As educators we often see the term “life-long
learners”. In fact, when asked by others
what my goal as a classroom teacher was, I most often answered by saying
“creating life-long learners”. But what
exactly does this mean and how do we achieve it?
The truth is, the world is constantly changing
and the demands our students will be held to are impossible to accurately
project even five years out, let alone twenty.
So creating life-long learners for this unknown environment can be tricky. However, one fundamental will always stay the
same—independent learners must be given the power (and trust) to learn on their
own.
As a teacher this made me nervous. I liked being in control of my students’
learning. I liked structuring the delivery of content to maximize learning and
coming up with fun applications for kids to demonstrate their new
understandings. I’m not going to lie—I
liked being the “Sage on the Stage”.
However, as comforting (and fun) as this instructional modality was, did
it truly prepare my students to become independent life-long learners? Maybe.
But I have a sneaking suspicion I left a lot on the table.
Sugata Mitra, the winner of the 2013 TED Prize believes educators need to reexamine their instruction. After witnessing young disadvantaged kids
explore and master incredibly complex concepts with nothing more than a
computer and Internet access, he began to wonder what education could look like if we (the teachers)
were willing to let go and hand over the power of learning to our students.
Mitra coined the term Self-Organized Learning Environments (SOLEs), which are student-driven,
collaborative approaches to independent learning, which create unique ways to hand
over exploration and learning to students.
In addition, SOLEs also provide the context to develop creativity and
innovation in every learner. According
to SOLEs creator, Sugata Mitra:
“Profound changes to how
children access vast information is yielding new forms of peer-to-peer and
individual-guided learning…To prepare for the realities of the future workplace
and the rapidly changing technological landscape, it is critical for educators
to invite kids to get good at asking big questions that lead them on
intellectual journeys to pursue answers, rather than only memorizing facts”
We have the power to do this today. A class of 25 kids would need only 5
computers and a complex open-ended question…that’s it! It seems every new article and education
expert is talking about the 4 C’s (Creativity, Communication, Collaboration,
Critical Thinking). Well, here is a way
for kids of all ages, abilities and access to develop these 21st
century skills in their existing classrooms.
If you aren't familiar with Mitra's work, I encourage you to watch his TED Talk and also download the SOLE Toolkit to see how it you can implement SOLEs in your classroom. If you want to learn more you can also check out the following articles:
