Dave,
I know it’s not a requirement to respond to the Impact Statements, but I have to say, I really enjoyed watching your video. You made excellent points and hooked me in for sure!
I agree with your point regarding the idea of instructing and “equipping” students with what they need rather than teaching them. If and when education moves toward the personalized learning concept where we are supposed to “teach everything, every time, everywhere” as you said, then teachers would have to be experts on everything, jacks of all trades, which of course is not realistic. But your comparison of a squire helping a knight prepare for a battle is a good one. I think it’s important for teachers to kind of go through similar training as maybe librarians who know how to find resources for different types of information, how to search and where to look, etc. That way we can guide students to the resources and materials they need based on what they are interested in. We wouldn’t have to be experts on the content necessarily, but we would need to be experts on how to expand our knowledge of the content so that we can point our students in the right directions.
All of this kind of reminds me of the idea of Genius Hour. It’s almost like schools are moving in the direction of having personalized learning or Genius Hours be the whole day. The thing that would, of course, impede this positive direction of learning and engagement would be the road block of standardized tests as they are now. Because we are still forced to give these tests and good results are expected, education can’t fully change to that personalized learning environment that would motivate and engage kids. However, if the standardized mode of testing could shift to something more of a portfolio experience or project-based assessment, then the personalized learning you describe could certainly be the way to go for all students to learn according to interests and keep motivation high.
Thanks for exploring this interesting concept. 🙂
Mary Lee
Thanks for the Comments Mary Lee. I agree that moving to portfolios or projects is a way to go our school is attempting that shift now. … but it takes so long. Institutional change is at a snails pace. PLE’s have the chance to be both the right and wrong answer. The wrong one if it gets rid of teachers, the right one if it frees up teachers to innovate
Dave Pleuler's Blog 
Dave,
I know it’s not a requirement to respond to the Impact Statements, but I have to say, I really enjoyed watching your video. You made excellent points and hooked me in for sure!
I agree with your point regarding the idea of instructing and “equipping” students with what they need rather than teaching them. If and when education moves toward the personalized learning concept where we are supposed to “teach everything, every time, everywhere” as you said, then teachers would have to be experts on everything, jacks of all trades, which of course is not realistic. But your comparison of a squire helping a knight prepare for a battle is a good one. I think it’s important for teachers to kind of go through similar training as maybe librarians who know how to find resources for different types of information, how to search and where to look, etc. That way we can guide students to the resources and materials they need based on what they are interested in. We wouldn’t have to be experts on the content necessarily, but we would need to be experts on how to expand our knowledge of the content so that we can point our students in the right directions.
All of this kind of reminds me of the idea of Genius Hour. It’s almost like schools are moving in the direction of having personalized learning or Genius Hours be the whole day. The thing that would, of course, impede this positive direction of learning and engagement would be the road block of standardized tests as they are now. Because we are still forced to give these tests and good results are expected, education can’t fully change to that personalized learning environment that would motivate and engage kids. However, if the standardized mode of testing could shift to something more of a portfolio experience or project-based assessment, then the personalized learning you describe could certainly be the way to go for all students to learn according to interests and keep motivation high.
Thanks for exploring this interesting concept. 🙂
Mary Lee
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Thanks for the Comments Mary Lee. I agree that moving to portfolios or projects is a way to go our school is attempting that shift now. … but it takes so long. Institutional change is at a snails pace. PLE’s have the chance to be both the right and wrong answer. The wrong one if it gets rid of teachers, the right one if it frees up teachers to innovate
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