idea is to not let kids learn about just one problem, but about a basic skill set that can be applied to any problem. Combine this focus with the hesitancy of companies, and you can see why these dreaded standardized tests come enter the equation...
2) Many schools already do this or try to do this. The problem is that there are some essential skills kids need to learn, which cannot be removed from the curriculum. Teaching those skills takes up a lot of time. This is why there is little room for such 'free play' in a class room. Creativity is wonderful and essential, but very hard to consistently implement in schools. Especially with the complaints that todays students lack the basics: math&english.
3) Schools already track progress. It's the one thing schools are actually pretty good at, and it has led to a complete focus on metrics that has had the unfortunate side effect of making the test results more important than actual learning outcomes and skills. This is also why I'm pretty cynical about web-based learning: a metrics based system breeds metrics based testing, schooling and studying. IT is a nice luxury, but not (yet?) the solution to our problems.
4) I like this idea. Especially involving the parents.
5) This is really the same idea as option 2. The same issues apply there. I agree that kids should do projects and have so leeway in their choices, but you underestimate the real world problems teachers encounter in a class room. Most students are in fact NOT responsible, smart or capable enough to choose a (relevant, teachable, educational) project and tackle it. Add social problems, broken families, shitty reading comprehension and problem kids to the equation and you can see why this doesn't work for most students. It's a great idea for excellent students though - add it to the curriculum for the better students who do well on tests anyway and it would be fantastic. In fact, don't do it on Fridays. Let them do projects based on what the rest of the class is doing. When everybody else is learning about the planets and the moon, give those 'smart' kids an advanced project about planetary movements and let them present the results to the class.
1) Let children solve real world problems. They learn skills that they can use in most every job.
2) Let the children decide which problem they want to tackle. Excellent skills to have: Coming up with ideas, convincing your fellow students to focus the rest of the year on that one problem and focusing on the solution for the rest of the school year. [I can't wait to find out what they will do.]
3) Share the problem, proposed solution as well as the whole process on the web with the world Wikipedia style. We live in a networked world, let’s use that opportunity to the fullest. Track progress weekly for a great review at the end of the year and for others to learn from everyones else’s progress.
4) Big hand-over of the solution via a presentation in front of students, teachers, parents, … Great skill to have to be able to present your ideas and solution in front of a larger audience.
5) Project Fridays: Every Google employees is allowed to focus 20% of their time on a project of their choosing. Let’s do the same with our children in school. 20% is the equivalent to one school day a week. Let’s do it on Friday.
My hope is that the first thing the children will do is create the environment for them to tinker to try out solutions in their schools.
Just presented these 5 ideas at TEDx Creative Coast too: http://www.aliveschools.org/2012/06/video-replay-tedxcc-5-id...
Please join the movement to make our schools come alive: http://www.aliveschools.org/2012/05/hello-world/
Thanks, Mark.