653 The Hole in the Wall

The TED Talk by Sugata Mitra turns educational thinking on its head and flips it up like pancakes and pizza! I first watched this last year after a conversation with my assistant principal, and at first Mitra made me angry that he said I (a teacher) wasn't needed -- I can be replaced by a little ol' granny "in the cloud" and an Internet connection.

Then I watched the talk again, and HEARD what he was saying.

The kids in Mitra's slums didn't need to pass a test at the end of three months or the school would get in trouble with the state. If they had, what would that have done to their receptiveness to learning? I don't know the answer to the Kids These Days complaint, but I can see a contributing factor for why my colleagues and I feel bound by the Victorian Educational Empire --it's called Accountability, and it's a real disease that has spread to every classroom across the country.

Mitra (2013) isn't the first researcher to say that the current educational system worked well for its original purpose, but that purpose has passed us. Ken Robinson talked in 2007 about school systems being responsible for the death of creativity, and Dr. Tae spoke in 2011 about how learning skateboarding tricks could transform grading and, thus, learning itself. These researchers, combined with Jane McGonigal (2010) showing us how gaming can save the world, should be a national wake-up call for educational systems to revamp their ideas of what a successful student behaves, learns, or lives.

I'm pretty sure, though, that there hasn't been a Revolution of Education. I'm pretty sure my sophomores complained for the millionth time since September that they had to write some sentences and use their brains a little today. I'm pretty sure I have conversations with other teachers at my school who voice their frustration over Kids These Days.

I'd love to throw my English students a problem and have them use literature and research skills to offer solutions to it. Like Mitra, Robinson, Tae, and McGonigal, I want my students to see education as a way to open doors to their futures. It's sad that the people making the decisions about students don't understand what they are doing.

Anyway, below is my first attempt at Sketchnotes. That's not really tech, but I wanted to try it and I think it helped me make connections between ideas --I didn't just remember the beginning and end of the talk, like can sometimes happen with students.

If you read this blog and haven't watched these TED Talks but care about education, you owe it to yourself to watch. I'd love to hear thoughts!