I can’t stop thinking about this article which I read yesterday.
I am excited to see what children in a zero literacy village without electricity did with zero instruction with OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) laptops. It is mind blowing. I would have loved to have heard the kids’ conversations as they figured it all out. I actually got goosebumps when I read about how kids share their learning with their parents.
At the same time, I am really worried. I feel like the article has no implications for schools in the developed world except that we are creating drones. Even my own school is now giving the MAP test and it is eating up more and more time.
Some day these third world kids are going to trounce our students who are learning how to regurgitate, not how to learn and think. I just watched this snippet of Alfie Kohn explaining the difference between achievement and learning.
I know those Ethiopian children were learning. I worry that more and more often, my students are only achieving — and not enough of the parents and teachers think that is a problem.
> Some day these third world kids are going to trounce our students…
That’s a good thing, not a bad thing. It means a more distributed world, and one in which we have 7 billion people capable of addressing the problems of the day, not just a few million.
YES! I completely agree! It is a great thing for them and for the world. Apart from that I am sad for my students as our schools shift their focus from learning to achievement.