Will:
You’ve hit the nail on the head. We are trying to teach the same way we did 10, 20 years ago to a generation that is not the same the generation 10, 20 years ago. I’ve just read the first chapter of “Millienials Rising” and it points out just how different this generation is going to be. They are going to diverge from the status quo. If we are going to help them succeed beyond our walls, we have to teach them in a different way. They are going to be facing a whole new world and in order to compete, we have to teach them in a different way. I’ve read Pink’s book and it is extrememly enlightening. If anyone hasn’t read it, it is a must! Truly fascinating!

Will,

Glad you enjoyed Ken’s talk. I heard him speak at SETT in Scotland last year. He’s a great speaker with a powerful message.

[…] Along these lines, Will Richardson recently discussed the importance of instilling creativity in our students. Creativity is something I have noticed lacking in my students over the years.  Many of them seem unable or unwillinging to think creatively.  They want a right or a wrong answer (and would prefer that I tell it to them).  They have difficulty thinking “outside of the box” to solve problems and are many times stumped if given an open-ended question or assignment.  They also struggle when attempting to draw parralells between things.  I would like to blame the standardized testing movement for this lack of free thought, but I am sure there is more to it than that.  Why is thinking creatively so difficult for many of our students, and how can we help illustrate the importance of ingenuity? Creativity, imagination, innovation, ingenuity… these are very important concepts to instill in our students if we want them to be successful in our ever-changing world.  Perhaps the one red paperclip can inspire some of our students to think creatively by showing them that ingenuity can sometimes lead to personal profit. […]

Given the myriad ways technology can be utilized in the classroom (provided resources are available)what is being done about addressing the issue of creating exciting science curriculum –specifically creating electronic learning communities to cultivate engineers and scientists? Afterall, the U.S. has fallen behind other industrialized nations in math & science and the outlook for the future is not good. The last I read, U.S. universities were turning out about 60,000 engineers in 2000 versus 85,000 a decade earlier. Science ed in U.S. high schools is typically insipid. How can educators change this using technology, weblogs, etc?

I like your George Siemens quote. Not only is this true for our students, it is also true for our teachers and administrators. We need to teach them how to become part of the Web 2.0 environment so that they can help students learn within it. I ramble on about this more at http://pargonet.wordpress.com/2006/07/11/digital-immigrants-20/

It’s an interesting discussion you are having. I’ve read Pink’s book and summarized it. I’m not familiar with Sir Ken Robinson but this issue of moving to the concept or creative stage of our development is of great significance. I’ve written several books for students in school from Jr. High through University, even one for adults returning to college (a set of books per school level including home school) and I’ve tried to incorporate some of these ideas as well as some of the present learning and study skills I have been able to find. We won’t know how to teach children today for what they will need to do in 25 years since we don’t know what it will look like but we can start changing focus while continuing our basic ways. Technology changes what we can do and need to do. Using a computer used to be entering exact addressed to do many things, now we have icons which we click. Publishing and graphics were the domanin of professionals and now there are programs to let anyone publish and create graphics good enough to use professionally. Bill Gates was once asked if he was not concerned that the Chinese engineers wers taught in a strict way, more old school structure. Wasn’t he concerned that the old rigid way would get in the way of creativity? He answered that he would take those taught in this way if they were well proficient and then let them start to be creative as they worked. (Gates is not Jobs but no matter what you think of Microsoft, they are in the game) We will have to change how we teach chilren but certain attitudes in schools today have to change. My storefront that has my books is at http://www.slssystem.com - I used Pink’s vision of human development from hunter gatherer thrugh information age and concept age in the books I have written to help students see where we are and what they need to prepare for. In 10 - 15 years it may change again but all we can do is prepare as well as we can and notice the trends and change our approaches to what is needed.

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