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Slide Notes
We have access to 21st century technology but maintain an 18th century educational mindset; we live in a post-Instagram society yet still rely on pre-industrial educational principles. Although there has been undeniable progress in terms of our systems, our learning models have largely remained unchanged.
As the traditional landscape continues to shift, we need to push ourselves to lessen our assumptions about the way things are or ought to be and really rethink what we do, why we do it, and how we can actually begin to progress.
As the traditional landscape continues to shift, we need to push ourselves to lessen our assumptions about the way things are or ought to be and really rethink what we do, why we do it, and how we can actually begin to progress.
The Vaulted Heavens
Published on Nov 18, 2015
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The Vaulted Heavens
Educational Philosophy and Vision; Academica Virtual Education, 2014-15
We have access to 21st century technology but maintain an 18th century educational mindset; we live in a post-Instagram society yet still rely on pre-industrial educational principles. Although there has been undeniable progress in terms of our systems, our learning models have largely remained unchanged.
As the traditional landscape continues to shift, we need to push ourselves to lessen our assumptions about the way things are or ought to be and really rethink what we do, why we do it, and how we can actually begin to progress.
As the traditional landscape continues to shift, we need to push ourselves to lessen our assumptions about the way things are or ought to be and really rethink what we do, why we do it, and how we can actually begin to progress.
Photo by mugley
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The educational model to which we still obstinately cling today is three centuries old, first introduced under the reign of Prussian Emperor Frederick II in the 18th century...
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...with the intention of indoctrinating an obedient citizenry...
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...and to meet the needs of an increasingly industrializing world. The goal was to provide them with the skills they would need in mills and factories and to make them more content with their daily lots in life.
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Just to put the datedness of this model into perspective...when the model was first established, the French and British were still fighting for control of “New World” colonies
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...bloodletting was a common medical practice...
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...indoor plumbing was considered an extravagant luxury...
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...there was no such thing as electricity....
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...and the average life expectancy was only about 35 years old....meaning THIS GUY would have already lived over half his life
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This was the same exact model later adopted for American use in the 19th century by Horace Mann due to its strict hierarchy of power and the inexpensive ease of mass implementation.
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...which resulted in classrooms that looked exactly like this for centuries and still too often look exactly like this today.
In order to prepare students for a life in a factory, you need schools that look and function exactly like factories.
In order to prepare students for a life in a factory, you need schools that look and function exactly like factories.
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In this model, students are not only prepared for life in a factory but themselves become the products of those factories. They come to be seen as raw materials-- commodities that need to be refined and reworked in order to maximize their worth and ultimate appraisal value. From that point of view, as William Clubberly said in 1917, “Our schools are, in a sense, factories in which the raw products (children) are to be shaped and fashioned into products to meet the various demands of life.”
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But what happens when factories close and mass deindustrialization occurs?
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When workers go from this workplace...
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...to this one?
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Well, when factory lines give way to corporate cubicles, schools have a funny way of changing to meet the need...
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and in the process not really changing at all.
Indeed, meet the "future" of education. A virtual learning cubicle for every child!
Indeed, meet the "future" of education. A virtual learning cubicle for every child!
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Is it any surprise that students feel like this?
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But with the invention of the internet and the explosion of the Information Age, we now have access to fly to heights never before reached
Photo by Digital Vision.
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And yet all we do with our jet planes is tow them around the runway without ever really taking off.
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And the disconnect between the rhetoric of progress and the reality of our languishing practices is as bizarre as discordant as a clockwork orange.
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After the Wright bothers' revolutionary flight, journalist John Root commented on the "flying machine's" unlimited boundaries: "Its highway is God's free air; it has only the vaulted heavens above to fence off our domain.
Same goes for education and counseling in the Digital Age...only the vaulted heavens to fence us off...
Same goes for education and counseling in the Digital Age...only the vaulted heavens to fence us off...
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but then again, how can we explain to folks who have only traveled by wagon what it might mean to soar through the skies?
Photo by Thinkstock Images
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In following, it is time to define and declare our vision as educators and counselors and begin to implement practices that allow us to do exactly that...fly the plane instead of just drive it.
We don't just want you to know what to do...but how to actually do it well...and most importantly...to know WHY it is important to do it in the first place!
We don't just want you to know what to do...but how to actually do it well...and most importantly...to know WHY it is important to do it in the first place!
