“If we teach today as we taught yesterday, we rob our children of tomorrow” John Dewey
It always seems so daunting whenever embarking on change, especially if it is an entirely new concept or skill that you have not mastered, yet… However, the key to personal success is to embrace a growth mindset. So take a deep breath and dive straight in, even if you are scared with both eyes shut tightly. As when you come out of the other end, you may be so glad that you did.
This week’s learning topic based on Learning Design was a great start to the Technology Innovation in Education course.
The documentary film “Most Likely to Succeed” http://webapp.library.uvic.ca/videos/view.php?vfn=Most-Likely-To-Succeed-(2015).mp4 really opened my eyes to a new system of education that deeply resonated with me. The current school system embedded in our society is based from an industrial model that was created under a totally different context in the 1890s. Where standardized skills created for factory workers are the inspiration for today’s standardized testing of students in our schools, a one size fits all model.
Reimagining education like in High Tech High, mirrors the needs of the changing world and creative economy. High Tech High supports their students to be educated citizens of the world, fostering curiosity and passion while focusing on helping to build important soft skills, rather than copying and pasting students to all be the same. Although change can be scary, reimagining the education system only makes sense in today’s world.
What excites me are the possibilities of alternative education systems, knowing that real change in the world can happen and that change makers truly exist locally in Victoria, British Columbia with Pacific School Of Innovation & Inquiry https://psii.ca/. Pacific School of Innovation & Inquiry approach to learning and teaching is unlike the traditional school system that we know today. The shape of their learning path is a combination of an emergent curriculum, where students inform their own unique learning and the common BC curriculum.
Jeff Hopkins, Co-Principal and Teacher of PSII spoke on “Education as if people mattered” during a TEDx Talks https://www.youtube.com/embed/5O5PK6LsymM?si=v-XFLADWl1U14zjT&start=3 of how education should not simply be about just filling a pail, but rather it should be about igniting a flame from within to make sense of the world. That the education system today is more about knowing about something, rather than actually learning and knowing it.
Although, change can be scary I believe that sometimes taking risks to try something new can lead to results that you would never knew existed. So maybe it is time to not just reimagine the education system, but to place action and change it. For those who are scared of change just like I was at the start of this course, take a deep breath and dive straight in, you may be so glad that you did.
Amy