Learn Lots!

The Problem:  Students are rarely allowed time to learn about things they love that fall outside predetermined school curriculum. Imagine being a student that struggles in school.  You're not good at math.  You're not good at reading.  Your writing looks like chicken scratch.  Your favorite hours in school are lunch and recess.  But when you're at home, you love to build things.  Now imagine you are given one hour a week during school to learn anything you want.  You could spend that hour building things, something you're actually good at.  Maybe that simple thing wouldn't change your outlook on school for the better.  But what if it did? What causes the problem?  One cause could be that "raising standards" in education almost always equates to adding more.  Many teachers already feel it's difficult to cover everything that's required, which is only compounded by constantly adding more breadth (which usually equates to a s...

The Story During graduate school, I have had several opportunities to take classes I absolutely loved.  The ironic thing is, they were generally not required courses, but ones I elected to take on the side because they sounded fun.  Taking these fun courses during difficult semesters made even my trying classes more bearable somehow. The Idea I believe education should be a mechanism to learn not just what others want us to learn, but what we want to learn.  I believe a love affair with learning is fostered when we learn about things we love.  Thus, I believe educational systems should incorporate time for every learner to follow their deep interests and passions. The Problem I believe that too many students leave school thinking they don't like to learn.  The reality is, many of us don't like to learn what others would like us to learn but we love and crave learning about our deep interests. The Solution Apply the 80/20 rule in school.  During e...

After two failed attempts at trying to capture my thoughts in a visual, I'll just be using text. :) I evaluated the ed tech startups listed on the website according to the things that are most important to me in education right now.  These three criteria and a brief explanation of each are listed below along with the startups I felt directly supported those ideals. Personalized Learning I believe every learner should be able to learn according to their own abilities and what they're ready for.  Instead of putting curriculum on a strict timeline, I picture it as a continuum that every learner moves along at their own pace. Dreambox Knewton Goalbook Serving Children While I think advances in higher education are important, the group I'm most concerned about serving are children.  So, I evaluated the ed tech startups listed according to whether or not they were designed to serve a younger population. Class Dojo Dreambox Goalbook Knewton Non-core Subjects...

As an Elementary Education major, I remember being troubled initially about the use of behaviorist strategies in the classroom as they often felt so trite and contrived, and sometimes even controlling.  Later, as I taught educational psychology, I found many of my students had similar concerns, especially with the tendency in behaviorism to compare humans to other animals.  Despite all of this, I couldn't deny that behaviorist strategies do work.  In fact, they continue to work on me as an adult. Then one day it dawned on me.  The mechanism that drives behaviorism is feedback . As humans, we are in many ways feedback-starved creatures.  In our heart of hearts, we long for feedback about everything we do, from what we wear to how we interact with others.  It is this very tendency that has gotten many a loving husband into hot water by answering the question, "Does this dress make me look fat?" This is also the reason certain activities are so addicting...

Creating a video on YouTube using my computer's webcam was a first for me.  In this video, I explain my vision for education, which is that every learner could get both what they need and what they want out of school.  I believe this can be done not by doing more of the same (which seems to be the current model), but by allowing learners to focus on what they love and do best.  Enjoy!