Fist by Filipe Ferreira; Creative Commons Share Alike
There was a call for revolution yesterday at the Roundhouse in London. Not the
sort of revolution that we have seen that involves civil unrest. Something much
more constructive and lasting – a way forward for education. A way that gets
back to the basics of education – something that can have an impact on our
society, our economy, that values our culture and the cultures of others, that
is personal and personalised. If the bare minimum that is needed for theatre is
an actor and someone to watch (Peter Brooks via Sir Ken Robinson) and only things that enhance the theatre should be added in, then the bare minimum for education is the relationship between a teacher and a learner. I’d go even further than Sir Ken and suggest
that teacher needn’t be “me” in a classroom – it could be another child, a friend, a parent, an aunt, an outside expert. But I completely agree (and have often been heard to say!) that learning is dependent on relationships.
Reflecting on the wide variety of speakers and the conversations I had with others during and after the event, though, I think the title of the event was misleading. I believe the revolution is already happening. And maybe it isn’t happening as a megachange, as Seymour Papert advocated in The Children’s Thinking Machine. If change is to have a real deep impact and affect more than just a few people in isolated classrooms, it needs to happen in a much more subtle and organic way. As Georgia Mills said, she learnt a lot before attending
the event through social media, online maps, websites – and she wasn’t even in school! Harnessing those tools that are becoming part of everyday lives empowers our learners to be lifelong learners, “Martini” style learners (remember the anytime, anyplace, anywhere adverts from years ago?!). The tools we use are not as important as the way they are being used – there’s so many ways that technology can provide immersive, direct learning experiences of the kind that we couldn’t experience without the tech. This was touched on by many of the speakers… Nick Stanhope’s 4 dimensional history maps, Max Whitby’s hands on space app, Evan Grant’s use of the kinect and other tools with autistic children, Scott Snibbe with his innovative music app for Bjork’s album, Dan Roberts’ collaborations. But all tools that are becoming “normal” in peoples’ everyday lives. Geoff Stead talked about mobile devices being the Swiss army knife tool for learning – they are an affordable agent for the change in learning, in pedagogy, for empowering learners so they can learn when, where, how it suits them.
What makes the difference, what makes it possible to use those tools for learning, is the creativity of those who are teaching – or should I say facilitating learning – and those who are learning. Jude Kelly talked about the need to harness the creativity of both students and teachers and this could be seen in, for example, the creativity of the Saltash.net students making their own app for a timetable – the eTable, as well as the creativity of Emily Cummins with her amazing inventions that have the power to change the lives of other people. And being creative is not just about what we make – it’s about the questions we ask. As Ewan Macintosh pointed out, problem finding is even more important than problem solving! It seems eminently sensible to me that we need to be able to recognise and describe problems before we can go about solving them!! But good ideas, inventions and questions don’t just emerge because they are good, as Professor Ken Spours pointed out. They need the right conditions in order to be realised.
So what are the right conditions? They’re not the same for everyone, as Goldie reminded us when he described that his learning had come from street culture rather than school. He talked about the importance of mentors in his learning, which brings us back to the point about learning being relational. Emily Cummins’ mentor was her grandfather. Jude Kelly from the South Bank Centre
talked about how the encouragement she had received had been key to her own development and success. Geoff Stead showed how the use of mobile technology can build collaboration between teachers and between students.
Revolution? It’s not something to plan for – it’s happening. And it’s happening through the use of tech tools, creativity and relationships. And out of all of those, it’s the relationships that are key. Those who were at the event were encouraged to make a pledge about how they were going to contribute to the revolution. Me? My pledge has to be to encourage collaboration – between learners, between learners and their teachers (whoever they may be) and between teachers, so EVERYONE feels empowered to lead amazing learning opportunities in their own lessons.
