Why do kids flock to Harry Potter, Star Wars, and the Lord of the Rings? Simple, the unlikely hero finds themselves in unexpected circumstances and learns to do things previously thought impossible. It is the hero who does the doing. Not the mentor, not the teacher, but rather the unlikely moisture farm boy from Tattooine destroying the Death Star. In school, we have traditionally sought opportunities for learning that prepared us by transferring content knowledge. In a world where knowledge was scarce, the skills for quickly remembering knowledge, transferring knowledge, and finding knowledge were paramount. What you knew could quite frankly save your live and those around you. If you were bitten by a brown recluse spider, recognizing that it was a spider bite and getting to the hospital as fast as possible made a difference. Now, we simply take a picture of the infected area, compare it to Web MD, and seek support necessary. In our prior experiences, much like the children of Harry Potter, learning could and needed to look like this:
However, we don't live in a knowledge economy any more. We live in an innovation and creation economy. The value is not in what we know but what we can do. This is a benefit to both us and the children. No longer do we need to be the guardian of the facts but rather the issuers of challenges. It is more effective for us to use the content as the springboard for the creative and collaborative things that the children can do. The experiences and explorations we create can be ones in which children are passionate. In Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, the children learn a series of basic spells. These spells become the groundings in which they are able to collaboratively stop Lord Voldemort from returning. Their learnings and background knowledge, such as Ron's understanding of chess, become effective tools in solving the film's challenge.
In film, much as life, heroes don't save the day as solo acts, but rather collaborative entities. Where would Luke Skywalker be without Han, Leia, Chewie, Lando, C3PO, and R2D2? Frodo Baggins would have never fulfilled the quest without Sam Gamgee next to him. In Harry Potter, like Ender's Game, the true solutions only come from information and skills the children can develop themselves:
Our children crave the opportunities to lead in their learning. Content is important, but what one does with it is more important. Children being given problems, resources, and the challenge to create great things is more powerful than any grounding in rigorous knowledge of our current time.
My youngest has been running around for two weeks with a stuffed owl in one hand shouting, the wand chooses the wizard. For him, the wand is the tool that would allow him to do great things. For our kids, whether it be a tablet or a netbook, the digital tools open the world for them to learn about great wonder and create the unimaginable. I wonder how Harry, Ron, and Hermione might feel if Google and Wolfram Alpha were available in the wizarding world.
No comments:
Post a Comment