Edtechs are definitely the duct tapes over these visible cracks in our present curriculum, and school committees should positively contemplate on bridging with such organizations to produce future-driven, enterprising mindsets that are in demand in the contemporary world.
To begin with, what exactly does innovative learning mean? In theoretical terms, it is the system of integrating technology with the existing pedagogy to stimulate better learning experiences for learners as implemented through means of gamification for instance. However, the scope of innovative and creative learning is undeniably beyond such an integration.
Entrepreneurial and innovative education is a culture in itself. A culture of failing multiple times, that of taking up challenges, an attitude that instigates learning, unlearning, and relearning, and, finally, one that imagines and works collaboratively. A pioneering attitude involves not giving answers to existing questions but the reverse of it, the learners frame the right questions to find the right solutions, that is to say, the learners in the niche of innovation culture are faced with constant real-world challenges for which they seek interpretations. A large part of this modern pedagogy encompasses design thinking, problem-solving, and collaborative learning at its crux. Furthermore, it calls for the active participation and inclusion of all the resources, especially the learners in the system. This modern pedagogy demands an enterprising mindset in both the learning instigators and the learners, like it is required in the world outside of teaching and learning. The world of tomorrow is that of collaboration, of amalgamated spaces where working, learning and ideation would go hand in hand. In such a drastically different and transformational niche, relevant experience is what counts, and that is consequentially why bringing together industry experts to impart applicable knowledge in classrooms is important from the perspective of futuristic education. This could be a disruptive advancement in the way in which we conceive teaching and learning in the future.
To cite a phenomenal instance to explain the credits of this learning design, let us rewind twelve years on the calendar to find Don Buckley, a technologist and an innovator himself at the School of California, laying out an experimental project called ‘Project My Way’, where he asked a number of School of California students how and what they envisioned on their phones; came in answers like buttons to order chocolate, phones in the back and front of which carried cameras, those that supported toothbrushes and pens, and those that turn out to “be like a friend or something”. To his surprise and to his listeners’, much of what the learners thought and designed were implemented and thought to be groundbreaking innovations much later. This is what present innovators demand out of schools. As mentioned earlier, a school is a womb of pivoting ideas, the loud noises that reflect out of them are the voices of tomorrow, provided they are given an opportunity that exceeds report cards and red ink bottles. Keawe Block, who is a Staffing Lead at Google, reassures his readers that a good GPA has little to do with being hired by this multinational trillion dollar company. Instead he asks prospective candidates to shed the “imposter syndrome” and enlist the number of hackathons they have been part of. The question is, how many students in our present schools understand the value of participating in hackathons?
Edtechs are definitely the duct tapes over these visible cracks in our present curriculum, and school committees should positively contemplate on bridging with such organizations to produce future-driven, enterprising mindsets that are in demand in the contemporary world. By means of uniting learners from all streams of knowledge, and of all competencies, real-world challenges and problems will have creative applicable solutions. True learning, at the end of the day, is the awareness of an issue and applying what is learnt to decipher and untangle the knot.
The future is just a 60-second pitch – either you sell it or you head home. When the world today fails to retain focus for not more than three seconds on a figurative content, 60 seconds are a lot to ask for! We are fleeting into a world where most of our desks will be replaced by automation. At a time when the future holds hot desks instead of conference rooms, and dots votes instead of conversations, it may be high time we analyse and re-analyse if we are generating out of the many schools in the world, gold dusts or dusts that may be swept in the rapid winds of change. The days of tomorrow-land will be of rethinking, of redefinitions, and perhaps, finding better resolutions for existing problems, but never working on the same answers twice.
Source: Business World
