From Four Big Ideas for the Future
jasonohler.com
Author Jason Ohler is about to release his 7th book titled Four Big Ideas for the Future. This volume comes on the heals of recovery from a life threatening illness, which left Jason awash with epiphanies on life and how we fit into this dizzying, digital techno blender of a world. Here's just a sample from Four Big Ideas…
From chapter one...
I once heard a keynote speaker declare that lecture was dead, and never sense the irony in his statement. He was so convincing that I got up and left.
And on my way toward the exit I heard him declare his love for TED talks. Again, no sense of irony. I also heard him implore the audience to buy his book about the death of books, and to travel half way around the world to attend his conference about the effectiveness of online conferences. And as I pushed through the double doors in the back of the auditorium, I heard him say, “And the wonderful thing about individualized learning is that it is so collaborative in nature.”
We are walking, talking contradictions, so awash in competing pedagogies, technologies, and philosophies that we are bound to bump into ourselves sooner or later. And when we do, we are left to wonder what we’re really doing and why we are doing it.
Right up front, let me offer an important piece of advice, which was passed on to me long ago by educator Don Shalvey: Beware the paradigm du jour. You can have the most flipped, most engaging, globally flattest, intrinsically motivating, participatory, authentic, differentiated, expertly scaffolded, STEM based, data driven, over-tested, peer assessed, pedagogically blended, technology-infused program in the world. But at the end of the day the focus has to be on student learning in the deepest and broadest sense, regardless of our latest educational enamorment. Continually, we need to ask the same question that a recent U.S. president asked: Is our children learning? Good question. Is they?
If you want to put this into practice, try challenging everyone at your next meeting to begin their comments with, “In order to better serve students” and see what happens. Focusing on student learning is your captain’s wheel and rudder as you navigate social and technological seas that are roiling with change. Using student learning as a focal point might seem too obvious to point out, but I assure you that in our high stakes testing culture it is often overlooked.
The reality is that the innovation instinct that is so natural to us has become a roller coaster without brakes. It is up to each of us, but particularly those of us in education, to steer it in the direction toward helping students develop the skills and perspectives they need to create solutions to the challenges that face their communities–local, global and digital. Bottom line: We need to continually ask ourselves what being an educated person really means. And that changes, as technology changes.
To be continued...
jasonohler.wix.com