I used to be one of those educators. There was a time when I wanted singular focus — an unadulterated fixation on my scintillating sermon — from every set of eyeballs when I was on stage in the classroom. I was raised to believe the educator was the ‘sage on the stage’. Maybe you were too? Maybe you still are? If I were a high school teacher or a higher education professor today though, I’d be thinking twice about that philosophy. If I were a corporate trainer (I really do hate that term) or a Chief Learning Officer (wait a minute) I’d also be thinking if my approach might need to be altered. Do educators of any stripe really believe learning solely happens through the
k-12 Archive
Am I worried about the proliferation of digital devices in our homes and schools? Not really. I’m more concerned that parents, when with their children at home, are simply using tablets, laptops, iPod Touch’s, Xbox consoles, etc. as a distraction device. An easy opportunity to abdicate parenting to the device itself. This is clearly wrong. Those parents have got it entirely wrong. My worry revolves around the disappearance of proper face-to-face social and behavioural skills that our children will require in an effort to engage and to ultimately prosper in this world of ours. I believe Peter Rawsthorne is taking his parental philosophy to a whole other level as well. (see comment) But there is something happening in our homes and schools that could be construed as positive. I think it is the Recalibration of Parallel
For those that know me well, I’m a proud papa to three young goats aged 8, 6 and 4. My beloved is also in the education ranks (we met in Montreal through our B.Ed program at McGill University) so our goats have little choice in the matter of an all-education smorgasbord upbringing. The goats may end up demented, but that’s another story. I’ve got a story to share for any education institution at any level out there that believes learning isn’t part formal, informal and social. This past Sunday, around 3:30pm in the afternoon, the 8 year-old cracks open a formal learning asset (a book on science experiments) and shouts, “Hey Cate, let’s do an experiment.” Cate is the precocious 4 year-old. Claire, the 8
On the dates of 25 January through 26 January, 2012, I had the opportunity to participate for the first time in the Learning Without Frontiers “Future of Learning Conference and Festival” held at Olympia in London, England. As the title of this post suggests, I believe it truly is the TED of all Learning Conferences. And since 1990, I’ve attended roughly 100 different conferences of all shapes, forms and sizes so my sample size is relatively good. Over the duration of the two days, there were several keynote addresses sprinkled from a rich ocean of speakers. To complement the main event, several indoor igloos (termed ‘experience domes’ at the conference) housed vendors and sidebar discussions from other speakers and organizations. Why am I so smitten