Christian Long’s think:lab blog post on his “Future of Learning” Manifesto is one of the most provoking articles I’ve read in a while and certainly is food for conversations within our schools.

There are so many resonating points, but the one that caught my eye on first read, and remains embedded in my thoughts after several more, points out that we can ask our young learners to play school and live in our past, but what will that serve, other than to prepare them for our past…course, they’re not going there, are they?

And if you’re dead set on helping me master ‘your past’, please realize I’m going to need a nap.  And something to fidget with.  And a bus token to get to my job down at the buggy whip factory where I’ll be standing at the front of the line.

Or, you can help me prepare for my future.  Your choice.

It simply comes down to this.  The future is unlike anything in our past, or even our present.  This information and cultural revolution is going to make the industrial revolution look like a blip on the radar screen.  This is BIG!  Bigger than we can imagine, but the next generation already know that, because they’re driving the bus.

Laptops?  (Yawn)

Blogging? (Yawn)

PowerPoint? (Snore)

Multi-Media Center with a Starbucks ‘coffee house’ espresso shot in the backside? (Daring?  21st century school?  Yawn.)

How about we stop talking all giddy-like about the technology.  For us, it’s not about the box.  Not even about the iPod in pink or black.   And it’s definitely not about the email (psst:  we don’t email ‘cept when old people need help).

It’s about the conversation.   The ricochet of words.  The energy.  The fact that its happening right here right now and it ain’t coming back.

You tell me to turn off the game.  Because you’re staring at the box.  I can’t turn off the game.  Because the game ain’t in the box.

So, stop making technology such a big deal.  You want laptops. I got a cell phone.  And you still don’t get it.

’cause no matter what you spend your money and professional development time on, for us it’s about being inside the game, inside the story, in real-time. 

Everything else is over-priced and ready for recycling.

It really is about the engagement with the world that our youth experience everyday, and then we bring them into schools and ask them to power down. 

Imagine if our school experience in the 70’s was to learn how to use a fountain pen, but we knew there were newer, cleaner, faster ball point pens out there, because we were using them at home.  We just couldn’t use them at school.  This is not a stretch.  In fact, its not even a reasonable analogy.

The transition from fountain pen to ball point was slow compared to the changes happening today.  Besides, the new democratizing technologies available to our students are unlike anything we have experienced.  The lines between “real life” and “cyber life” don’t exist for the next generation – cause it’s all just life.

Unfortunately, our school systems are notoriously slow to change.  Most schools and classrooms still serve our needs, not our children’s.

Read the manifesto. Think about how it should change the story of our schools and our classrooms.  Are we ready for the challenge?

 technorati tags: education, future, technology