Week 1 - Blog Posting #2 - Learning 2.0

Robinson, Sir Ken, (2006, June) Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity [Video File]. Video posted to http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html 


Being an art teacher this video speaks right to my heart.  Ken Robinson is a masterful communicator.  He didn't need a KeyNote.  He gave such visual descriptions one could use their own imagination to draw their own interpretation of his words.  "Our bodies are just transports for our heads."  (Ken, 2006)  I can just imagine our heads in a box with a handle on top so we can reach up and dismantle our  heads to be placed on a table with everyone else's heads we are meeting with.  Not that this is wrong.  Some people are geared to be college professors who are totally concentrated in the brain, but what about those individuals who are constantly dissatisfied with their lives?  Were they the next best artist, dancer, or gamer?  


I am fortunate to have had a mother who fussed over my art.  She told me I was talented.  She framed my art and showed it off to all our friends and family.  It could have been totally different for me.  Right now I could be a manager of a Pizza Hut wondering where I went wrong.  For this reason I tell every student in my classroom that their artwork is wonderful because I believe they created this "thing" from something inside of them and I would hate to degrade a part of someone's being.  My students never get sick of my constant approval they look forward to it daily; it shows through how hard they work in my class.


Marc Prensky (January 2006) Educational Leadership article about learning in the digital age posted to:
http://www.ascd.org/authors/ed_lead/el200512_prensky.html 


I feel Ken Robinson's theory about education crushing creativity also explains education's non-response to technology.  Our children are begging for it; they are "Digital Natives". (Prensky 2006)   Our current students have grown up with the internet, cell phones, gaming systems, computer games, and Webkinz.  They think in technological language.  These formats of information are reaching them; teaching them.  Why shouldn't we use them in our schools?  Teach the students in a language they understand?



Massively Multiplayer Online Roll Playing Game produced by INDIANA UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF EDUCATION UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF EDUCATION found at:
atlantis.crlt.indiana.edu/  


Quest Atlantis comes to mind when I think about our students and 21st century learning.  This is a perfect way to give those students who love gaming an opportunity to learn in their individualized way.  I feel that individualized education is what technology and the integration of web 2.0 tools can give the classroom.  This not only takes computers, know how, and programs it also takes teachers who will step out of the box.  it takes teachers who are willing to change; willing to go against the grain to gain ground in a technological world that is causing public education to become extinct.  We can either jump on board or wait to be thrown overboard, because a lot of the times students are getting a better education online after school than they are in the school building during the day. 


This is because they are engaged through gaming, art, dancing, music, and socialization.  Put these things back into the schools and our students will come back to us. 


 Stop with the tests; start with the students.