I was informed by my good friend and education colleague Jason Richea, that Peel School Board in Ontario was doing a “blog hop” on the question, “Learning in the 21st century: What does it mean to you?”, so I decided to jump in and share my thoughts. If you want to see more of these posts, please check out Jim Cash’s blog with thoughts from others. To not bias my thoughts, I wanted to write before I read them, although Jason said it has to be limited to 100 words(ish). Here goes…
Education, even when I first started, seemed to be a lot more about the teacher, and a lot less about the learner. With developments in technology, especially the Internet, this practice has to change more now than ever. In our time, we have to realize that there is so much access to information, that we need to really empower the learner to not only take in information, but become flexible and adaptable to they create something new from it. From the sharing of ideas, comes new and better learning and creations. We have moved from a time where it is not simply about engagement, but about empowerment.
The real power now though in learning is not simply in websites, books, videos, or whatever else you can consume, but it is more about the access to each other. As educators, if schools are to be truly a place of learning, than the focus can’t simply be the stuff, but more importantly, the opportunities to learn anytime, anywhere, anyplace, and most importantly (and we often leave this out), from almost anyone. That’s the true power in learning today.
