In about a year, the $50 Million National Center for Research in Advanced Information and Digital Technologies is projected to be up and running.  Its goal is to bring “education into the 21 century.” Cited in US to back 21st century learning by Maggie Shiels, BBC News.

While this is a laudable goal, I just can’t imagine that American students will see any impact in their schools for years to come.  Perhaps when the next generation of teachers take over, themselves Digital Natives, we’ll see a change.

For now, too many teachers fear the learning curve of technology to put out the welcome mat.

Fortunately, for those of us who are willing to learn with our children, either as full-time homeschoolers or part-time supplementers, we don’t have to wait.

The Federation of American Scientists said, “The creativity that developed extraordinary new information technologies has not focused on finding ways to make learning more compelling, more personal and more productive in our nation’s schools…

The FAS said that learning scientists and educators have known for years that people learn faster if education can be personalized and if students are motivated by seeing how their knowledge can help them solve problems they care about…

“Today’s generation is very comfortable with using tools like iPods and computers and gaming, but when they go into the classroom none of that is there and there is this sense of an opportunity we are just not grasping,” explained Mr Kelly, the Federation’s President.

From US to back 21st century learning by Maggie Shiels, BBC News

Home educators are already finding ways to use technology for learning.  We encourage our children to play online games, write blogs, “read” audiobooks, and collaborate in virtual worlds.

Every day we find compelling new ways to learn and explore our interests.

Just a Few Homeschooling Online Suggestions:

Is Your Child Computer Literate? - Kids are not learning technology skills at school, but they can learn at home.

Who Is Optimizing Their Reading Potential? - Using RSS Feed Readers.

Reading On The Road - Discuss an audiobook on a road trip.

Thisissand.com - Easy to elaborate virtual sand art projects.

Moodstream: Create a soundboard using images, music, and film footage that fits your mood.

Zipcode Zoo - Identify the flora and fauna in any area, and learn lots about animals.

Green Dimes - Stop unwanted junk mail and share ways to “green up” our world.

Kids Cooking Activities - Ideas and resources to inspire budding chefs.

Wordle - Turn your words into a work of art

Animoto - Create a music video with your photos.

Instructables - Discover instructions for all kinds of projects - from recipes to robots - or post your own.

Mr. Picassohead - Unleash your inner abstract artist.

Hulu - Watch a movie or catch up on your favorite TV shows on your computer. See the good movies on Hulu list.

Would you like to receive free articles from On Living By Learning by Email? (Click this link. Fill out the form. Don’t forget to click on your verification Email. Look for this in your mailbox.) You can also click here to receive updates on a RSS Feed Reader.

Each box that you mark on each test that you take,
Remember your teachers, their jobs are at stake.
Your score is their score, but don’t get all stressed.
They’d never teach anything not on the test.

From the lyrics to Not On The Test by Tom Chapin and John Forster

It’s a gentle song with a powerful punch.  And, despite the song’s digs at teachers, it’s intended in support of programs that help them reach their students.

Even as Secretary of Education Spellings is strengthening No Child Left Behind, Tom Chapin is gathering a groundswell of support  on notonthetest.com to speak up for keeping music, art, drama, and sports in education because:

It’s no secret that American industry has outsourced most factory jobs to other countries to take advantage of cheaper labor costs. So why are we putting so much effort into a form of education in which there is no creativity? This is the time that our youth should be taught to think ”out of the box,” not be put into a tighter one!

As some of my favorite public school teachers have described, NCLB is sucking the joy out of teaching (and learning.)

I’m signing up to act now for Not On The Test, but I’d love to hear a follow-up to this song that highlights how our nation’s brightest are being left behind.

The Fordham Institute’s latest report confirms that:

1. The nation’s top pupils have “languished” academically while the lowest-performing youngsters have gained dramatically.

2. Most teachers feel pressure to focus primarily on their lowest achieving students, and neglect the high achievers.

Any suggestions for a song title?  Here’s my lame song title attempt - Shut Up, Turn Off Your Mind!  Come on, I know you’ve got some good ones.  Share them in a comment.

More On Living By Learning articles on creativity and school:

In this TED Talks video, Sir Ken Robinson questions: Do schools kill creativity?

Advocating for change in education is a slow process.  In the meantime, creativity is one reason to homeschool.

If you would like to join our learning journey, sign up to receive free articles from On Living By Learning by Email.  (Click this link.  Fill out the form.  Don’t forget to click on your verification Email.  Look for this in your mailbox.)  You can also click here to receive updates on a RSS Feed Reader.

Some educators are attempting to transform the world of education to meet the needs of the 21st Century Student.

At a recent retreat organized by The Charter School Growth Fund, Anastasia Goodstein - author of Totally Wired and Ypulse - noted these emerging trends in Reboot Learning!:

• The educational experience should be more individualized and customized for the student… but …there has to be some structured goals/desired outcomes.
• The role of teachers will and must change.  As knowledge becomes more broadly available through technology, teachers are no longer the all-knowing beings they once were — they instead become more like “guides” or “facilitators” of learning.
• It’s about preparing them to be adaptive vs. having one job or career for the rest of their lives. We talked about the new skills needed for the 21st century like filtering/information literacy, project management, personal branding, thinking globally and the ability to adapt to rapid change. It has to be about more than just mastering subject matter or even learning one specific vocation.

As I read about these emerging trends, I realized that these worthy ideas permeate the thinking behind such disparate groups as Girl Scouts USA and Unschooling groups … and maybe, they aren’t really all that new. 

Girl Scouts USA counsels adult volunteers to ensure that programs are girl-led so that each girl can develop the “courage, confidence, and character” to be a leader.  There is a whole new initiative to create resources and pathways to ensure that Girl Scouts is a girl-driven experience.

And yet, when you talk to adult volunteers who have been in scouting all of their long lives, you’ll hear that this is not a new idea.  What is new are guidelines and materials enabling current leaders to learn to let go as the girls mature.

Successful Girl Scout leaders have been doing this all along.

Meanwhile, on the Unschooling Website, sponsored by Home Education Magazine, you get this unvarnished century-old suggestion from Anne Sullivan:

I am beginning to suspect all elaborate and special systems of education. They seem to me to be built upon the supposition that every child is a kind of idiot who must be taught to think. Whereas, if the child is left to himself, he will think more and better, if less showily. Let him go and come freely, let him touch real things and combine his impressions for himself, instead of sitting indoors at a little round table, while a sweet-voiced teacher suggests that he build a stone wall with his wooden blocks, or make a rainbow out of strips of coloured paper, or plant straw trees in bead flower-pots. Such teaching fills the mind with artificial associations that must be got rid of, before the child can develop independent ideas out of actual experience.

I’m reminded of an even older education idea.  If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day.  If you teach him how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.

I think that the best teachers have always known that their goal is to enable independent learners who are are confident, creative problem solvers.

What do you think? Share your opinion in a comment!

Book Resources:

Totally Wired: What Teens and Tweens Are Really Doing Online: Anastasia Goodstein: Books ISBN: 0312360126 ISBN-13: 9780312360122

If you would like to receive free articles from On Living By Learning by email, click this link.  You can also click here to receive updates on a RSS Feed Reader.