Whether we think about it or not, in the last 20 plus years since we experienced our K-12 schooling, a lot has changed around us.
Our kids are much different from us ‘then.? What they know and how they view the world may make them different learners with different needs and expectations. What knowledge and thinking do we want for our children growing up in the world that is globalized, networked, informed, and diverse?
On July 29-31, 2014, seven Clarkston Community Schools principals accompanied our superintendent Dr. Rod Rock to Harvard University for an intense four-day Future of Learning Institute global educational exploration.
This could have a lasting effect on how our children experience learning here, in Clarkston. Through interactive courses, learning group work, and the plenary sessions, our administrators, alongside educators from around the world, investigated three important advances that influence learning today and tomorrow: globalization,’the digital revolution, and increasing understanding of the processes allowing the brain to learn.
Clarkston is no longer a small community; it’s part of the large world. Globalization (the accelerating traffic of people, capital, and cultural products around the world) is as real as it has ever been.
As parents, how do we want our schools prepare our children to participate in interconnected societies? How do we want education respond to changing sense of citizenship, belonging, and responsibility to others? What competencies matter most?
‘David Perkins asks us to think about knowledge that disappears. How can we change those lessons so knowledge will last? What matters most to learn? A simple and powerful question that drives what we do in preparing children for tomorrow,? shared Springfield Plains Elementary principal Nancy Mahoney via Twitter.
As David Perkins,’Research Professor of Teaching and Learning at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, pointed out, a lot of what we usually learn at school beyond basic literacies gets forgotten as it does not contribute much to our lives. It seems reasonable that instead of educating only for the known’the usual facts and skills’our children also need to be educated for the unknown, for the types of thinking and understanding that will help them excel in the future.
To be meaningful, learning should bring insight, inspire action in learner’s life or in the world, raise ethical issues with which one can grapple, or have the potential to be used in the future. It should be emotional and personal in relevancy to one’s life. It should serve children’s needs today or in their future.
Of course, our kids are a ‘digital? generation. Leveraging today’s technology to serve educational needs is something we have been attempting even at home.
Mimi Ito, a cultural anthropologist of technology use from the University of California, Irvine, stated that an average teen sends around 3,400 texts per month and spends seven hours online daily.
Connected learning is a potential approach to meet this end. It allows a young person to pursue a personal interest with the support of peers and caring adults through social media and interactive technologies in a way that is beneficial to his or her achievement at school.
As the Clarkston Schools work closely with Ron Ritchhart, a senior research associate at Harvard Project Zero, on implementing a Culture of Thinking, Dr. Rock had an opportunity to attend this venue for the last five years as a fellow or a leader of a study group.
This year, a grant made it possible to expand our district’s involvement. North Sashabaw Elementary principal Tara Ouellette served as a fellow, while Gary Kaul (Clarkston High School), Adam Kern (Clarkston Junior High School), Glenn Gualtieri (Bailey Lake Elementary), Brian Adams (Clarkston Elementary), Lisa Marion (Early Childhood Center), and Nancy Mahoney participated in a study group for principals.
All in all, regardless of concrete forms of implementation, our administration’s desire to look ahead and think of initiatives that will help our children succeed in the global community is rather commendable.
Even if we take schools out of the world, we cannot take the world out of our schools. And why should we?
Arina Bokas is president of Clarkston PTA Council and vice president of Bailey Lake Elementary PTA.