Their Space
Rick Atkins (Education Collaborative, Waltham, Mass) highly recommends reading a recent publication by a British think-tank, Demos, titled “Their Space.” The publication highlights the ways in which students are increasingly looking to their peers to get information and knowledge, and calls for schools to find ways to support this shift. You can download a free PDF at http://www.demos.co.uk/publications/theirspace (79 pages)
Excerpt: In order to see change across the system, there needs to be a shift in thinking about investment from hardware towards relationships and networks. In the last ten years we have seen a staggering change in the amount of hardware in schools, but it has not had a significant impact on teaching and learning styles. So what does this mean for schools? It means that they need to really listen and respond to their users. Schools often fail to start in the right place – with the interests and enthusiasms of their students. They also need to recognise the new digital divide – one of access to knowledge rather than hardware – and start to redress some of the existing imbalances. Finally they need to develop strategies to bridge formal and informal learning, home and school. They should find ways that go with the grain of what young people are doing, in order to foster new skills and build on what we know works.The world has changed so why haven’t we?The current generation of young people will reinvent the workplace, and the society they live in. They will do it along the progressive lines that are built into the technology they use everyday – of networks, collaboration, co-production and participation. The change in behaviour has already happened.We have to get used to it, accept that the flow of knowledge moves both ways and do our best to make sure that no one is left behind.
