Is School 2.0 a school reform pipedream?

Politicians, Edupolitians, and other education pundits who are in charge of education reform live so far from the classroom, that they are a world apart from the reality of the classroom.

Will Richardson said in
Weblogg-ed » URGENT: 21st Century Skills for Educators (and Others) First

But
here’s the thing that’s giving me the most angst. (Hey, I haven’t been
too angsty in a while, have I?) For all of the experts and scholars and
pundits who were staking out a part of the conversation about
educational reform, I couldn’t help leaving there wondering how many of
them really have a sense of the changes that are afoot here.

They all have to get their agenda into the mix.  Forget about what is best for the student.  They all have sound byte answers for what schools should do, despite what teachers know is best for kids.

Schools don’t need a vision of teaching by testing.  We need a vision for schools that involves sound pedagogy, purposeful and personalized learning through technology, and a student-centered curriculum.  The current culture of education reform in the United States excludes the terms pedagogy, technology, and student-centered.

Some of my fellow teachers say, “Oh, no.  It’s one more thing to do in an already, overflowing school day,”   I agree that it can be overwhelming.  Rather than more curriculum being piled on from on-high, we need to whittle down a bloated curriculum to allow time to do what is important - teaching our students to think.

Teaching thinking takes time.  Of which we don’t have enough.
Teaching thinking is hard.   For which we don’t have enough energy.
Teaching thinking takes courage.  To which we must go beyond the basics.
Teaching thinking is essential.  Of which we must do do for our kids.

I think Will was talking about a change beyond the everyday, to deep learning.  I think we live in great times where we will see great change, but the scholars in the ivory towers aren’t close enough to the ground to see the nature of the change.  Web 2.0 is coming and the tools will amplify the change in teaching like nothing we have seen since the industrial model of education.

Is this what School 2.0 will be, or is it just a pipedream?

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