There is a description of the world in Orson Scott Card’s “Tales of Alvin Maker” series that has always stuck with me, and can be applied to how I view “21st Century Learning.” Card describes (from an orbiting perspective) the uneven pace of technological development throughout the centuries between Europe and North America. With every rotation of the Earth, the European continent goes through massive changes (environmental, technological, political) where North America appears to be almost asleep, or at least in a daydream. The novels are (in part) an examination of the culture clash of these two very different stories.
How would that “eye-in-the-sky” view the last 200 years? And the last 20? I think it would see that initially European “wave” sweep over the world. And following the initial wave, a couple more world-wide “tsunamis” that swept more and more of that pre-19th Century world smaller and smaller. And in the last 20 years? The waves of changes don’t seem to have any barriers. And with each new idea, technology, app, viral video, the last outcroppings are broken down even further. (see Arab Spring).
This world (for better or worse) is smaller than ever before. Everything that happens affects everyone. The 21st Century Classroom needs to place that idea at the centre of learning. The entire world can change at any time. Based on something that happens 10,000 km away. Or, more importantly, based on something that might happen in my classroom today!
So Neil, how would that look in a school or classroom in your community? How would that sense of the world as a dynamic and connected ecosystem affect the way that you plan your curriculum, the tasks that you design and the way that you engage your students?
First, I would eliminate any curriculum that doesn’t connect with the rest of the world. Of course, I guess almost all curriculums (?) can be connected but I would focus the instruction/projects/learning on its worldwide ramifications. And to go along with that, I need to make sure the ideas in the classroom are always focused on their present-day (or future-day) significance. As a History Major, I am able to study the past, just to study the past. But even for me, the real fun of studying History was to connect to the present day situation.
I try to make the thematic connections between what we are studying as explicit as possible. This year, the task has been a lot easier because I teach almost every subject to the same class.
So, 21st century learning as global thinking? Global citizenship? This idea provides an opportunity to finally begin to turn our schools inside out…
The more I think about what is the “key” difference in our present society to those before, I keep coming back to the concept of “speed”. It’s just so fast. An idea, product, video, industry, can appear and disappear in a year/month/ week/day. Remember when movies were judged by how many weeks in theatres (or number 1)? Now, it’s just how much they made in the first weekend. There is just no time.
Speedy, indeed! The problem is that our response to this “speeding up” has been to try to “keep up”. And I emphasize “try” because there is NO way to keep up with these changes. I work in the technology industry, full time – and I learned almost 20 years ago already that NO ONE can keep up with it all.
Almost two years ago, I started having my kids with me 50% – and for the first time ever, I had a completely silent house for a week at a time! For the first time in a LONG time, I was alone. With myself. With my thoughts. And it was the most profound (and necessary) shift for me!
At first, I was unimaginably lonely and anxious. I turned the stereo on. I hid in bed and slept. I tried to keep busy. But gradually, I learned to be still and quiet. To listen. To slow down and stop rushing around to fill the silence or try to keep up.
I had to cultivate trust in myself – that I could (and would) learn what I needed to learn, handle what came my way, find my way through. That, alone, is changing me and my world.
I wonder, how do our classrooms (and homes) give kids opportunity to be silent? To honor self reflection and the time to “make meaning” of all of this knowledge hurtling at us at top speed?
What if we CHOOSE not to play the “keep up” game? What would that do?
In response to Neil and Heidi, both of your ideas are similar to me. My current interest in teaching how to teach reading when there are so many variables. Like you Neil one of the most important ways we can slow everything down for deeper learning and to recognize that community is family, class, nation, globe. Research right now tells us that one of the best ways to develop reading proficiency is to have students read common text, discuss and collaborate. Heidi, I totally agree that skimming and scanning in our fast-paced world will only take us so far. I think we need to explicitly teach how to unplug, learn deeply, and then share that learning.