A Vision Of Education
My view of what the future holds for students, adult learners and society includes: global citizenship, building and expanding on individual paths of passion through play to cultivate innovation, and a focus on digital literacies to build collective intelligence. I will continue to emphasize strong pedagogical content knowledge of core curriculum, technology integration and increasing attention to online teaching environments for all ages.
It is no longer sufficient that students “know” about other cultures, but they will need to become global citizens in order to deeply understand how to communicate based on building global and cultural awareness. Underlying success in economy and social interactions will result only when we are facilitating deep discussions and encourage intercultural conversations. This type of learning environment will need to focus on early elementary programs that teach diversity, cultural competencies and interaction of diverse groups which will be greatly enhanced by technology in building classroom learning networks, through social media, and multi-language acquisition. The implications that social media has on diversifying learning is not limited to direct communication but also in collaboration, and peripheral participation for the purpose of understanding thinking, uncovering bias and establishing connections.
Digital literacies have become one of the most talked about concepts in education, and also includes a diverse discussion to what these skills mean to the future of education. Digital literacy take into consideration the need to read and write but also includes transferring these skills to a digital environment to research, navigating information and understand the power of digital media. These literacies also leverage online support systems of feedback and audience, along with the basic technical skills needed to operate within these digital systems. Collective intelligence builds off of these acquired digital skills. In the past 10 years collective intelligence was confined to closely prescribed individual environments (work, school, and home), to the present where the scope of your resources can be dictated to individual preference and the desire to expand one's own personal/professional knowledge base. These intelligences can be elaborated, expanded, and challenged by other outside agencies (cross disciplinary and culture) in order to compare and combine knowledge towards a common goal. We are able to see the effects of such pooling of knowledge through online collaborative sites that free source learning such as Lyndia, Udacity and Khan Academy where the goal is the to educate from and by individual entities.
Our future holds tremendous possibilities in the advancement of science, engineering, and providing solutions to societal issues because of advancements in technology. It is only through creative and innovative solutions that we will continue to gain value from these advancements. In order to develop creativity and innovation in students we must honor individual paths of passion through play and vocation. Play is inherent to humans in order to explore, imagine, connect and evaluate the world around us. A world that expands beyond the community we derive from or live in. Trends in technological advancements displace students that simply “know” facts, as these facts can be readily accessed in a moment from most mobile devices and is readily available across economical and cultural boundaries. Career ready students will need to develop past facts and into complex thinking that can not be overridden by technology. Play includes creating environments within education where we encourage curiosity, promote hands-on building, modeling and creating for the purpose of increasing pleasure and interest. When interest and passion are present there is a natural inclination (a drive or intrinsic motivation) to further experiences and learning. Career trends indicate that many jobs of the future have not even been invented yet so building on these play environments will help individuals fluidly move through, and acquire transferable skills, across career paths.Components of play are non-judgmental, joyous experience where students and adults feel comfortable making mistakes in, and losing themselves to the flow of the moment. To do this I we need to promote in school and after school activities with a STEAM focus where students can explore their interest while developing a deeper more narrow focus on the content knowledge involved in their interest.
It is no longer sufficient that students “know” about other cultures, but they will need to become global citizens in order to deeply understand how to communicate based on building global and cultural awareness. Underlying success in economy and social interactions will result only when we are facilitating deep discussions and encourage intercultural conversations. This type of learning environment will need to focus on early elementary programs that teach diversity, cultural competencies and interaction of diverse groups which will be greatly enhanced by technology in building classroom learning networks, through social media, and multi-language acquisition. The implications that social media has on diversifying learning is not limited to direct communication but also in collaboration, and peripheral participation for the purpose of understanding thinking, uncovering bias and establishing connections.
Digital literacies have become one of the most talked about concepts in education, and also includes a diverse discussion to what these skills mean to the future of education. Digital literacy take into consideration the need to read and write but also includes transferring these skills to a digital environment to research, navigating information and understand the power of digital media. These literacies also leverage online support systems of feedback and audience, along with the basic technical skills needed to operate within these digital systems. Collective intelligence builds off of these acquired digital skills. In the past 10 years collective intelligence was confined to closely prescribed individual environments (work, school, and home), to the present where the scope of your resources can be dictated to individual preference and the desire to expand one's own personal/professional knowledge base. These intelligences can be elaborated, expanded, and challenged by other outside agencies (cross disciplinary and culture) in order to compare and combine knowledge towards a common goal. We are able to see the effects of such pooling of knowledge through online collaborative sites that free source learning such as Lyndia, Udacity and Khan Academy where the goal is the to educate from and by individual entities.
Our future holds tremendous possibilities in the advancement of science, engineering, and providing solutions to societal issues because of advancements in technology. It is only through creative and innovative solutions that we will continue to gain value from these advancements. In order to develop creativity and innovation in students we must honor individual paths of passion through play and vocation. Play is inherent to humans in order to explore, imagine, connect and evaluate the world around us. A world that expands beyond the community we derive from or live in. Trends in technological advancements displace students that simply “know” facts, as these facts can be readily accessed in a moment from most mobile devices and is readily available across economical and cultural boundaries. Career ready students will need to develop past facts and into complex thinking that can not be overridden by technology. Play includes creating environments within education where we encourage curiosity, promote hands-on building, modeling and creating for the purpose of increasing pleasure and interest. When interest and passion are present there is a natural inclination (a drive or intrinsic motivation) to further experiences and learning. Career trends indicate that many jobs of the future have not even been invented yet so building on these play environments will help individuals fluidly move through, and acquire transferable skills, across career paths.Components of play are non-judgmental, joyous experience where students and adults feel comfortable making mistakes in, and losing themselves to the flow of the moment. To do this I we need to promote in school and after school activities with a STEAM focus where students can explore their interest while developing a deeper more narrow focus on the content knowledge involved in their interest.