Drape's Takes

Because there is so much learning occuring outside our schools with networked technologies, what can we - as institutions of learning - offer students when we choose to block the avenues for learning with which they're already so familiar? A "better" way to learn? A "more significant and accurate" manner in which their learning is assessed? A first-hand view of the same educational experiece their parents once shared?

Yawn.

I think many of our youth would quickly agree that most of the so- called "better approaches to learning" that don't involve technology feel frustratingly similar to trading today's jet airliner for their (great great) grandfather's horse and buggy. Sure, it's great to experience the feel and smell of the horse, but not when you've seriously got somewhere to fly!

Ironically, if we don't learn to incorporate social networking technologies better into our schools' instructional processes, the only eventual use most of our students will have for school is the venue our campuses can provide to build the personal (and very much networked) connections that can be forged through meeting with peers in the same geographic location. Athletics, extra curricular activities, and special programs will become the central curriculum in any school that doesn't leverage social technologies because core skills can be more quickly and conveniently learned elsewhere.

For these and other reasons, I don't think blocking networked learning in our schools is a viable option.

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Cross posted at Thinking Out Loud... Let's learn together.