To be a student centered school we must first know and understand our students, where they come from and the learning tools they are most familiar with. We also need to know what motivates them to learn and what challenges they will face when entering the work force of tomorrow. Schools are about transitions. All great middle schools prepare students to enter high school as high schools prepare students to become lifelong learners. If high schools are preparing students for the next stages in life after graduation then what skills will students need to be successful? That is the driving question behind most research now being generated in an effort to improve education.
Research has shown that too many students are disengaged and alienated from school, and see little or no purpose to their education. Business leaders say there is a widening gap between the skills of the workforce and the needs of businesses seeking competitive advantage. Additionally, technology and the networked era threaten to stretch the already-wide equity gap in education unless there is decisive intervention and a strong public agenda.
In 2001, a little over a decade ago Marc Prensky began to bring ideas to the forefront about a new generation of students. In a landmark article entitled "On the Horizon" Prensky popularized the terms “digital native" and "digital immigrant". What he portrayed in these terms was the idea that there is a gap between generations as they experience and learn from the evolution of technology. What can also be suggested from these terms is that technology may be creating an ever widening gap between each generation.
For those who are in the business of education becoming aware of these gaps may be the starting point. A starting point that immerses the educator in the learning tools of the millennial student. In other words bridging the gap may mean to learn as our students learn. To say the least, "If we are to be missionaries of learning then get among the natives." Learn as the natives learn means building your campfires with the tools the natives use. Visit the watering holes where collaboration is ongoing. Hangout in the caves of posted hieroglyphs of creative thought. Nothing about what we say is primordial as the natives become restless they show us a new way to become engaged.
In Prensky's On the Horizon article he highlights the 21st century student by advocating for a change in the current educational system. A system he says is not designed for today's learners. Prensky's professional focus is on helping reform K-12 education, particularly by helping teachers change their pedagogy in ways that are more effective for 21st century students. In this change of pedagogy he promotes a passion led, problem-solving-methodology-based curriculum.
As you can see in the picture a representation of what might exist today through the evolution of technology tools. By just simply saying that it is in the understanding of differences in age as it applies to the understanding of technology that create a gap in tool consumption may not necessarily fulfill what is needed in the transition. As Prensky puts it the Digital Immigrant teacher assumes that learners are the same as they have always been, and that the same methods that worked for the teachers when they were students will work for their students now. But that assumption is no longer valid. Today’s learners are in fact different. These differences are what teachers complain about. These are the students who are less engaged in traditional learning. On the other side of the flipped coin may be the answer. It is what the student is saying about their traditional learning experience.
“Every time I go to school I have to power down,” complains a high-school student. It may not be that Digital Natives can’t pay attention, or that they choose not to? Often from the Natives’ point of view their Digital Immigrant instructors make their education not worth paying attention too. These comparisons are made from everything else the Native experiences – and then as educators we blame the student for not paying attention!
So how do schools continue to operate on a conveyer belt of standards. Those standards that have no relevancy to the next generation of learners. A generation of learners that need and thrive on collaboration, creativity and the development of higher order thinking skills. After all is that not one of the central ideas that education strives for, to produce the creative expansion of newer and better ideas. In fact Don Tapscott in his recent book "Grow Up Digital" takes the theme a bit further by overstating the idea that the current education system is designed as a one size fits all system.
To say that a one size fits all system of education may now be slipping away from the grasp of governmental reform of No Child Left Behind may well be the case. In fact David Berliner states that there is growing evidence from all over the country suggesting that it is not uncommon for 20-60 school days per year to be spent in test-preparation activities.
Children can certainly be trained to answer questions a certain way if they are drilled enough on items like those that will appear on their test. And so their scores on the tests for which they were drilled will increase. But that is not education. It is training. Scores will go up, but it is less clear that any authentic learning has occurred. If we now bring together our case from two different perspectives. The first point in our case has to be with student centered schools. The second point in the case has to do with governmental standards, those standards of accountability.
If we do not understand how these two conflicting point of interest do not match to a better education system then the gap will continue to widen. If we cannot build a bridge for the future then the bridge may collapse. Now what we do know is that that these governmental standards might never be met. What we also know is that students are less engaged today than they were ten years ago.
But let's look at the horizon. We are now seeing a new movement in education. A silent reform movement. A movement that will soon meet its peek when the Net generation the millennial learners begin to surface as societal leaders. This will be the generation that views education from another prospective, a perspective who's ideas are based on skills obtained through collaboration and opportunities to co-create.
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