A need for real change.....

They say there are two givens in life -  death and taxes. However in the world we live in, most people would agree that change should be added as the 3rd given.

Yet how often do we resist or fight change that is positive simply because of a fear of the unknown. In education we would probably be viewed as one of those institutions most resistant to change when in fact our role in society  -  to prepare our students for the world they are living in, demands we be responsive to changes in that world.

Our children born in the last 10 years ( let's be generous) are digital citizens. Their world is one of computers, smart phones, youtube, social media, Google... you could add many more. Yet as schools we are only just coming to realise the students we teach no longer engage with the methodologies of the past.  Why ? Partly because they can access their learning 24/7 and partly because the new technologies they have access to outside school are more engaging in an increasingly media centric world.

Imagine for a moment what this might have looked like in a 1960’s school. Children of the time live in a world of pencil, paper, radio and a little broadcast television. They arrive a school to find that these things are forbidden. Writing on slates is the only way children could record their writing.... Are you getting the picture. There would have been a revolution.

Back to today’s school. How much longer can we delay introducing the technologies that our children use at home into our schools. In a world where many older students are increasingly seeing school as an irrelevant part of their lives, schools effectiveness in preparing our children for the world they live in is at risk - unless we embrace the need to change both the way we teach  and the technologies we use.

Yes, there are some hurdles to jump. Cost of devices, equity of access,  security of equipment. These are not insurmountable obstacles. The longer we delay the inevitable, the more our learners will find schools as we know them, increasingly irrelevant.