George Siemens posted Uneven Impact on 10th Feb 2009.

Last year George Siemens had asked what does the future of education look like and I realise now that question has  been mulling on my back-burner. This post includes ideas only just gelling.

In the above link George laments both the inflexibility of higher education to cater for individual learners and the irony of those now out of work educated people who must return to that not so changed system.

My feeling is that we need a framework (I believe we now have the tools!!!) for the universal learner who is fully plugged into how to learn/think about anything, apply it to anything across everything, aware of their own independence and interdependence. They learn these meta qualities together with others yet keep adding to their knowledge independently pursuing individual subject streams-demonstrating mastery of the core “meta learner curriculum”. Students would be networked together by mentors and fellows/colleagues/thought leaders in their chosen subject areas. Thinking beyond the system will be highly sought after!

Diverse ages and interests would converge regularly for the core ‘learning about learning’…online, offline a choice. Also it wont be necessary to produce text outcomes to demonstrate competency because video, audio, visual, constructed work can suffice instead of and inclusive of text. We will tolerate all, there is demand for all.

I believe we are going to see a really changed system within a radically short period of time. I can see the change is upon us and we will really want to do it differently this time!
To me one of the most useful qualities to keep adapting and learning in a shifting economy/ecology is self belief…how to embed/instill that as core?

Image via Wikipedia

Will Richardson’s post points out how social media tools exclude particular learning styles. The point Will makes about Blogs requiring good reading/writing skills is certainly true of how many people practice and teach blogging. But I think that’s an outcome of the current education system – we approach blogging like writing pads/books.

Blogs will become Vlogs and there’s so much that a human body can do in front of a video camera. (Did I say that?-having said that I’m not there yet!). YouTube is the second most popular search engine.

Surely Wii opens up huge possibilities for visual/aural/kinesthetic learners…Im in love with the possibilities/realities that new digital technologies are providing.

I’m also reflecting on the technical debate about Waldorf education that Will Richardson discussed. The ‘virtual reality‘ reality makes me want Harry’s (3 years old) world grounded so he can transit between worlds more consciously. Which is partially why I’m thinking about Waldorf education. I’m off to the Tarremah Steiner School on wednesday.

I figure that I myself expose Harry to technology (we dont have a tv) and it will be widely available to him elsewhere. So too  I’m exposing him to phonics, he naturally inquires about letters and words. I let him guide me there.

I get that my ideas may not fulfill the Steiner philosophy however every Steiner School openly interprets the original Steiner pedagogy, just as in Christianity and Buddhism each vision is so different! So I can give Harry things that Steiner education wont and that’s the beauty.

The underlying community/earth centred spirituality, the emphasis on imagination, sensory play, beauty these are child (human) essentials. Harry will be more than what he can do for a living. It’s the why he’s doing it, how he creates it and who (how many?) is he serving that will be significant. And how he feels about it of course!