{"id":260,"date":"2014-02-19T23:10:06","date_gmt":"2014-02-19T23:10:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/edtune.com\/blog\/?p=260"},"modified":"2014-02-26T04:11:29","modified_gmt":"2014-02-26T04:11:29","slug":"teachers-and-learners-at-crossroads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/edtune.com\/blog\/2014\/02\/teachers-and-learners-at-crossroads\/","title":{"rendered":"Education at the Crossroads of Humanity and Technology"},"content":{"rendered":"

Learning Redefined<\/h1>\n

Robert Gardner of Harvard\u00a0has written\u00a0extensively about multiple intelligences<\/a>, a theory he developed in 1983. There is not just one way to be smart. There are many. The same might be said about learning. Is there one best way, or multiple ways? How is it that we define and measure it? The answers to those questions profoundly affect how we approach teaching and learning.<\/p>\n

In what has been called The Second Machine Age<\/a>, innovation has exploded exponentially. Globalization has continued to proliferate, and the world has become flatter<\/a>.\u00a0Robots do more and more of the work we once did.\u00a0Big data has\u00a0dramatically increased\u00a0in its scope\u00a0and dominance while privacy has been marginalized. As a result, the calculus of how we create, manufacture and implement has evolved.\u00a0We\u00a0find ourselves at a crossroads between technology and our humanity.<\/p>\n

The modern classroom has become ground-zero for many of these changes. Before children ever even think of entering the work force, they enter our schools. Our teachers have been tasked with making sense of it all while managing the daily life of classroom activity. It is somewhat like the challenge of building an airplane while flying in it. Yet teachers persevere.<\/p>\n

The students, of course,\u00a0are the native inhabitants of the present. The future they face is partly the result of what we continually create for them in the classroom. Pedagogy has now become a proxy for social policy as we write the script for tomorrow.<\/p>\n

We need the right questions<\/h3>\n

Pablo Picasso once said, “Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.”<\/a>\u00a0He had an unusual way to looking at the world. He inspired “Cubism,” an art\u00a0movement that put a premium on subjective expression. He could portray the horror of war in Guernica or the tender bond between Mother and Child. Both paintings (shown below)\u00a0might be asking\u00a0deep questions that start with “Why?” Why is there war? How strong is the bond between mother and child?\u00a0Why is it that both can live side by side in the same world?<\/p>\n

\"Guernica<\/a>

Guernica by Pablo Picasso (1937)<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Mother<\/a>

Mother and Child by Pablo Picasso (1921)<\/p><\/div>\n

Learning is not just finding the answer. It is essential for students to learn how to ask and for teachers to learn how to guide them. Inquiry is both a skill-set and a mind-set. That often means that we challenge conventional wisdom. One of the goals of Common Core State Standards<\/a> (CCSS), now adopted by 46 states, is to shift thinking<\/a>. KQED’s Mind\/Shift<\/a> also provides a\u00a0scaffold of ideas\u00a0and research for transforming our thinking about learning.<\/p>\n

Just what can machines teach us?<\/h2>\n

David Brooks wrote a fascinating\u00a0article in the N. Y. Times, What Machines Can’t Do<\/a>. He cites the changes in technology that appear to be propelling us into massive societal change – whether we want it or not. Yet he transforms that analysis into the often unasked question: What is it that we humans can do that machines cannot?\u00a0The answers to the\u00a0question\u00a0yield significant consequences for educational practice.<\/p>\n

What humans can do is pose questions. Perhaps the act of inquiry and choice is a necessary expression of our humanity. It was Socrates who once said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” <\/a>\u00a0If we adapt that reasoning to the modern classroom, then we might derive these corollaries:<\/p>\n