Teaching In The Next Way

Really awesome article. Thank you .

Around these parts I've actually had my daughter's teacher say they don't even use email because it takes to long and they didn't have a computer at home. The introduction of new teaching techniques unfortunately ends up have to be run through the NEA or other bureaucracies. Any time you get union or government bureaucracy in the way the adaption of anything new (especially if it works) will be severely delayed if at all implemented.

Thanks for pointing out the article.

Chris Kilber
www.ChrisKilber.com
Home of 101 FREE Traffic Generating Strategies

If teaching in the next way provides our children a digital intelligence advantage, then it means that as parents our first priority is to foster and facilitate that advantage. My own personal experiences with our educational authority is to see how they focus on the dark dangers of the internet rather than the absolute positive educational advantages.

They are driven by education professional groups such as unions and lawyers and even parents who seem to be the very epitome of the fear mongering media they must surely consume. So I believe that the best way of demonstrating the power of teaching in the next way is "PROOF IS IN THE PUDDING".

This does not mean that we are turning our backs on traditional education, it means that we are communicating possibilities where they count the most, in the lives of our children. Sure we as parents need to be vigilant about online behaviour but the P. that parents need to foster is "possibility" not "perversion".

I personally think that overdone fearmongering is a perversion, but the way to deal with fear is to face facts. The fact is that what is outlined here makes total sense with how my minds are configured or at least how our kids neural pathways are set to be changed in positive and profound ways because we are operating more smartly by utilizing the new possibilities education offers our kids in the digital age.

The first stopping point however is to focus on the word "Educate", just to remind ourselves what it really means and then build new forms of educational villages that emanate from our individual homes - then all those people stuck in the Plato Cave of Modern Education can begin to venture out and maybe see that education is a total relationship and the child is right bang in the center of that new form of relationship, or the "next way".

[Em]
GoAL #14

Schools fear the wrath of parents if the kids access inappropriate web sites during school hours (or at least that is the rationale that school boards in my area use). My argument is that if the students are taught the rules, the vast majority of these kids will be responsible digital citizens. School boards need to stop fearing the small percentage that will screw it up for others and start teaching kids what they need to know to survive in the 21st century!

Steve, my experiences equate with this "fearing the small percentage", but I would go further than teaching kids what they need to know to survive in the 21st Century but learning from kids themselves what they need to know to thrive in the 21st Century.

That means educating not lecturing, collaborating not confronting and that kind of learning applies to everybody in the system, including the person writing this note . . . most notably moi.

[Em]
GoAL #14

Em,
You are absolutely right. One of the best training sessions that I ever attended was when the trainer asked us what we knew about the subject and what we wanted to learn - he taught what we wanted/needed to learn. Teachers have to come to realize that teaching is not about curriculum; rather it's about teaching the student how to learn.

This is a good way of teaching because it involves everyone to contribute their part

The best teachers are those that teach their students how to learn. The problem is that there still are too many teachers that teach only the curriculum. Once a student understands how he/she learns best, the possibilities are endless.

This text from the interview leapt out at me:

"Q. Can you tell me what’s on college student minds these days?
A. It's not easy to get into Stanford or Berkeley these days. By the time I get them, students are highly trained grade-making machines. They want to know what's on the test. They are so institutionalized that they aren't even aware of it."

As a former teacher - I love envisioning the power of this strategy. Things have come a long way since my college days.

Can the kid be any closer to the laptop?

Another good reason to home-school! As parents it's part of our responsibility to make sure our kids grow up to be intelligent and responsible adults. Having them spoon fed by under-paid and poorly led people who seldom share our priorities and beliefs does the kids and society no good at all.

It was great experience of this interview.It is individualism versus collectivism is a toxically false dichotomy. Humans are humans because of our individual capabilities...Thanks for posting this topic here...