My 5-year-old nephew was visiting us today, first day of the half term break. He was keen to tell me about his new game for his Wii – Lego Batman. He was extremely pleased with himself because he had got to Level 5 but was having difficulty getting to Level 6. He then gave me a detailed and animated account of the game so far and more importantly what he thought he needed to do next to get to the next level (something to do with battle shields, I think!)
His resilience shone through as he catalogued what he had failed to do so far and what he intended to do next to overcome these failures. His problem solving skills were evident as he explained, in minute detail, what he thought he needed to do to get these battle shields and how he had come to this conclusion. His language skills were great as he recounted the adventure so far. He was obviously learning a great deal and having tremendous fun.
I then felt sorry for him, though I didn’t say so. Next Monday he goes back to school. Will he have this much fun – I doubt it. He certainly wont be problem solving at anywhere near this level nor being asked to recount such a complicated story. Those developing resilience skills will not be challenged to anywhere near the same level. His learning will ‘power down’ until he gets home again.
……it’s obvious that we are in the midst of a huge period of invention and innovation. Not so much by us, the Digital Immigrants, but by the Digital Natives for themselves. Our kids have recognised in this new digital technology an incredibly powerful tool, and they are making the most of it, using it in ways we can’t even imagine. So why not let them reinvent school?
Now, is that a frightening thought or an exciting one?
“…….. children are passionately eager to make as much sense as they can of the world around them. Children observe, wonder, find or make and then test the answers to the questions they ask themselves. When they are not actually prevented from doing these things, they continue to do them and to get better and better at it.”
Upstairs, management decides when the containers should be put on the assembly line, how long they should be left on and what kinds of materials should be poured in and what should be done about those containers that have smaller openings or no openings at all. He goes on to say,
“No one seems to ask the obvious question. How come so many of the containers, having had these substances poured into them for so many years, are still going out of the factory empty? If students don’t know enough, we insist, it is because we don’t start pouring soon enough, or didn’t pour the right stuff or enough of it.”
Apparently on Christmas Day there were more than 17.4 new iOS and Android devices activated. On Christmas Day 2011 there were 6.8 million device applications. At the same time there were 328 million app downloads on Christmas Day. This information is taken from the ‘Flurry Blog’ who reckon that:
Looking forward to 2013, Flurry expects the trend of one billion download weeks to become the norm, and that the industry will surpass the two billion download week during the latter part of the year.
I wonder how many of these devices Santa delivered to our children? Many of the children in our schools will have access to sophisticated technology while at home but not at school. Who will be teaching them how to use this technology to get the most from them? Who will be advising them on the best apps to enhance their learning?
“We are not going to build better learning for our children; we are going to build it with our children.” Stephen Heppell