Do leapfrogs eat waterbugs?

Back around the new year, several edubloggers were musing on the personal and technological changes they had experienced and revving up for the challenges ahead. Clarence Fisher's post on "Educational Leap - Frogging" got the attention of the guys at EdTechTalk.com and they had Clarence on for a conversation. The gist of the discussion was: how do we break through old habits of education to use technology to liberate the learner. Here is how Fisher described the challenge in his original post:

Economists talk about leap - frogging when they look at nations in Africa and Asia that are making quick economic progress in communications, in connecting their people... Now that MIT has brought out its $100 laptop, these nations will be on the same "playing field" as our kids very soon.

We need to develop this same idea in education. We need to leave behind ideas of incrementally increasing our understanding, and incrementally changing our teaching methods, slowly bringing people up to speed. This idea worked fine when ideas of literacy and education were not rapidly changing; but they are. We need to be be able to leap - frog in our understandings, in our methods, and in our tools, allowing us to move to where the kids are. If we do not become leaders to our students, we will be followers, seen as irrelevant, and left to cry in our books while the kids are off setting the agenda.

On EdTechTalk.com, Dave, Jeff and Clarence lamented the many levels of resistance they see to the kind of changes they think are necessary. The wondered allowed where the leadership is going to come from to champion this change.

I have three thoughts on this.

One: I belong to an organization called Simply Living. Our mission is "educate ourselves and others to live responsibly and sustainably in joyful relationship with the earth and one another." This goal has us embracing may issues related to environmental sustainability, health and healing, personal growth, and grassroots economics and democracy. Talk about changing the system! And while we are an advocacy organization, we live by a motto that paraphrases Gandhi: Living the change we seek for the world. After all, if you cannot manifest the change in your own life, how can you expect it in others? If the change cannot be seen in living breathing reality, how can others know what it is?

They same motto needs to be adopted by advocates of Networked Learning. We need to continue to model the uses of technology that free learners to reach their full potential. A revolution cannot be dictated, it has to have popular appeal. But if an idea is truly valuable, it will reach a tipping point in due time. Of course we can do all we can to sow the seeds of change, which leads me to my next thought.

Two: Evangelize the grassroots who have a highly relevant need for these technologies. Who this is depends on the community you live in. In my context in Ohio, in the United States, I see two groups. One is community technology centers (CTC), the other is grassroots media producers.

Here in Columbus there are 15 or more CTCs. These are places where people can access computers and receive training in how to use them. They may use the centers to do homework, apply for jobs, pursue a GED or whatever other personal use. Some CTCs are run by churches, others by neighborhood associations. They exist to serve those people on the far side of the digital divide, to help them to not be left behind. Like the developing nations of the world, these communities are prime candidates to leap-frog the slow moving school systems.

Grassroots media producers are increasingly turning to social software and podcast technology to work around the political obstacles to community radio and public access television. These are people from all walks of life with a passion to communicate their unique take on life. If they use tools like blogs, wikis, skype, and RSS to communicate their message, they will look for and ask for these tools in other areas of life.

Three: I think it was Dave Cormier, on EdTechTalk, who suggested that we need to look at charter schools as environments to experiment and demonstrate networked learning. I agree. I also recognize that compared to the previous two ideas, this requires the greatest investment of energy and money and provides the greatest risk. Charter Schools are not widely accepted. Any educational method deployed within a charter environment could be ridiculed simply because it is in the charter environment. Still, given the right circumstances, when school leadership and community are philosophically aligned, a charter school could be a remarkable proving ground.

Oh my, I think a leapfrog just ate my waterbug.

Technorati Tags: Clarence Fisher, Networked Learning, Leapfrog, Simply Living, CTCnet,