Learning

Over 50 of us had dinner with the Minister of Education on Friday night. I wasn’t sure what to expect, and as many of you know, I’m highly critical of industrial education. After the speech, I didn’t have much to disagree with. If this government follows through on its vision and promises, then we may see some real changes that will help our children become active and contributing citizens.

Kelly Lamrock spoke about community schooling, local learning options, an innovation fund and co-op programs. He challenged local business and non-profit groups to get involved with their schools. I have accepted this challenge, and it helped that two school principals were sitting at my table. We will discuss how we can integrate the Atlantic Wildlife Institute into the curriculum and also how I can help teachers understand Web tools for learning. There is a real atmosphere of openness, that I have not sensed for the past decade.

From the government document, When Kids Come First:

In the world that awaits, one of the skills most in demand will be the ability to solve problems. Following instructions will be work done in low-wage economies, or by machines. The people who control their economic future will be the kids who went through school solving problems and challenging themselves, not just following instructions.

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And in that global world that awaits, our children will actually need a stronger sense of community than ever before. We’re not training — “we are teaching citizens, parents and leaders. That means we need to make our children feel anchored in a community where their actions touch the lives of others, where we give them a sense of our history, culture, languages and values — and a sense of belonging here at home.

I’m impressed with the government’s vision, knowing the challenges of changing a system that has been chugging along just fine for a century. I also know that all of us will have to get involved now, so that we don’t lose momentum. Many people will be threatened by changes to a more flexible and transparent learning environment, and at the first sign of difficulties reactionary forces will try to move back the clock. Carpe diem, New Brunswick.

The Milgram Experiments demonstrated that normal people can easily do nasty things to other people if an expert tells them what to do. The Stanford Prison Experiment showed that normal people act like sadistic guards when placed in a “prison-like” environment. Today, in New Brunswick, we are making our schools more like prisons. Video surveillance cameras will be installed in all high schools in School District 2.

Of course, we have been assured that the cameras will only be used ethically and in the best interests of the students; but power corrupts. No public consultations preceded this decision. Video surveillance is one more control tool to be used “against” students, without their consent. Treat people like prisoners and sure as anything, they will start to act like prisoners.

Alternatives to technologies of control are available, cheaper and more ethical. First, build smaller schools, where everyone can feel at home. The maximum number of students per school should be 150 [Dunbar’s number]. Getting all teachers out of the staff room and into the halls, interacting with students, might put a more human face on the institution as well. Give students increasing amounts of control so that by Grade 12 they are able to make their own decisions about curriculum, homework, study time, etc. The more control you have, the less you feel like a prisoner, isn’t that correct, Employee #12 in Cubicle Zone D?

It seems as if our education system is trying as hard as possible to disempower and alienate an entire generation.

The Minister of Education for the Province of New Brunswick will be meeting with people in our area on the topic of “Building an Educated Workforce for New Brunswick”. I’ve been thinking about this for the past few days and trying to collect my thoughts on public education. First of all, I’m not keen on the Minister’s chosen topic, because we need to focus on more than just an educated workforce, we need an educated and informed citizenry. That said, here are some threads I want to weave together and would appreciate advice on this, as I doubt that I’ll get more than five minutes to either ask a question or make a point.

Sense of Urgency: Rob Paterson made an excellent initial foray into recommendations for education on PEI and this comment resonates with me as well:

By 2015 over 50% of Islanders will be over 50. By 2030 50% will be over 65. We know for sure that every child will be precious and that we have to have as many young as possible who can be both good citizens and flexible. They don’t have to all be PHD’s – they have to be net contributors – they have to be like their great grandparents who also had to cope with a lot of change.

We have to ask a big question first. What kind of person needs to emerge from our school system that will enable us to get through the crisis of – the end of cheap oil, the end of commodity agriculture, climate change, a health care cost crisis, a world torn by conflict over religion, oil and water?

What is the product of our existing approach? Is it that most of kids will be able to cope or not?

The Technology Battles: Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach shows how disconnected our schools are from the reality of the Internet Age:

We have a generation of students arriving in our classrooms that are more and more comfortable with technology, in fact, more comfortable than we will ever be. And that makes many of us very uncomfortable, so uncomfortable that we react with banning and filtering rather than modeling how to connect with content experts and teaching responsible net citizenship.

From the Trenches: The resident experts on public education in our home, both teenagers, gave two pieces of advice for the Minister. One said to get rid of homework; “I actually like going to school, but the homework on top of classes is what ruins it”. The other just wants to have motivated teachers.

My own sense is that the current education system will remain as it is for the next decade at least, unless there is such failure that new approaches, such as abolishing schools, will be attempted. We are stuck with the current system, and many vested interests such as unions, administrators, bus services and dual-income families do not want to see major systemic changes. That said, I feel that a pragmatic approach, without destroying the school system, would be to allow for experimentation. Let motivated teachers, parents, businesses and non-profits get together and create options. The Minister needs to foster a climate of decentralized experimentation. Options include the International Baccalaureate program or cooperative training and education with the local community.

The great weakness of this industrial education system is that it is a monoculture, based on a standard curriculum, and like an agricultural monoculture is more susceptible to disease and rot. To prepare for a climate, society and economy that none of us can predict with certainty, we need diversity in our thinking and in our skills. No single system or approach can do that.

Janet Clarey and I will be facilitating a Bootcamp on Learning Technologies at the Brandon Hall Innovations in Learning Conference on 24 September. If you’re planning on attending the conference in Santa Clara (24-26 Sept), there’s still some room for this pre-conference session.

On a more social note, I haven’t heard about any beer tastings at this event, but there is a wine tasting on the last day. I’ll be arriving on the Saturday before the conference if anyone wants to get together. I think that this is going to be a lot of fun and it will be great to connect with the bloggers whom I’ve seen on the presenters list.

School is on in some parts of the world, like Texas, where Christian Long is returning to teaching. Our kids don’t go back to school until September 4th, but I was going through some saved RSS feeds and I came across these guideline on a post from last year titled Why we still need teachers, and it just seemed appropriate:

Rather than a minimally-guided problem-based learning approach, we see effective teaching when …

• The goals of teaching include facts, principles, process, and application
• Learning is interactive and not one-sided (wholly teacher- or student-focused)
• Learning from example and problem-based learning are not mutually exclusive
• The ties between theoretical and practical knowledge are explicitly looked for and taught if students don’t get them.
• The limits and assumptions of information and subjects are considered, and applications to the real world, constantly reinforced.
• Teachers are taught to be very aware of working memory demands of material – so they are able to provide organization or scaffolding for students unable to assimilate information or problem-solving steps.
• Finally, practice and instruction in problem-solving are given, so students don’t get all A’s, but later flunk life.

I wish all returning teachers and students good luck in the coming year and may you be passionate in your teaching and learning, because that is what really counts.