This
past summer I read the Innovator’s Mindset by George Couros (@gcouros), and just
like many other educators across the country, I found the reading to be profound! Powerful
thinking and phrases like “innovation doesn't
happen in isolation” propelled
me to start @PrincTA and princta.blogspot.com. Mr.
Couros forced me to recognize that innovative
students need innovative teachers and
that innovative teachers need innovative administrators. His words
forced me to join the Twitterverse and start this blog. Although not a monumental step, it was still
a deliberate attempt at expanding my horizons
and boldly start talking to the world about changing our practice. I felt empowered, but more importantly, I recognized
that I had work to do!
Information is abundant, and schools that focus on content may become irrelevant as technology gives us access to this information without hesitation. Students recognize that there is no way to memorize it all, and will ask why they should. If students could Google the answers to your test questions in seconds, your test is “irrelevant” in regards to their time and the need to memorize/learn the information. That is why @jcasap suggest that turning information into intelligence is the key! Making students create something with the information is crucial, and can lead to innovation that @GMSD_Supt says “breaks the pattern of performance.” In short, student’s can’t Google thinking, so that is what you should develop and assess!
The view of “information not being the commodity” is true in the business world as well. Listen, and you will hear many business leaders say they need problem solvers and innovative mindsets. Employers can teach employees the technical skill to do the job required, but they can’t teach them to think! One of the best statements from Innovator’s Mindset is: “Your degree is not a proxy for your ability to do your job. The real world only cares about what you can do with what you know. That’s what you get paid for; no one cares how you learned it!”
There is little question that we are at a tipping point in
education and need to reflect on our practice.
Superintendents, like Dr. Steven Gerhard of the Governor Mifflin School
District (@GMSD_Supt), are opening schools all across the country
suggesting that it is time to “take ownership over education by writing a new narrative on teaching and learning.” If we are going to prepare students for an unknown future, it is clear that we must move away from the “traditional” dissemination of information by the all knowing adult who imparts facts for students to memorize. Don’t get me wrong, memorization is a necessary skill, but by itself, it does not demonstrate thinking and learning. If we are going to do something different or innovative we need to move past teaching for the next grade or level. At the OER conference in VA, 2017, Jaime Casap (@jcasap) put it best when he stated, “Information is not the commodity. It’s what we do with it!”
suggesting that it is time to “take ownership over education by writing a new narrative on teaching and learning.” If we are going to prepare students for an unknown future, it is clear that we must move away from the “traditional” dissemination of information by the all knowing adult who imparts facts for students to memorize. Don’t get me wrong, memorization is a necessary skill, but by itself, it does not demonstrate thinking and learning. If we are going to do something different or innovative we need to move past teaching for the next grade or level. At the OER conference in VA, 2017, Jaime Casap (@jcasap) put it best when he stated, “Information is not the commodity. It’s what we do with it!”
Information is abundant, and schools that focus on content may become irrelevant as technology gives us access to this information without hesitation. Students recognize that there is no way to memorize it all, and will ask why they should. If students could Google the answers to your test questions in seconds, your test is “irrelevant” in regards to their time and the need to memorize/learn the information. That is why @jcasap suggest that turning information into intelligence is the key! Making students create something with the information is crucial, and can lead to innovation that @GMSD_Supt says “breaks the pattern of performance.” In short, student’s can’t Google thinking, so that is what you should develop and assess!
The view of “information not being the commodity” is true in the business world as well. Listen, and you will hear many business leaders say they need problem solvers and innovative mindsets. Employers can teach employees the technical skill to do the job required, but they can’t teach them to think! One of the best statements from Innovator’s Mindset is: “Your degree is not a proxy for your ability to do your job. The real world only cares about what you can do with what you know. That’s what you get paid for; no one cares how you learned it!”
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