The Independent Project touched a nerve in me. I wish I had the chance to be in that learning environment. I can just imagine that my life would be quite different. How did some teacher who doesn't even know me manage to get the power to decide what the content of my mind should look like? How dare they?
How dare I follow in their footsteps?
The standards of our educational system do generate a culture of silence. They silence our spirits, they blunt our edges, they limit our creativity. This sounds like torture, but somehow this is exactly what high school looked like for me and probably still looks like for many others. The relationship of teacher and learner seems to be doomed to stay static for ever.
A week ago I was pretty sure that teachers will not be replaced by technology, and I still kind of feel that way. But I think teachers are going to be replaced by teenagers. I actually kind of hope teachers will be replaced by teenagers. It's scary to think that it is possible. Kids deciding what they want to learn about? What does that mean for grades? What is an A and what is a fail? How will textbooks cover anything and everything? Will the learning be deep enough? How do universities decide if you know enough to become a certain somebody? Will certain somebodies still exist? Will degrees still exist?
Lines blur and my head starts hurting. This way of doing will disrupt society in a way we will never be able to imagine. It sounds wonderful and magical and chaotic, but I believe innovation is born from chaos.
To come back from this tangent, what does this mean for teachers? Where do we start? How do we use our tools? We need to connect students with questions, with information, with sources, with other students across the world. We need to teach them skills to navigate their own knowledge journey, wherever that may lead them. And most importantly, we need to support their endeavours. We need to make them feel okay with the notion that not everyone needs to be the same type of intelligent.
We need to open our minds and open our classroom to the world. We need to take a back seat in the lives of our learners and let them guide us to where they want to be. We should be backseat drivers, pointing out possible accidents or helping to decide what turn to take when they come to a junction. We as future teachers should stop thinking that teenagers will die without us, They really won't. They might actually not just exist, but thrive. Why does that scare us so much? Maybe because our role might change drastically or that we may even not be needed. That might just suit me, because I don't want to be a teacher that limits someone.
I would rather just get out of their way.
I really liked your post and the fact that technology enables our learners to become so much more scares me as well. Though I'm about 99% sure that teachers won't be replaced by technology and as you say, we should be part of their journey to discovery. They might know about the technology and may like it once they discover it, but we need to help them with this- same as Mr. Knoetze helped as to discover more about ourselves and our profession by forcing us to read up on articles and post our blogs. I hope that you will be a part of the change driving force when you are a teacher next year.
ReplyDeleteGood blog. I found it reads somewhat difficult with the white writing and white background.
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