Disrupting Education

Lately a lot of people have been talking about disrupting industries.  If we want to seriously consider how we can disrupt our current educational model, we need to listen.

We need to listen to the likes of Clay Christensen who wrote a book about it, MIT's New Media Literacies has developed strategy guides to support it, David Wiley and the State of Utah who are opening up classes that will enable it, Mike Wesch who is using new media to reconsider how we address course content, and Bill Farren who is developing an online course around it.

In my last few posts I have been writing about changes that can be made to alter our educational landscape.  At the core of these changes is transitioning to a model based upon participatory learning:



This is an open classroom.  An open classroom is based upon the idea of participatory learning; connections between students and experts around the world as well as dynamic content, that is readily available to all, drives student inquiry.

Access

The power of this participation starts in the access to information.  With resources like iTunesU, Academic Earth, Courseware, Diigo, Google News, blogs via an RSS Reader, and Wikipedia, our students can find more information and sources on a topic than any teacher can provide in a lecture.  This access not only promotes inquiry, as students must find reliable sources and learn digital literacy skills, but it creates the potential to open a class to communities outside the four walls of a classroom.

Connection

We are social beings that want to learn.  When students can connect and participate with others while learning, they become intrinsically motivated.  If learning happens by students working together to draw conclusions or provide feedback, students interest increases.  With technologies like Ning, Skype, Wordpress, Twitter, YouTube, and Wikis, students are able to collaborate with their peers around the world, discuss issues with leading experts in order to develop their own ideas.  When learning can reach beyond the four walls of a classroom and there is meaning to the content as well as the personal connection to the outside world, a school can be transformed into a place where students want to learn.

Meaning

Today's technology creates opportunities to bring the masses together while making an impact.  In a world where transformative technologies are at tips of our fingers, it is all the more important to make learning meaningful.   When a class can work with a village in Africa to learn how AIDS has been decimating the population, students do not want to simply write an essay about the disease, they want to do something about it.  Our students are constantly connected and we can use these technologies to help make a positive impact.  It is this potential, the ability to bring meaning into learning, that can truly disrupt our current model of education.  When the wold is faced with countless problems, it is the fact that our students can help make a difference that will make learning meaningful.

Getting There

The technology is there, the need is there, what lacks is an understanding from educators.  It is our job, as those who get these ideas, to forget about giving presentations on Twitter.  Rather, talk about making our classrooms meaningful and why our students should connect to the world.  If we want to disrupt education, we must explain why before how.  We must open their eyes to a new approach to teaching, helping them to see this transformation.  The next time you speak to a peer or present to a group, do not focus on the technology, spend your time talking about an issue important to you and how your students can use technology can make a difference.

Photo Credit: Courosa
Alec Courosa is also on Twitter: @courosa