This was a long weekend for students in our district, but not for teachers (our Thanksgiving in Canada was a month or so ago)…we’ve spent the last couple of days in district designed and delivered PD activities surrounding differentiation in our teaching…

In addition to that, I was finally able to start the long-needed conversation at my Middle School on the flat world and how it needs to effect our teaching and learning environment. 

It was certainly interesting to see the range of views.  Age and experience seemed to have some small correlation on acceptance of the ideas, but more interestingly enough was that a number of teachers “got it” because they watch their own kids outside the classroom. In general, the teachers who were resistant to the idea of flattening their classroom were teachers with no / grown kids who don’t have a regular chance to observe students outside the classroom.

I also had the opportunity to share the short flash video Epic 2015.  It generated a huge response, from denial to embracement of these new paths.  The most important part was that teachers – at least some of them – are starting to get the fact that it is all about the information.  In this new information and technology-rich landscape, teachers just can’t be everything to every student anymore.

We finally finished our rollout this week. After a few minor technical issues delayed us a couple of days, we now have laptop computers into the hands of 563 eager students. Now comes the hard part.

The experience of many students (and teachers) is that computers are linked to entertainment and socialization. Some of them have already seen this as little more than an opportunity to engage themselves in social networking and on-line games. Our challange, as educators, will be to capture their attention by using the technology in an exciting, engaging and valuable learning environment.

The hard sell to teachers is that education MUST change. Many don’t see how the world has changed. Most don’t get the “flat world” ideas. They’re simply too busy to brief themselves on the change. They sense that their students are less engaged, there are more behavior issues and more learning gaps but they have yet to make the connection to the fact that today’s youth – the “Millenial Generation” – have never known a world without mp3’s, the Internet and IMing – a world that is fast and exciting…and VERY engaging!

I get to make a presentation to our staff in a couple of weeks as part of a PD session. I plan to show a slightly amended Karl Fisch’s “Did You Know” video, then give a Prensky/Warlick mix as a conversation starter. I expect that some teachers will reject what I say and others may be motivated, but the vast majority will simply wonder “how do I compete?”

The truth is, they can’t.

Ask yourself, would you be motivated in one of today’s vertical classrooms (my apologies to those select teachers out there who are meeting the challenge)? Our young people, who are now quite used to harnessing the power of information, are told to “power down” when they enter a classroom. It can be little wonder that our kids bother to show up at all.

Contrary to popular perception, students are engaged – even in learning – but only with things they see as relevant. They are quick to form dynamic and engaging learning environments as they develop and teach each other – without the involvement of any adults – techspeak and higher level problem solving skills that enable them to beat their favorite video games.

For the majority, school is NOT relevant to them. Why should it be? When we tell them that the things that are important to them are not welcome inside school walls, we tell them they are not important as well.

Students love to learn and be engaged. Our challenge is to make what we do relevant. It won’t be easy…teaching will get much harder in the next ten years as we struggle to introduce information as an organic raw material for our students in a constructivist environment. It will, however, be a very exciting time to be an educator.

Nothing less than our future is in the balance.

 Technorati tags: warlick, prensky, education