Ideas I am Still Formulating

Here are some ideas that I originally encountered two years ago while George Siemens was writing at elearnspace. The original post, Questions I'm no Longer Asking, is thought provoking enough, but I wanted to revisit and reinterpret what they mean to me today as I enter into a new role as curriculum coordinator here at Westlawn.

1. Learners should be in control of their own learning. Autonomy is key. Educators can initiate, curate, and guide. But meaningful learning requires learner-driven activity.

I try to use a creative commons search, but I get nothing.
For now I steal and borrow from Google Image Search.

This idea runs up against how the k-12 system is structured the second students walk into the classroom. It does not have to be this way. As soon as we make all of the 8-2 kids go to Math class and learn the exact same thing at the same time and in the same way we are taking away their autonomy. Of course they will not be interested they are not the architects of their learning at all. Even if a teacher assumes the overarching structure cannot be altered, a false and damaging assumption, they should still try to increase autonomy within the classroom as their number one goal and guide.

2. Learners need to experience confusion and chaos in the learning process. Clarifying this chaos is the heart of learning.

To the teachers at Westlawn: BE THE CAT!

Confusing students and creating dissonance within the minds of students sets the groundwork for an open mind that is ready to learn. Show them the broken pieces of their understanding and allow them to piece their own world together into something that is reasonable and comprehensible. Let them create their own understanding and check their understanding against the learning of their peers. Already this probably sounds great in theory, but it goes further than being a nice idea. As soon as we act on the truth that learning is why our classrooms exist then we can put aside the factory structure that prepares students to write a grade nine multiple choice exam.

3. Openness of content and interaction increases the prospect of the random connections that drive innovation.

Open it up, or think differently about what it means.

It is difficult to find an idea that is more opposed to current school culture than openness of content. Students need to know what they are learning, why they are learning it and they have the right to question it's relevance. Part of the reason why we have students closed off from the original content of what they are learning is because we, as teachers, don't always agree. If this post is starting to sound like it is against standardized curriculum that's maybe because it is. I didn't intend for it to be. I am testing my own ideas against those of George Siemens. What do you think? Comment below. 

I will let these last four ideas stand alone without comment. It is still summer after all. 

4. Learning requires time, depth of focus, critical thinking, and reflection. Ingesting new information requires time for digestion. Too many people digitally gorge without digestion time.

5. Learning is network formation. Knowledge is distributed.

6. Creation is vital. Learners have to create artifacts to share with others and to aid in re-centering exploration beyond the artifacts the educator has provided.

7. Making sense of complexity requires social and technological systems. We do the former better than the latter.