The title of this post comes from an article written by Thomas G. Carroll nearly ten years ago! His article has really got me thinking. How would your students respond to the title of this post? How about teachers? Parents?
Educational leaders who are attempting to make change in their organization may want to use this question to guide discussions with various stakeholder groups. I would love to see these groups create plans for what model schools of today would look like . Once groups create these schools, the next couple of questions may be just as thought provoking.
Why haven't we changed to make our schools fit the design for schools that we have created?
How can we make our schools look more like the schools we created?
"The new and more powerful opportunity available to educators today is to use these technologies to help individuals collaboratively construct networked learning communities that will accelerate and help individuals collaboratively construct networked learning communities that will accelerate and augment the community's learning, as well as each individual's learning."
About the future of schools...
"But most schools and classrooms will no longer be the central learning hubs they are today. Today’s model of schooling is to bring the learner to the knowledge—tomorrow we will bring the knowledge to the learners. We must recognize that schools and classrooms are becoming nodes in networked learning communities. We must begin to think about how to organize learning in networked communities and not limit learning within the boundaries of classrooms and school buildings—which would be to limit our thinking to what has been possible in the past in a single school or node. "
"Our schools may become marginalized as learning places if they continue to focus only on knowledge transmission, while our workplaces, communities, and homes begin to take full advantage of modern communications and information technologies for knowledge adaptation and generation."
Educational leaders who are attempting to make change in their organization may want to use this question to guide discussions with various stakeholder groups. I would love to see these groups create plans for what model schools of today would look like . Once groups create these schools, the next couple of questions may be just as thought provoking.
Why haven't we changed to make our schools fit the design for schools that we have created?
How can we make our schools look more like the schools we created?
Although Carroll's article is nearly ten years old, he makes some strong points about technology. Here are some other quotes from the article that are great conversation starters.
About collaboration....
"The new and more powerful opportunity available to educators today is to use these technologies to help individuals collaboratively construct networked learning communities that will accelerate and help individuals collaboratively construct networked learning communities that will accelerate and augment the community's learning, as well as each individual's learning."
About the future of schools...
"But most schools and classrooms will no longer be the central learning hubs they are today. Today’s model of schooling is to bring the learner to the knowledge—tomorrow we will bring the knowledge to the learners. We must recognize that schools and classrooms are becoming nodes in networked learning communities. We must begin to think about how to organize learning in networked communities and not limit learning within the boundaries of classrooms and school buildings—which would be to limit our thinking to what has been possible in the past in a single school or node. "
"Our schools may become marginalized as learning places if they continue to focus only on knowledge transmission, while our workplaces, communities, and homes begin to take full advantage of modern communications and information technologies for knowledge adaptation and generation."
About the changing roles of students and teachers...
"We should stop calling these individuals “teachers” and “students” and start calling them “learners” instead. More than just a change of names, it is a change to a fundamentally different role. It is very different to be a “learner” than to be a “student” or a “teacher.”"
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