21st Century Education

Teaching toward tomorrow...
Posted on 04/09/2012

             

Cathy Davidson, in her book “Now You See It: How the Brain Science of Attention will transform the Way we Live, Work, and Learn”, reveals the implications of technology on learning. We blog, tweet, text, and email as if by instinct. Yet, far too many schools and workplaces are designed for the last century, not the one we live in! Davidson opens a window onto the possibilities of a world in which the rigid ideas of the 20th century have been wiped away and replaced with the flowing, collaborative spirit built into the very design of the Internet.

            Our charge is to rethink how we need to be organizing our schools to maximize the opportunities of this digital age. It seems that even our brain has changed because of new computational capacities. “Contemporary neuroscience insists that nothing about our brain is quite so fixed or static, including its progress and its decline.” Rather, we are constantly learning.

            The brain is designed to learn, unlearn, and relearn, and nothing limits our capabilities more profoundly than our own attitudes toward them. If we are going to meet 21st century challenges and reap the full benefits of a digital world, we will need to ‘rethink’ old ways of teaching and learning.

            What are the implications of this new brain research for Garden County Schools? Education must be more student-centered and actively embrace varying learning styles. Effective integration of technology into the daily work of students is more critical. Increased collaboration and communication with local and global communities are more important now than ever before. A new lens to look at how we learn is needed. We must change the context in which we view learning; this will alter how we best prepare these digital natives for their world of tomorrow!

 

-Dr. Paula Sissel,

Superintendent/Elementary Principal