Educational conference in New York city
The #140conf event in New York City aims to look at the effects of the real-time web on Education. To date, the #140conf events have provided a platform for: students, elementary and secondary school teachers, college professors and high school principals. I followed this conference via Twitter this summer and saw some of the lectures in real time. Here is the keynote by Chris Lehmann. In his keynote he addresses the following issues:
The Power of Collaboration
It is a wonderful time to be a student right now. If the teachers take advantage and facilitate collaboration between students. Schools should teach students how to learn, and answer questions like “how do I make sense of the world”. School should help students learn to live and learn. And show how connections are vital to learning. They can do this by empowering the students and making them able to see the importance of connections. Schools should not only care about students, but care for students! All students should have an advisor and there needs to be a structure for this care. And teachers; start saying I teach students, not I teach a subject! Ask the students questions you don’t know the answers to. Start by asking; what do you think, how do you feel? Students should learn how to seek out questions and and solve problems. Learn that ideas and answers can change as you grow and change. That is okay. Talking and listening is important! He recommends reading The Dialogic Curriculum: Teaching and Learning in a Multicultural Society.
Personalized learning
When students are learning the exact same content at a different phase; that is not personalized learning. Students need to work on topics they care about. Otherwise it is not personal. We should leverage the technology and tools in order to do this. And unlock students’ passion. Project based learning does not end with a test. That is test based learning with projects along the way to keep students happy. If you hand out a project and get 30 exact same answers back that is not project based learning either. That is recipe based learning. The students have to own the projects they work on and it has to be relevant and meaningful. When introducing new technology teachers should share what they know, not how. The students can figure that out on their own.
Watch the 34 minute lecture here: