For decades, education has been an easy institution to define. It consisted of a set of accepted literacy skills, a definable body of knowledge, and the pedagogies for teaching those skills to willing students who were arranged in straight rows. Today, for the first time in decades (generations of teachers), we are facing the challenge of changing our notions about teaching and learning to adapt to a rapidly changing world.

The audience of this presentation will learn about three converging conditions that are forcing us to rethink and redefine what it is to be a teacher – what it is to be a learner.

1 -- One of the prevailing memes of our time is that of a flattening world, as describe in The World is Flat, by Thomas Friedman. But forcing an even more profound and fundamental change in what it is that we do, is the simple fact that for the first time in history, we can not clearly describe the future that we are preparing our children for.

When we could predict the future, it was easy to determine what skills and knowledge successful citizens of that future would need. But what skills and knowledge will our future citizens need for a future that can not be predicted.

2 -- It is no surprise to any parent or teacher that most of our children enjoy an information experience that is far richer, deeper, and personal than what can be provided in most classrooms around the world. Our reaction has been to block these experiences as distractions, rather than trying to understand them for the educational potentials that they hold.

It is critical that we find and invent ways to channel, through these rich information experiences -- meaningful learning that is rigorous, relevant, and that leverages new relationships that become possible in connected classrooms and schools.

3 -- The very information landscape that we live and work in today has changed dramatically. Since the inception of personal computers and the World Wide Web, information has increasingly become more networked, digital, and overwhelming. With Web 2.0, it has become more participatory, reader directed, and people connecting.

Each of these conditions applies enormous pressure on schools and societies as they seek to adapt to rapidly changing times. But each condition also points to avenues and pivot points where change can be affected in how and what we teach...

1 -- within an information environment that seems ready made for compelling conveyance of content and skills,

2 -- Students who are entering the classrooms with enormous energy generated by their rich outside-the-classroom information experiences, and

3 -- A future that seems to care less about what we can teach, and more about what we can teach ourselves.

Outline

1. Presenting converging condition one: Flat World (10m)
2. Presenting converging condition two: Flat Student/Teacher relationships (10m)
3. Presenting converging condition three: Flattening information landscape (10m)
4. Strategies for leveraging the flattening information landscape for learning (10m)
5. Strategies for tapping into our students information experiences for learning (10m)
6. Making a distinction between teaching students how to be taught, and teaching them to teach themselves. (10m)

Supporting Research

The World is Flat, by Thomas Friedman
Growing up Digital, by Don Tapscott
Wikinomics, by Don Tapscott
Got Game, by John Beck

Presenter Background

David Warlick is a 30+ year educator, an author, programmer, trainer, and public speaker. He has presented on a wide variety of education and technology topics to audiences across the U.S. Canada, Europe, Asia, and South America.

David has written three books on technology and literacy, contributes to a number of education technology journals, and has been quoted by Education Week, The San Francisco Chronicle, The New York Times, Washington Post, and USA TODAY.