Authentic Learning

In case you have not seen this "Student / Learner 1.0 'The Housewarming" created by The Council on 21st Century Learning, I wanted to share it. Check it out. It's short and sweet.

I have a couple of observations:

This past school year I watched kids go from being "students" to "learners" by experienceing Challenge Based Learning. Typically, some of the grade-driven students find themselves frustrated at the outset when it is not clear what the teacher wants for an "A." And the teacher may have to really to hold back from dropping clues or making suggestions, since most of us are very used to setting up the hoops that students jump through. However, if we challenge them to stretch as they set their own goals, many of these learners far exceed anything we might have expected.

Secondly, I am wrestling with issues related to "deeper learning" in my professional development cluster groups.  What a challenging topic to get one's arms around.   But the potential benefits of becoming a community of authentic learners are worth the struggle.