It was the early 2000's, at the beginning of a new school year, and I was in a meeting with my Head of School, the School Board President, the three Principals and assorted concerned school board members - in short all of the big "machers" (Lit: Makers - Yiddish slang for very important people) for our private Jewish day school. The topic: do we start a 1:1 laptop program where each student gets a laptop or not. It seemed that another school had just introduced a 1:1 laptop program and our people were in a panic.
It was into this dynamic that I asked a very simple question but, based on the intake of the collective breaths, you would have thought I had just announced the Passover plague of the death of the first born to the Pharaoh of Egypt!!
And what did I say? One word. "WHY?" Why do we want a 1:1 program?
"Well it's the new thing.
Students can take notes with their computer,
We can have a paperless school."
"Those are What's," I said. "I want to know WHY?"
The room was somewhat silent for a moment and then one of my Principals turned and looked at me with a big smile on his face and he said; "To improve the ability for our students to learn and integrate in the 21st Century using the skills that will be demanded of them in an ever changing world." And since I had been working on this very topic, with this very Principal, all summer, he winked at me and went on saying... "The computer is just a tool, and if we really want to be successful we are going to have to change the way we teach, engage the students, and work on our school's culture!" I smiled back at him. I guess that he really did read all of those articles that I had given him.
Now let's fast forward to the end of March of this year.
I am sitting at a table, "schmoozing" with a group of Jewish Day School principals about 21st Century teaching skills when one of them brings up an article that they had just read that seemed to indicate that students who use computers to take notes do worse in school than students who take handwritten notes. It was one of those "how-are-you-going-answer-this-one-oh-technology-specialist-person-you" kind of statements.
I smiled at the group and said, "Of course! What's the Chiddush? (Hebrew for: "what's the surprising new information?") I went on to say that if the computer, or tablet, is just being used for taking notes, then it is an entire waste of money and time. I went on to say that 21st Century education is not about the "gear" but how we use ALL of the tools that we have at our disposal to engage our students and allow for a deeper learning take place. It's not about taking notes, it is about allowing for instant feedback on a topic, for sharing information, for allowing anytime/anywhere learning to take place. It is about changing HOW we teach from presenting facts to allowing students to become lifelong learners. It is about - as I said to my Principal all those years ago - allowing our students to learn how to live in a world where the knowledge that they will need to succeed has not even been invented yet.
As we enter into Passover, the Jewish festival of freedom and redemption, we can take a lesson from the leader of that time: Moshe Rebeinu - Moses our teacher. Moshe led a people who were embedded with "just-tell-me-what-to-do" slave mentality to being a people who were truly free.
What was one of those freedoms?
How to Live a Life full of Learning - each day, everyday!
Have a happy and wonderful Passover.
Yossie
