This past November, I had the wonderful opportunity to attend the Georgia Ed Tech Conference. The best presentation I heard happened to be the very first presentation on day one. Jaime Casap, the Chief Educational Evangelist at Google, gave an inspiring talk about changing the educational model from one with students regurgitating and memorizing facts to one that is inquiry driven. He stated that education is no broken but just needs to be tweaked. Advancements in technology have altered the way the new generation of students learn. Students, through open source materials, can be their own problem solvers. He stated that this shift should encourage us not to ask what our students want to be when they grow up but to ask what problems do they want to solve. (Video worth watching Jaime Casap National Conference Keynote 2016)
There are two reasons I make reference to Jaime Casap. The first is that I read an article by Grant Wiggins titled Great Teaching Means Letting Go. The second is that I watched a discussion led by Chris Lehmann focused of inquiry learning. Both of these media discuss the changing face of education and the need for educators to adapt to these changes. In the article, Wiggins discusses the need for students to transfer learned concepts and strategies to various situations. He emphasizes the importance of students working independently with the teacher’s role being one of inquiry asking students about “what they did, why, and what did and didn’t work” (Wiggins, 2016). In the podcast, Lehmann shares his belief that learning needs to be inquiry driven. Teachers need to ask questions that go beyond their own understanding and encourage students to do the same. Lehmann states technology has transformed teachers from being a source of knowledge to being mentors who build caring systems and structures to support student centered learning environments. Casap’s GAETC talk completely supports the ideas and beliefs shared by Lehmann and Wiggins. All three believe that good teaching need to be inquiry driven with Lehmann and Casap going further by including educational technology as a key component.
As I spend the summer weeks decompressing the 2017-2018 and then preparing for the 2018-2019 school year, these ideas are and will be at the forefront of my analysis and preparation.
It sounds like the Georgia Tech Ed Conference was an awesome experience! I like the mind shift of asking students "what problems they want to solve" instead of "what they want to be when they grow up?" I will have to keep this in mind when the new school year starts. The article from this week was great! Students need to be able to transfer what they have learned from the classroom to real-life situations, which is not an easy skill to teach! The video was great, as well. Inquiry learning is a technique that I use, in some aspect, quite often in the classroom. Incorporating it with technology is something I plan to work on this summer! Like you, I am going to analyze and prepare for the upcoming school year.
ReplyDeleteYou hit on some of the same points I did when reading the article by Grant Wiggins--Great Teaching Means Letting Go and the video by Chris Lehmann--Inquiry: The Very First Step In The Process of Learning. Both of them stressed the importance of helping students to become more independent thinkers when it comes to learning and knowing how and why they understand what has been taught. My experience with some teachers and myself included is that we try to make students learn and think a certain way by telling them how they should learn and think. Once teachers began to give students the space to think for themselves and find the best way for them to learn and retain what is being taught, I believe teachers will begin to see that teaching will become easier and little less stressful. Once I become a School Library Media Specialist and/or Instructional Technologist, I plan on incorporating more inquiry-based learning, not only for the students but the teachers as well.
ReplyDelete