"The necessity of making education and instruction attractive has been propounded by all pedagogists worthy of the name, such as Fenelon, Rousseau, Pestalozzi, Herbart, and Spencer." says Claparede, "but it still unrecognized in the everyday practice of the schools." (op cite)
By common consent, the first duty of the educator is that of doing no harm; first do no harm, a precept also accepted in the practise of medicine. To obey it to the letter is, indeed, impossible, because every method of scholastic education is in some way prejudicial to the normal development of the child. But the educator will seek to alleviate the injury which instruction necessarily entails." (op cite)
This was written about 100 years ago. (Maria Montessori, Spontaneous Activity in Education) and she was quoting noted educators of the day. Does it seem like a common refrain? The necessity of making education interesting. She worked very hard to do so. It's all about choice. As anyone who has ever been "taught" something compared to chosen to "learn" something knows- it's all about your own choice.
Recently there have been several online articles about the future of education and specifically some very influential individuals saying that education in the future will be online. At the Techonomy conference, Bill Gates said that he believes that in five years any of the best lectures in the world will be online, and that the idea of young adults needing to go to universities will go away. Marco Masoni wrote an article on Mashable about "Online Education needs to get social." In particular, "providers meet the challenge of satisfying the rising demand for online education by simply throwing courses up on the web and seeing what sticks" and "It’s not enough for a course to be accessible online, it must also be designed in a way that keys into the digital pulse of current events, trending topics and insider knowledge endemic to the web. The three-quarters of 18 to 29 year-olds who have profiles on social networks are likely wondering why online course offerings aren’t nearly as enticing as the content that they find on their favorite social websites." Again, we're talking about making education interesting and exciting.
Friends, social networks, games and current events as a method of education? Not everything will work that way. Education isn't interesting because of games though- it's interesting because of choice and following your own interests.
A great lecture is a fantastic way to learn about a particular subject. It may be exactly what you are looking for. Itunes University has a collection. There are other publishers that are currently marketing series of "Great Lectures. True education in a field often requires both breadth and depth- not all of it may be incredibly interesting just at the moment until you get to a more complicated or intricate task or the application of your learning. Real learning often takes place with the exchange of ideas through discussion, critical thinking and questions.
The ability to make interesting and real time use of the internet is limited. Courses have to be planned and can not rely on current events. Current events such as the BP oil spill become case studies most of the time. Internet usage has to be filtered for quality. A quality online course needs to have as much planning and development as any good educational course. It's the individual's interest that makes it work. Online education will have it's place in many ways, but not necessary to completely prepare one for many careers. Some educational careers will adapt very easily to online education styles.
What about the many different types of intelligence or learning styles? It's possible that a very well designed on-line course may meet many of them. It's not going to be the same to watch and listen to a video though as a dramatic reenactment yourself.
Montessori education is a program by choice. From the preschool level to the high school level children learn to choose their own learning activities.
Let me tell you about one project at one Montessori elementary school. The Great Brain Project. It's research based and involves several months. The children individually choose their topics, research them and prepare presentations. The style and the timelines of the presentations vary so there isn't huge pressure to finish by a particular day. They are using their own "Great Brains" to best determine how to share what they've learned. In one year children choose topics ranging from the incredibly general "plants" to Rosa Parks to atomic structure to Trilobytes.
This project initially came from Lynn Stoddard's vision, but was implemented by Aleta Ledendecker at the New Horizon Montessori School. Aleta's article was in the June 2010 issue of Montessori Leadership published by the Montessori Foundation.
My Buzz post linking to this post is here.
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