Taking the first step
In a recent blog post, Superintendent Dennis Richards reflects on the world his grandson will inherit.
He concludes that:
“I am convinced, as MIT apparently is, that collectively we have an opportunity to pool intelligences globally in ways we cannot imagine today to answer the questions of tomorrow. We have to claim these opportunities and help our students to claim them. I suspect it may be the only way we will be able to live creatively and successfully in a world that could be very different from the one we are equipped to live in, a world that is rapidly disappearing.”
He shares excellent links to 21st century literacies that various organizations have identified, and asks what mental models we have that are preventing us from making the shift.
Increasingly our world operates on “collective intelligence”– we not only can create or think alone, but work together with others whether in a meeting room or virtually across the globe to create and plan for our schools, businesses, and organizations. The book Wikinomics identifies how that dynamic is changing economies and cultures rapidly.
This YouTube video, which a colleague of mine shared, explores the questions those changes raise.
How will our students find their voice in all the “clutter” of worldwide contributions? How can they make money? How will they weed out what is true and what is not? How will they collaborate as part of their future lives? What literacies will be the most important to them?
How do our policies at our schools reinforce (or not reinforce) changes in mindset that need to happen?
And how do we figure out if the changes we are making are helping us make progress in working on 21st century learning strategies?
Those are questions our committee has asked and continues to ask. What do you think?