21st Century Educational Philosophy & Values
- Cultivate Spirit of Critical Inquiry & Intellectual Curiosity
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AVE's Philosophy and Values
1. Foster and cultivate a spirit of critical inquiry in the students. In doing this, the teacher will become more a facilitator and/or collaborator and will use interactive live sessions, discussion based assessments, and discussion boards to encourage active participation and help students connect with the subject matter presented.
1. Foster and cultivate a spirit of critical inquiry in the students. In doing this, the teacher will become more a facilitator and/or collaborator and will use interactive live sessions, discussion based assessments, and discussion boards to encourage active participation and help students connect with the subject matter presented.
Photo by Thomas Tolkien
THE BANKING METHOD
Most school teacher function more like "bankers" as opposed to educators, "depositing" knowledge in the skulls of their students.
This approach is problematic insofar as...
This approach is problematic insofar as...
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It treats student minds as if they're informational piggy banks, failing to recognize that...
Photo by 401(K) 2013
DECLARATIVE MEMORY
...students will forget 80-90% of everything we teach them because our instructional practices never bother to help students transfer information from intermediate memory banks into declarative knowledge centers in the brain.
Photo by Digital Vision.
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...that's of course if they ever learned anything in the first place
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Instead, we believe in using problem-posing methods...challenging students to think critically about real-time problems and focus on practical but innovative solutions.
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We want them to analyze the deepest microfibers of an issue or problem...
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...and then be able to pull themselves back to see the whole picture
Photo by Thomas Northcut
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...and scrutinize it under the most intense microscope.
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...to clearly observe what is on the surface...
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and then discover the complexity buried beneath
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To see things as they are...up close and personal...
21st Century Philosophy & Values
- Cultivate Spirit of Critical Inquiry & Intellectual Curiosity
- Stimulate Excitement & Personalize Connections to Subject Matter
AVE's Philosophy and Values
2. Differentiate instructional and counseling strategies and tailor the curriculum to meet the needs, interests, and strengths of the learners while heading them make personal connections with the subject matter. Educators will use a variety of instructional and evaluation strategies such as: project and performance based assessments, summative assessments, group and individual discussions, and cooperative group learning/collaborative assignments.
2. Differentiate instructional and counseling strategies and tailor the curriculum to meet the needs, interests, and strengths of the learners while heading them make personal connections with the subject matter. Educators will use a variety of instructional and evaluation strategies such as: project and performance based assessments, summative assessments, group and individual discussions, and cooperative group learning/collaborative assignments.
Photo by Thomas Tolkien
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Kids are surrounded by video games, technology, and media that looks like this...
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...and this...
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...and we somehow are naive enough to be surprised when our students are less than impressed when we give them this.
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...or have the audacity to get angry at them when they do this.
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"KIDS THESE DAYS!," we say. Something is horribly wrong with this generation.
Then again, we said the same thing...
Then again, we said the same thing...
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...20 year ago...
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...and 30 years ago...
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...and 50 years ago...
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and 60 years ago...
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...and 90 years ago...
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...and well over a century ago before the term "teenager" ever even existed.
21st Century Educational Philosophy & Values
- Cultivate Spirit of Critical Inquiry & Intellectual Curiosity
- Stimulate Excitement & Personalize Connections to Subject Matter
- Engender Student Feedback, Interactivity & Collaboration
3. Create opportunities for students to take an active role in their own educations. Students learn best when they feel they have a voice. Learning opportunities are most meaningful when students can respond directly to teachers, collaborate with other students, and constantly share and weigh in on their perspectives, beliefs, and individual values.
Photo by Thomas Tolkien
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This generation of kids has been connected since before their umbilical cords were even disconnected
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They have been raised with a "meta-awareness" of themselves...a life without privacy..a life constantly on display...
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...a life constantly performed and posed and desirous of feedback, response, and engagement.
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They live online, surfing waves of viral trends and fads
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ANd they have opinions and experiences that need to be heard, shared, posted, tweeted, blogged, and commented upon.
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They have access to make their opinions, beliefs, reactions, perceptions, and ideas public at all times--fromthe semi-profound to the downright banal.
Photo by birgerking
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So when we lecture and don't ask them to comment, respond, give their two cents, shape the conversation, comment on what's happening, and recognize their individuality, is it any wonder that we just end up soundling like "Bueller, Bueller, Bueller" to them?
