Learn more about this project

Learn more about this project

John Dewey

• The World Is Open by Curtis J. Bonk
• 21st Century Skills by Bernie Trilling,…

Excerpts from the Globe and Mail article, “Logged on to Learn”:

Our young people are hungry for knowledge, and our teachers do their best with the limited resources they have, but when ranked against other countries, Canadian students are slipping. It’s a worrisome trend, both for Canadian businesses that need the competitive edge of being able to hire world-class graduates and for jurisdictions that need a high-quality local talent pool to lure business investment.

We’re slipping in international standings because almost every school in the country employs an outmoded model of pedagogy. Right now we have “broadcast learning,” with the teacher as expert at the front of the class, and the students as novices in a universal, one-size-fits-all model. “Chalk and talk” classrooms are a jarring disconnect to media-savvy, plugged-in students. In contrast to their life out of school, in the classroom they have no control, no connectivity, no media, no action, no immersion and no networks.

Today’s new media, particularly the Internet, enables student-directed learning experiences focused on the individual rather than on the transmitter. Shifting the emphasis from the teacher to the student does not suggest the teacher suddenly plays a less important role. Digital media helps teachers treat students as individuals; enabling them to have highly customized learning experiences based on their background, individual talents, age, cognitive style, personal preferences, and so on.

Pilot projects are under way around the world, including some in Canada. New Brunswick did it five years ago when it handed out laptops to Grade 7 and 8 students and teachers in six schools, francophone and anglophone.

The results were so positive that New Brunswick expanded the one-laptop-per-child program to cover 3,900 schoolchildren, or 23 per cent of Grade 7 and 8 students, over five years, ending in June.

With New Brunswick reaping such rewards, why do so many public school classrooms in Canada remain stuck in the 18th century?

The real issue, as Mr. Fox and Mr. Greenlaw suggest, is our vision: Are we, the adults, willing to accept that children who are growing up digital, actually learn far more in an interactive, collaborative environment? For their sake, and for the sake of our economic future, we cannot cling to the past.

Representation of the possibilities of effectively collaborating in the global economy and digital world.
This map shows the connections between people on-line using facebook.
The question is, ” how can one fully utilize the possibilities present with such capabilities as being able to connect globally?”