Learning Manifesto

Learning Manifesto

By: Mitch Madden

I believe that we must change the way we educate our students today to be more in aligned with today’s world. I believe one thing that is wrong with education today is we are still teaching like we were taught. As John Dewey says, “If we teach today’s students as we taught yesterdays, we rob them of tomorrow.” In other words we need to be engaging them in the tools of tomorrow and embrace the use of technology within education instead of being afraid of allowing students to utilize these tools.

I feel some of the issues related to digital learning throughout the state, regional, national, and global market are not embracing the use of technology in real and authentic learning. We are still stuck on student’s being required to pass a written exam or some sort of exam when we have not utilized technology to engage students and properly access them through the use of allowing students being able to make a choice in their learning by being creative and using critical thinking skills. This is why I believe in the COVA model, because it allows students a choice and voice in their education. When students are allowed this opportunity you will see more ownership of students in their own education. This will lead to more creativity and deeper critical thinking. This is true authentic learning as we allow our students to solve a real world problem through this opportunity.

I believe we have always taught that there is only one answer and this is why teachers are not all on aboard of allowing students this choice and opportunity. They are not sure how to handle integrating the use of technology into their classroom or how to allow students a choice in their learning. It is easier to give them a multiple choice test. We must understand that if we want students to develop a growth mindset and take on challenges by thinking outside the box then we must be willing to do it ourselves. That leads me to another critical area that we must change in education today. Some teachers are still looking for the easy road and don’t believe in growing as individuals. How can we develop the next generation of leaders, inventors, and problem solvers if we are not willing to take chances and risk ourselves? How can we expect our students to grow as individuals, if we do not have a mindset that learning is a life long journey that never ends? Teachers don’t use technology, because they don’t know how to use it or afraid of losing control in the classroom. We should see technology as a tool to help students be more creative, develop a sense of deeper critical thinking, and ownership in their education. If we lead by example and show students we are doing this our self then they will follow when we give them the opportunity. We should allow them more control of their education. Not all students learn the same way, therefor allowing them more opportunities and choices will allow students to discover the best method for themselves and grow as individuals.

I am truly passionate about finding new ways to integrate technology into the learning environment. I truly believe in allowing students a choice and voice in their education through more project base learning opportunities that solve real world problems that will develop their creativity and critical thinking. I believe that when you do this then students will take more ownership in their education, which will lead to less discipline problems and more engagement. I believe the best way to engage students are through the use of technology and real authentic hands on learning. I believe in learning is a never ending journey and that you should always be open to wanting to learn something new every day. I believe that when we have more collaboration and work together then we will be able to solve more of the real world issues and do it quicker. I believe the use of technology has allowed us to learn anything, anywhere, at any given moment. Technology is a great way to communicate to the world and share your work.

As I mentioned in a previous writing my goal to my students is to allow them choice and voice in their education through real world problems by using project based learning that allows them to collaborate and take more ownership in their education. I will give honest and helpful feedback, advice on future learning strategies, and opportunities to revise their work and show their learning. I want to steer away from written multiple choice type of assessment and assess students learning through more enriched project based learning method with the use of technology. I will work on improving the integration of technology into my classroom while giving examples of my work to the students and coworkers. Showing my willingness to take this risk myself will lead to students and coworkers feeling more at ease to take the risk. I will challenge my students to think outside the box, while allowing them the flexibility of choice in their design and solving the problem. Allowing them to collaborate with each other to solve issues will help them understand the power of yet as they find ways to get the answers to the problems they encounter in their journey. I feel by empowering my students, allowing them to be computational thinkers and innovative designers within their projects will align with the ISTE standards. Teaching them the importance of collaboration on a global basis and communicate through the use of their creative thoughts will allow them to go outside their boundaries in their learning environment. I will work on redesigning my classroom learning environment to better meet the needs of my students as they progress through learning by the use of the COVA model. I will communicate what we are doing to rest of my campus in the hope of inspiring some of them to take the same risk. I will resist the temptation to go back to my safe zone and keep striving to think outside the box. Taking these challenges will continue to develop my growth mindset and continue my life long journey of learning that never ends. Technology is our future and we should find ways to embrace and use it within education to help our students become the leaders, problem solvers, and critical thinkers that we need to solve the problems of not only today, but tomorrow.

References

Bray, B., McClaskey, K. (2014). Personalize your learning environment Retrieved from: https://www.iste.org/explore/articledetail?articleid=11

Dweck, C.S. (2016). Mindset. Ballantine Books, 3 – 264.

ISTE. (2019) ISTE Standards for students. Retrieved from: https://www.iste.org/standards/for-students

Thibodeaux, T. N. (2017) Passport to learning: turning today’s learners into tomorrow’s leaders. Retrieved from: http://tilisathibodeaux.com/wordpress/?page_id=1539