Edutopia - August/September 2008 - (Page 48)

LASS C “Ve “Very Good” ” henhao Henhao! How radical innovation will change the way we teach and kids learn. ? CURRENT CLASSROOMS: TEACHER-CENTRIC Standardization, which replaced personalization as public school enrollment rose in the late 1800s, still dictates the way subjects are taught: A teacher rules the classroom roost, using a prescribed approach to teach a generic curriculum to everyone in the classroom at the same time. By Clayton M. Christensen and Michael B. Horn Infographics by Xplane.com TAKEAWAY SYNOPSIS Not every student learns in the same, standard way, yet schools standardize the way they teach and test. A smart and targeted use of technology can provide customized and affordable education that allows students to learn in their preferred style and at their own pace. Subjects like math and science could become more fun and motivating. Such a change affords the chance to produce more highly qualiﬁed future members of the workforce. TO DO • Mentor. Teachers should serve as mentors and individual learning coaches. • Simply bringing computers into the schools won’t do. They must be targeted at areas where the alternative to computer-based instruction is no instruction at all. • Teachers must not deliver one-size-ﬁts-all lectures. They should focus on helping individual students. • Explore online learning. In the United States, on average, it already costs less to educate a student online than it does in the current monolithic model. • Customize. Software makers need to customize their offerings to accommodate different kinds of learners. In a classroom of the future, students are learning Mandarin Chinese grammar. The students wear noise-canceling headphones and work with laptop computers. One student is directing the work of a brick mason on his computer screen by having him assemble a sentence in the same way that he would construct a wall—block by block. There are stacks of blocks with words on them in the background of the screen; each is colored for its potential role in the sentence. The student directs the mason to pick blocks out of the appropriate stacks and put them in the correct order of a Mandarin sentence. When all the required blocks have been assembled in the proper sequence, the Mandarin word replaces the English on each block, and the student joins the brick mason in reading the sentence (which is written phonetically in the Roman alphabet). When the student doesn’t get the pronunciation right, the brick mason looks pained. The mason says the correct pronunciation, and when the student gets it right, the brick mason gives a high ⇒ve. Mandarin is a tonal language, so the blocks then tilt to help the student see and feel the tones. Another student in the same classroom is learning the same material from the same software program by rote memorization—listening to a native Mandarin speaker and then repeating the sentences, in a mode of learning familiar to her parents’ generation. 48 EDUTOPIA AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2008 http://Xplane.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Edutopia - August/September 2008

Edutopia Contents Up Front Feedback Dispatches Sage Advice Ask Ellen Head of Class Cool Schools Design: Building on Disaster What's Next Full-Service Schools In the Trenches Moral Aptitude Serious Gaming Behaveyourself.com Media Is the Message The Way of the Wiki A Match Made in Cyberspace Hail to the New Chief Rise of the Robots Disrupting Class As Others See Us Heart & Soul Pop Quiz: Moby

Edutopia - August/September 2008

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