As I was walking through several schools today, I noticed objectives and goals that could have been the same when I went to school. How we get there today and what they mean, may be different, especially as we learn more about pedagogy, but also connect learning and opportunities to the changes that have happened/are happening in our world.
Here are some questions that I have that are pushing my thinking.
If we promote students learning in a “safe” environment, do we mean only in school or in learning? Does ignoring technology in a world where we learn so much from “strangers” keep our kids truly safe?
If we want students to be literate, what does that look like today in schools? How does it go beyond basic “reading and writing”?
If a school has a focus on “citizenship”, how does a world where we are all connected to one another change what that looks like?
If parent participation is beneficial to the learning of a child, how do we use technologies that are easily accessible to both schools and parents to tap into our community?
If you look at the key components of each question, they are the following:
1. Keeping Kids Safe.
2. Promoting Literacy
3. Citizenship and Social Responsibility
4. Parents as Partners in Education
If I would have shown you those as objectives in a school in 1980, they might not look any different in the wording, but in practice, they look significantly different. I was taught over and over again how to cross the street so that I could access what was on the other side, but do we teach kids how to keep their information safe while they are connecting to others across the world? The idea of “safe” has changed.
There is a lot of areas where schools have changed, but some of the objectives are the same. How do we make sure that we are keeping up with what our students need for today and tomorrow?
What do you think?
