I was able to attend TEDxLitchfieldED on June 28 at the IBM conference center in Southbury, Conn. Overall the event discussed the future of education and smarter cities. I was also curious to see their setup as I’m beginning the planning phase of my own TEDx event, TEDxBushnellPark.
The opening segment was a group activity to build a tower from marshmallows, pasta, tape and string. This was an awesome idea. It immediately woke people up and forced them to start interacting with one another.
The conference room lighting was dark, but with cool red flood lighting on either side of the stage.
There were 2 Camera people and 4 Cameras
Digital Learning for All Now: Jonathan Costa at TEDxLitchfieldED
Are there differences between college and workforce ready?
How are they different?
“If you ask the wrong question, you will get the wrong answer”
Quote from Deming:
Common causes (Systemic, predictable, controllable)
Special causes (Random and unpredictable and beyond control)
As you prepare for special causes, we inevitably do it at the expense of the commons
To get kids ready for a digital future, we need to show them how to use new technology.
We used to think that kids using technology would lead them to sit in a room by themselves. Now, teachers are finding that most of what these kids do with technology is communicate with one another.
What happens to learning when everyone can get anything from anywhere? IE: Wikipedia.
Its impossible for teachers to teach 21 century skills if they dont possess them themselves.
If we limit access, we limit ability.
Every time we spend an annual budget on books and analog tasks we fail to turn ourselves into a digital school system which can leverage the advances of technology and create a more productive learning environment.
If you could afford to do it, would you do it?
When the right thing to do becomes the least expensive thing to do – there are fewer barriers to doing it. We are quickly getting to that point in education.
Wrong Question: Are we getting kids ready for the workforce, or are we getting them ready for college? And is getting them ready for college different than the workforce?
By pouring complete faith into testing we are pushing a special cause (a perceived weakness in reading writing and math) onto everyone and limiting kids from learning about everything else. It’s a model that doesn’t allow for creativity… and what if we’re wrong?
