Future Learning

We are into our next module called "Rethinking Teaching". This is the moment when we begin to challenge and confront our traditional beliefs around the role and purpose of the teacher - is our pedagogy and practice relevant to today's learner. We are preparing our learners for an unknown future - today's 5yr olds will be 25 in 2034! Can we afford to hold onto practices and thinking that is grounded in the past, when we are facing a technological revolution. Our students are born into a technological world - knowledge is at their fingertips. So, how does the role of the teacher change, so that we can best meet the needs of TODAY'S learners?

The clip below delves into the idea of "future learning" - what should it look like and why do we need to make the change. While there are many challenging statements made, a couple resonated with me, and provides food for thought.

Dr Sugata Mitra talks about how our past, and possibly current, education system, is intent on producing "photocopies" of one another.

He also talks about how he believes that a future-focused curriculum should be focused on 3 aspects:

1. Reading comprehension - the single most important thing

2. Information search and retrieval skills

3. Teaching our children to believe (To provide armour against doctrine)

Future Learning

Love this clip. I love the section where Dr Sugata Mitra put computers in the slums in India and without any help, and the children did not speak English, within 5 hurs they had collaboratively taught themselves how to use a computer. 
I agreed when it talked about children losing motivation in schools and how using technology increases that. I love the section analysing what children do when they play video games. We need to capture that motivation. The clip talks about how computers should be used in classes to practice the maths and literacy skills and teachers can concentrate on the higher order thinking tasks. Children need to work collaboratively to help design their curriculum.