Monday, October 4, 2010

Elevating the Education Reform Dialogue: An Elluminate Session

So I just recently sat in on an Elluminate session hosted by FutureofEducation.com and Edutopia which presented speakers to talk about the issues in the educational system (mainly USA) and possible ways to reform current thinking.

I know there are probably other blogs out there that will summarize what each speaker said but the issues that Will Richardson and Julie Evans spoke about were the ones that I felt applied the most to the educational system in Canada.

Will Richardson talked about trying to incorporate technology into your pedagogy. If you want to talk about learning differently, it is hard to ignore talking about how technology can play a role in teaching. One of his points was "how to help kids become self-directed in a world where there is so much out there?". I can help but think about what we are learning about being the "guide on the side" and assessment AS/FOR learning. How we need to always give them that feedback, the ongoing gathering of information, to make sure they're doing it correctly, but always letting them self-regulate themselves. One final point in this is that teachers need to be learners themselves in this process because if they're not learning, then what are they going to be teaching?

Julie Evans slides related the most to our system here, her top 5 forces at work:
1.Changing value proposition of education,
2. parents want a greater say,
3. "one size fits all" teachers don't fit,
4. severe deficit of local leadership capacity,
5. today's learners have different expectations for learning.
These forces could not fit better than what they are teaching us in Teachers' College and trying to get us to become as educators. Assessment and evaluation in the curriculum were just revised, the government is trying to incorporate more assessment AS learning rather than OF learning. Free Agent Learners, self-regulation, assessment as learning... a lot of tie in with our own teachings here at BrockU.

One thing I think is the most important noun to get out of all of the talks is "community" without it, from the teachers, students, even parents educational reform will be difficult to achieve. It is especially disheartening to see how badly the media, networks, and "billionaire bullies" have represented the public American educational system. As Sir Ken Robinson says "Don't diagnose the problem. What are the solutions (alternatives) to them?"

1 comment:

  1. Chanthorn, I love how you ended the blog - with Sir Ken Robinson - am particularly impressed that you lasted that long (I was so excited to be part of a live chat with him). Your reference to community is exactly what this blog is about. You have begun your own network one that has no boundaries (geographically speaking). Keep Blogging. You are good at it!

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