The Challenge:

When I started teaching, we had no computers, we were starting to transition from blue ditto templates to clucky photocopy machines. I still used film strips, chalk and kept attendance in a Delaney book. When I finished formal classroom teaching in 2019, we had fast reliable copy machines, smart boards with unlimited audio-visual options, all attendance was taken on the computer and the Internet penetrated all aspects of education. But. even with all the technological change, most of it was cosmetic. If you look at pictures of classrooms even one hundred years ago the model is students in desks and a teacher, the giver of information, at the front of the classroom. A teacher centered classroom. Besides some fancy bells and whistles most classrooms and learning methods are not particularly different compared to one hundred years or more ago. A student of one hundred years ago would be overwhelmed with all the change in society, but they would not be that unfamiliar with the set up and delivery of education in most of today’s schools. With the explosion of information availability and the recent game changing potential of AI in our lives, we MUST REALLY alter our education systems.

A Solution:

I may be naive, but my imaginary Kurtz Academy would revolve around the following themes (order not significant):

(I will address these in future KBLOGS)

1.      Financial Literacy

2.     Outdoor Education

3.     Computer Programming

4.    Music

5.    Scientific Method

6.    Art

7.     History and Government

8.    Inventing and Entrepreneurship

9.    Speaking a Foreign Language(s) and Internation Exposure

10.  Eating Healthy

11.    Leveraging Artificial Intelligence

 Resources:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0U3WN3f52x8 – The Future of Education: A Student’s Perspective

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0U3WN3f52x8 – The Future of Education: A Student’s Perspective

https://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_build_a_school_in_the_cloud - Build a School in the Cloud

https://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_kids_can_teach_themselves - Kids Can Teach Themselves