The following links connect to the idea of teaching children to become their own leaders in education. Some teachers may be uncomfortable with or find it controversial to give up their “power”, but the truth is we need to empower our students more. It is time for a shift in education where students are directing their education in a way that inspires and excites them. Please consider the following articles.
http://www.edutopia.org/ikid-digital-learner
http://www.edutopia.org/genyes
Please consider the following questions about the second article that I have linked: Turning the Tables: Students Teach Teachers
Questions to ponder:
- How can teachers incorporate the feedback of their students to enhance their learning?
- How can we partner together with our students to keep them inspired about their learning?
- What are the risks and benefits of turning our teaching “power” over to our students?
- How can we make our curriculum more student-friendly?
- This article discusses connecting to student-teachers, but how do we demonstrate the usefulness of this strategy to more “experienced” teachers, that may not be comfortable with the idea?
This topic is interesting because I have also noticed that children are more excitied about their learning when they have more of a say in it’s planning. Maybe brainstorming,with the children, ideas related to the curriculum would be a good way to start?
June 17, 2008 @ 3:42 pmI really found the second article interesting about how students are pairing up with teachers who are technology challenged to teach them how to teach their curriculum using technology. I think it would be really valuable as a teacher to ask thier students for suggestions in teaching different lessons about how one could make the learning more interesting in using technology. This may not always be feezable, but would be interesting to try out!
June 17, 2008 @ 3:47 pmHi Steph,
June 18, 2008 @ 7:55 pmEdutopia is great, isn’t it?
Do you think that student teachers or less experienced teachers are generally more open to inviting students to take more control over their learning than more experienced teachers? Are younger teachers generally more technologically open than older teachers, in your experience? It hasn’t been my experience. I have met many experienced teachers who are using technology in innovative ways, and engaging their students at a high level. Similarly, I have met some young teachers who are surprisingly ‘traditional’ in their thinking. Maybe there are reasons why teachers teach the way they that are unrelated to their age or experience.
Terrie,
Great point! I think that there are teachers of all experiences with hesitations about technology. The school that I am currently teaching at has a variety of these teachers. For the most part, I find less-experienced teachers are very open to the use of technology as it is very accessible at our school. Whereas, there are teachers who have been teaching for many years who see themselves as close to being “done” and have no interest in learning technology. I think it is our responsibility as teachers invested in technology to begin to introduce these teachers to technology in a way that is user-friendly and shows them how efficient it is.
June 19, 2008 @ 7:56 am