Schools, Schooling, or Schooled in a Digital Age

The future of schools may change dramatically due to digital technology, traditional instruction may prevail, or some combination or new changes and traditional instruction may come into being.  I propose that that it is likely that we see a combination.  “Going forward, learning may be far more individualized, far more in the hands (and minds) of the learner, and far more interactive than ever before. This constitutes a paradox: As the digital era progresses, learning may be at once more individual (contoured to a person’s own style, proclivities, and interests) yet more social (involving networking, group work, the wisdom of crowds, etc.).”(Weigel, James, Gardner 2009) They point out that how learning occurs in society has changed over the years due to the social structures, purpose, and technology available for learning.

Dramatic changes have occurred in who is taught, what is taught and how instruction takes place since the formal schools of Ancient Greece but that change has not happed quickly and many aspects of schooling remain surprisingly familiar. The students have expanded from a select group of aristocrats to the masses, and content has expanded from a focus on the great thoughts of a few authorities to the vetted information of common texts, and pedagogy is based on new evidence based information. However, while all that is true, teaching and learning remain recognizably consistent over millennia.

We ask questions, make symbols, and use tools. We act in a social context. These are fundamental elements of humanity that have remained consistent throughout civilization. The specifics have changed over the centuries but core characteristics of being human have not. I suspect that they will not. How these characteristics manifest themselves has and will continue to change in formal learning environments. However the fundamental nature of man as an information seeker will remain unaltered. It suggested that digital technology will alter the nature of man. “ Indeed, there is mounting evidence that the learning preferences and styles of youth are effected by their digital engagement. (Weigel, James, Gardner 2009) I would be surprised if such adjustments in mans physical structure have not occurred before to adjust to new learning environments. The malleable learning capacity of man is perhaps what remains most recognizable over many generations.

As we design learning environments in an attempt to control or at least steer student’s unceasing learning we are engaged with a constant struggle “ aligning goals for learning with what is taught, how it is taught, and how it is assessed (both formatively and summatively). (National Academy of Sciences)

We attempt to base instruction on the learner as we “attempt to discover what students think in relation to the problems on hand, discussing their misconceptions sensitively, and giving them situations to go on thinking about which will enable them to readjust their ideas. ( Bell, 1982a:7). Accomplished teachers “give learners reason,” by respecting and understanding learners’ prior experiences and understandings, assuming that these can serve as a foundation on which to build bridges to new understandings (Duckworth, 1987). It is the connection to what the student already knows and how the student views the world that allows for learning to occur. Great knowledge can be transmitted but remain illusive to the learner if it is not in a form that is recognizable. Digital tools allow teachers to have a better profile of the learner than ever before. Use of these tools in combination with an empathetic relationship provides the foundational steps necessary for learning to occur.

While the focus on what a student already knows allows the learner to start their journey to greater understanding the question remains: what should they be learning?  The focus on knowledge allows us to both reinforce the traditional “rutted paths’ and to survey the landscape. (National Academy of Sciences)  At one time the dissemination of information was the challenge of education.  Now, digital media makes information ubiquitous. The challenge is to establish common references that lead to new understanding rather than mindlessly repeat what is already known. Adding value to established knowledge by navigating the “landscape” and adjusting the reference  points so that as a society we can common to a greater degree of alignment with the truth of the world.

Digital tools that accommodate formative and summative assessments which produce information that can be used to customize instruction on a daily basis is the aspect of digital technology that holds the most immediate and apparent promise for improving education. If sound decisions are made about what to teach then we should be better at making sure that students learn. It is interesting that the content is becoming skill based and less definable as the information about the learner is becoming more definable.

As the content becomes less static it becomes increasingly more difficult to decipher the effectiveness of instruction even as the tools to measure the effectiveness increases. S\this seems analogous to subatomic particles that cannot reveal both their location and momentum simultaneously. Constructionists seem to have a solution to his dilemma. Have students build a digital artifact. This allows for their to be an” object” about which a conversation about learning can take place. One of the biggest problems in education has always been how do we have a conversation about what a student is truly thinking and steer them to the “correct’ thinking. Having code and outcomes based on that code reveals student thinking not just to the teacher but also to the student. It is formative self-assessment in it’s most primitive digital form.

Our nature as seekers of information and our desire to add value to that information dictates that we will always have traditional instruction that is recognizable over millennia while circumstances will always dictate the form that the information takes. Indeed, our survival as a species most likely depends upon our ability to continue to learn and apply that learning in new situations. Creating and being successful in new learning environments is perhaps the most important of those situations as the speed at which effective learning by high percentages of the worlds population becomes necessary for survival