Utopian Visions for the Future of Education

or, “What box?”

Scottmerrick Oh’s work-in-progress

Shared in Second Life with Virtual Pioneers

“History from Your Home” Online Conference, October 30, 2010

Virtual Pioneers HQ:

Slides from my dry erase board:I regularly read about educational change: It’s part of my job as Virtual Learning Curriculum Specialist at Metro Nashville Public Schools. I created the following food for thought from my jottings on a dry erase board that I scrawl upon daily. Essentially, I’m wondering aloud what changes we need to implement in order to make educational systems work, and what underlying changes in our perceptions of “work” will be required to support those changes. Here:

We MUST stop limiting “education” to that which is

defined by the existing factory model.

Sir Ken Robinson’s 2009 talk to the World Bank, interpreted by RSA Animate:

“That’s the way we’ve always

done it.”

The 7 most dangerous words in the English language:

But what if…

…broadband internet access were a “right”

and that right included the hardware necessary

to ensure its obtainment?

What if…

…a system were in place so that EVERY child received a

twice-annually updated Individualized Learning Program from a team of professional educators?

What if…

…there were no grades, but rather credit toward

advancement and graduation granted on a

best practices recognition of “Performances of

Understanding?”

What if…

…the system valued student-initiated learning

enough to credit self-motivated learning on any topic with a value

applicable to a high school diploma?

What if…

…the system valued parental oversight of a

child at home enough to subsidize that parent’s

income toward supporting that

oversight?

News Alert (May 25, 2015): The owners of every major professional sporting team in the country,

spurred on by NFL franchise owners’ agreement last August, have agreed to donate an annual sum equivalent to the

annual salary of their top-salaried player to support the Federal Parental Oversight

fund. Hollywood movie studios are considering a similar program. Stay tuned…

What if…

…every teacher were trained and required to

teach a balanced schedule of onsite classes

and online classes,

from schooland/or

from home,

and remunerated according to the quality of her or his

contribution to the improvement of the dialog

(“Informational Reciprocity”)

?

What if…

…every textbook were available online and in

traditional print?

What if…

…a realistic blended-attendance school

were in session year-round?

What if…

…there were no standardized testing, and

teachers were free to practice their art in a

realistic set of environments?

We MUST stop limiting “education” to that

which is defined by the existing factory model.

Resources for inspiration

• http://scottmerrick.blogspot.com/2010/10/sir-ken-robinson-helps-me-out-again.html

• http://www.alfiekohn.org/tapesdvd.htm• http://davidwarlick.com/wordpress/?page_id

=5• http://www.committedsardine.com/elements.

cfm• http://scottmerrick.blogspot.com/2010/10/es

teemed-gary-stager-educational-change.html• http://www.rogerschank.com/education.html• http://kzero.co.uk