Our students need to learn HOW to learn. As educators, we are pressured with deadlines and learning standards that must be taught, but we are missing one key component to education, our students don’t know HOW to process information and truly learn from it.
Ito said, "Education is what people do to you and learning is what you do to yourself" (Ito, 2014).
When taking his words into my personal zone of focus, middle school education, they seem connected to the idea of productive struggle. For students to effectively learn they must be given the chance to make mistakes and to dig through material on their own, without the crutch of a teacher. As a math educator, productive struggle is something that I am very passionate about. Giving our students tools to learn is important, but giving them opportunities to learn by doing is where you can see great change.
Blended learning is a great avenue to encourage our students to truly learn material without interference. Monigue Markoff makes a point to note that teachers will still need to be in control and proficient in the blended learning classroom. Teachers need to be able to take data and utilize it to create and adapt learning to the needs of the students. This pulls educators out of the futurist mindset of planning for the future, to the now-ist mindset. Teachers will have to pull and plan based on current and evolving data for now rather than for the future. Teachers are known to be flexible and open to adaptation, but we need to do more to truly engage in innovation.
Ito, J. (2014, March). Want to innovate? Become a "now-ist" [Video]. TED Conferences. Joi Ito: Want to innovate? Become a "now-ist"
TEDx Talks (2014, May 6). Click here-- blended learning and the future of education: Monique Markoff at TEDxIthacaCollege. [Video]. YouTube. Click here-- blended learning and the future of education: Monique Markoff at TEDxIthacaCollege
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