Our philosophy & values
- Cultivate Spirit of Critical Inquiry & Intellectual Curiosity
- Stimulate Excitement & Personalize Connections to Subject Matter
- Engender Student Feedback, Interactivity & Collaboration
- Nurture Self-Directed, Life-Long Learners
4. Cultivate self-directed and responsible 21st century life-long learners through the thoughtful use of interactive, media-rich educational opportunities in flexible, student-centered, virtual learning environments. In doing this, we will invest in the notion that teachers are not present to transmit information to students but to inspire them to take ownership of their own life-long quest for greater and deeper knowledge.
Photo by Thomas Tolkien
Our philosophy & values
- Cultivate Spirit of Critical Inquiry & Intellectual Curiosity
- Stimulate Excitement & Personalize Connections to Subject Matter
- Engender Student Feedback, Interactivity & Collaboration
- Nurture Self-Directed, Life-Long Learners
4. Cultivate self-directed and responsible 21st century life-long learners through the thoughtful use of interactive, media-rich educational opportunities in flexible, student-centered, virtual learning environments. In doing this, we will invest in the notion that teachers are not present to transmit information to students but to inspire them to take ownership of their own life-long quest for greater and deeper knowledge.
Photo by Thomas Tolkien
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Back in the day, when you didn't know something you could just "ask dad" whether or not he knew the answer or more often just made one up.
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Or maybe we were lucky enough to have that dust-covered volume of Encyclopedia Brittanica's rotting away on our family room shelves.
Photo by jev55
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Maybe we grew up at a time where we could spend 3 hours just trying to get online while hoping mom didn't pick up the phone and disconnect us.
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...or getting online only to get invited into some creepy underage chat room.
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Maybe we could search for limited information on the many now defunct browsers that rarely led us to the information we actually needed.
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Traditionally, when we graduated school...
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...that meant the end of our learning.
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But with the invention of Google and the explosion of the Internet, that all changed...
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and the end no longer seemed so final...but just the beginning to a lifelong learning journey.
It changed the ways teachers needed to behave...not as the sole source of knowledge in a community...not necessarily as subject expert..but as a guide, a source of inspiration and support as students begin to seek out their own answers amidst an ever expanding ocean of information.
It changed the ways teachers needed to behave...not as the sole source of knowledge in a community...not necessarily as subject expert..but as a guide, a source of inspiration and support as students begin to seek out their own answers amidst an ever expanding ocean of information.
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But this requires more than the online equivalent of sending kids to a library and telling them to learn themselves
Photo by dfulmer
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It means we have to guide them, and provide them with multiple perspectives, information sources, and knowledge banks...and help them analyze and interpret the relative strength of arguments...to differentiate fact from fiction, speculation from evidence.
21st Century Educational Philosophy & Values
- Cultivate Spirit of Critical Inquiry & Intellectual Curiosity
- Stimulate Excitement & Personalize Connections to Subject Matter
- Engender Student Feedback, Interactivity & Collaboration
- Nurture Self-Directed, Life-Long Learners
- Encourage Personal Responsibility & Global Citizenship
5. Encourage personal responsibility and a sense of local and global citizenship.
Photo by Thomas Tolkien
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Connected to others at the farthest reaches of the earth, we ironically feel more isolated and alone than ever
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And when we do connect, we're meaner than ever...
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...and the cruelty of our words, uttered safely from behind our computers, still hurt just as much and still have unthinkable consequences.
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But what if we used technology to inspire individuals instead of break them down...to build unity instead of instigate discord.
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and to power a revolution, to transform the world by preparing young people to be the kinds of ethical, principled, and innovative leaders that we have failed to be ourselves on their behalf.
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In the end, we can hold up the mirror to our students' faces...asking them to see themselves for who they are and who they can be.
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but who of us will dare to hold the mirror up to our own faces...and ask ourselves what we are doing...how we are going to do it better...and why it is truly important that we not give up in trying.
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Activity:
Please read the following statements and decide if you "Strongly Agree," "Agree," "Disagree," or "Strongly Disagree." Why?
1) Students should not be responsible for their own learning because they will not likely want to learn.
2) The education students receive today is better than what I received.
3) Students today are not ready for the work place or to compete at the next level.
4) Technology is making the lives of students harder, not easier.
5) The primary goal of an educator should be to cultivate well-rounded people and not worry so much about student examination scores.
Please read the following statements and decide if you "Strongly Agree," "Agree," "Disagree," or "Strongly Disagree." Why?
1) Students should not be responsible for their own learning because they will not likely want to learn.
2) The education students receive today is better than what I received.
3) Students today are not ready for the work place or to compete at the next level.
4) Technology is making the lives of students harder, not easier.
5) The primary goal of an educator should be to cultivate well-rounded people and not worry so much about student examination scores.
