Posts » Education...What does the future hold

Education...What does the future hold

It has been some time since I have made any posts but I will now be making a concerted effort to post more regularly on various topics which I hope you will find interesting and pertinent to education.  The landscape of education is about to experience rapid change.  And although this may be frightening and stressful, I think it is timely.  If you walked into a classroom and made some observations today, you might note that there are many similarities in comparison to what classrooms looked like 25 years ago (I am speaking on a superficial level).  Although I would note that education professionals are more effectively trained in delivering differentiated instruction, technology integration, and best practices, there are still largely rows of desks where students are taking notes as the teacher delivers information.  The issue is however two fold:

1.  Students of today are not "programmed" to sit in rows and simply absorb information from teachers.  This generation is much more interactive and in need of multiple levels of stimuli in order to effectively learn.  Simply put, all the media outlets have changed our students from primarily auditory learners to visual learners.  Besides, society itself no longer operates this way.  We are in a global age where children are networking via electronic devices as early as the primary school level.  I have observed some very creative lessons involving all students using their electronic media devices (laptops, electronic notebooks, or even cell phones) and it is so incredibly apparent how much more interest and engagement the students demonstrate when this is done properly.  I applaud the teachers who have embraced this and incorporated it into their lessons.  We need more of this. 

2.  Learning needs to be a collaborative effort among not only the teacher-student relationship and parent-student relationship but also the student-student relationship, the student-technology relationship, and the student-community relationship and a combination of each of the aforementioned.  How is this accomplished?  I believe the answer is through, in part, project based research and hands on experimentation.  This is a lofty goal and one which would entail serious curriculum reconstruction but I would argue that the work is certainly worth the outcomes it will produce. 

In whole, the vision we have of what a classroom setup and school day used to look like, may be about to shift dramatically, if we can capitalize on our circumstances.  Through every hardship, there lies possibility.  This is an exciting time indeed.

Yours in Education,

Jamie Farr