Hacking Education: My Inspiration
I want to share some resources that have helped mold my thinking about learning and education, but mostly, inspire me to search for new ways to hack education. Below are 3 brilliant hacks. One hacks how we think about education and it’s goals, the second hacks the execution of education, and the last hacks some long held assumptions about learning. These educators and researchers can readily be found online, but the TED talk 20 minute requirement(hack) seems ideal for effectively competing for your attention. 3 videos, 20 minutes each = 1 hour. 1 hour… it’s worth it.
Sir Ken Robinson: Do schools kill Creativity?
If not funny, which it most certainly is, it’s filled with curious insights and view of our future. Some include:
- Our conception of education and intelligence is limited if not wrong. Intelligence is diverse, dynamic, and distinct.
- No one knows what the future will be like and yet we’re trying to educate children for it.
- Creativity is as important as literacy.
- You won’t create anything if you’re afraid to be wrong. Kids will take a chance, they’re not frightened of being wrong, but are educated out of that ability. “We get educated out of creativity.”
- We must educate their whole being, discover what they love and are good at, then support them in this pursuit.
My Thoughts on Applications:
- Focus more on creation and not just learning.
- Encourage children to be ever more creative to negate the effect of education.
Dave Eggers: Once upon a school
Dave Eggers shows us how we can use our unique talents and time to create meaningful learning experiences. Dave is a writer, so naturally he focused on providing writing opportunities for kids. I can envision the model being used for other areas including art, science and technology.
Eggers talks about:
- how he created common space for writers to work and tutoring center for students.
- helping students to actually “create” things… not just learn.
- Leverages volunteers expertise and flexible schedules. It doesn’t require traditional school resources and therefore not dependent on educational system.
- Create and leverage volunteer network to work with students in schools on “deep” projects. Teachers ask for x number of volunteers. The word would go out to network. Volunteers show up.
- how some schools created dedicated volunteer room that was constantly staffed with volunteers.
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My thoughts on applications: Dave lays out the blueprint in the video.
- apply to technology… create “labs” where technology professionals can assist children in writing software, building and repairing computers, tinker with electronics and start technology companies!
- do not limit to any particular school… focus on community, not school
Sugata Mitra: Can kids teach themselves?
Do we need teachers? Well, Yes. But we need to redeploy their talents. Why? Because, amazingly, Kids teach themselves. Mitra speculates that “learning” is a self-organizing system, and in my experience, I agree.
Mitra’s “hole in the wall” experiments show us that:
- The more remote the villiage, the poorer the academic performance - no surprise
- However, performance does not correlate with infrastructure, class size, poverty levels, availability of electricity etc. Wow! What then?
- Teacher motivation appears to correlate more… Most teachers surveyed wanted to move out of these improverished areas… clearly a lack of motivation.
- Educational Technology “appears” to not work because it’s typically
1. piloted in affluent urban schools, which dampens efficacy. We often consider them failures when we don’t observe dramatic positive results.
2. reaches affluent kids before underprivileged ones
3. improvements at the bottom of the scale are proportionately higher than at the top
Marvel as dozens of children in impoverished towns learn how to use a computer, surf the internet, learn hundreds of english words and teach each other with nothing more than a single computer in a “hole in the wall”.
Thoughts on Applications:
- to raise the average level of computer literacy, do not cater to the common denominator. Typically, schools provide “one size fits all” technology education. Instead, identify students with limited competency and emmerse them in a tech filled environment. Focus on advanced students too, by identifying new ways to challenge them.
- focus on giving students access to technology. Simply making the technology available will go a long way.
- change class formats to give kids time to learn and create. The typical 45 minute class is not enough. Computer access needs to be for hours at a time.
- encourage peer learning. Offer credit for assisting other kids with learning. Let children collaborate and share ideas.
So what’s next? Share some of your education hacks… also follow the discussion on twitter. Follow my journey on Twitter at http://twitter.com/martinruiz
Also Read Technology Plan for a Technology School
