You cannot ignore this. You cannot ignore us. The revolution has begun and we have tasted the power.
In contrast to the consumer generations before us, my generation is growing up a generation of producers. We are the YouTube/LiveJournal/Facebook generation. Mass media which has long been a one-to-many institution, allowing only the big and wealthy to transmit their messages, is turning into the many-to-many world of the internet and cheep consumer devices.
Whether it is posting videos taken on cell phones to youtube or photos taken on pocket-sized cameras to facebook. our generation expects to be able to broadcast their messages. We expect to be able to create and to share.
And, it is this expectation that makes our generation different. We are no longer content to be consumers of information. That is, we are no longer content to consume an education. To connect with today’s students, you must not only teach them, but encourage them to teach back.
It requires a flat classroom, one where students are first class citizens and are engaged in the activity of learning, not simply an audience.
Project-based learning, one-to-one programs, insert education buzzword of the month here, aren’t enough. The change has to be deeper.
Failure to innovate around this new structure will cause education to take an increasingly marginalized role in the lives of our students.
But, I don’t need to explain this to you, you already know it. So, what’s the wait?
Godspeed.
We are not ready to replace what is missing with robots. There’s going to be a point that will feel like when you’re expecting another step but all you find is air... and I’m predicting that it’s going to revolutionize the cushioned way of life that a lot of people are living.
By the way, does anybody see a sort of global pattern? Where education prevails, development falters. Europe and, more recently, America are perfect examples of this. On the other hand you’ve got places of abject poverty and blossoming populations. China, India. I don’t know if its because they’ve got a further way to go to reach international standards, or if it is their immense workforce and drive to move forwards.
Sort of like the Olympics - inevitably, the nation with the largest population is bound to trump the others (eventually)
Also wondering what your thoughts might be for educators who sense the changes that are afoot, but might lack the guidance and community needed to support the innovations you describe?
I’ve often thought that if someone is disciplined enough they could actually teach themselves virtually any trade or subject just by gathering quality content online. Engaging and working with others to learn can especially solidify this process. Though you learn in college, I feel almost any Tom, Dick or Harry can get a degree and graduate with virtually no knowledge or talent. However in today’s society it is necessary to have that stamp of credibility and “Your Deemed Competent by Society Sticker” aka a diploma (Which I recently have obtained)
Anyways...on the note of students helping students check out http://GroupTable.com it’s a site I co-founded to help fellow students form online study groups, manage group projects and other groups. It’s free and we’ve gotten a great response from people so far.
Given that, my question to Anthony is Where’s the Beef? .
Show me a Student 2.0.
George Hotz is one, he hacked the iPhone as a summer project. It got him all the “certification” he could have hoped for from a university degree. Where are the others?
If Student 2.0 is needing some help getting started, beyond twittering and naval gazing in a blog, then let me suggest some ideas:
The UN has a mechanism for people to ask for or become volunteers on projects. Joan Oviawe used it to start the Grace Foundation.
MIT’s ThinkCycle Project (currently offline Oct 8/08) is described here in the context of how the idea might play out in a land grant university.
Or you can find your own problem and build a community around it as Margo Tamez demonstrates in her work on the US-Mexican border.
Want help thinking this through? Ask. We’d like to see more Students 2.0.