The More I Know

The more I know, the less certain I am of anything. This holds true for school, politics, work, relationships, teaching, and learning. As a young progressive teacher in my mid-20s circa 1995, I held great zeal and hope for a revolution in education that I was certain was just around the corner. I remember being annoyed with a co-teacher, then in her 60s, who saw me and my fellow zealots as simply a "swing of the pendulum".  Didn't she see the future!?

I don't think the pendulum ever really swung. Dewey's really never had his day. We've been doubling and tripling down on traditional methods in this society my entire career. As ed-tech took its baby steps, I again grew excited. But so much/ most of ed-tech now simply seems to support traditional, teacher-centered methods.

We want to monitor and control what kids see on their screens. It's what teachers most want.
We want self-grading quizzes. We use Kahoot so we can spice up recall based lessons.
The tools we've adapted are teacher-centered tools. Ed-tech isn't leading the revolution, it is supporting the status quo.

We ed-tech folks have awesome jargon. 21st century ed! Personalized Instruction! Skills-based!
Take a look at this book-trailer for Alan November. It still asks all the right questions. But I don't know how we begin to answer them in the USA in 2018.

I once thought I had the answers. Maybe I still do. But maybe I don't.