July 7th, 2009Change and action
Following on from my ‘dissent and dissatisfaction’ post, I’ve been giving some more thought to the expectations of Generation Y. At the Channel 4 Education conference last week, with its focus on 14-19 education in the UK, a few students said they felt unprepared for real life. They spoke of their education as if they had been blinkered and led down some very narrow alleys. It was less a cry for Education, Education, Education and more for Relevance, Relevance, Relevance. And there was me thinking they were supposed to be happy personalising their own learning, finding out ‘How To Do Just About Everything‘ online… where was the enquiry and discovery-led learning that is often talked about in relation to Generation Y? Aren’t students learning how to learn?
Of course there is evidence of student-led change and action in events like 2morro and the Manifesto for Change video competition organised by ESSA (English Secondary Students’ Association). Students aged 11-19 have produced 3 minute videos suggesting constructive changes to the education system. Themes include teaching and learning and the future of education. The videos will be broadcast on Channel 4 and used to influence policymakers. And again the desire for more freedom in learning comes through. One of the entrants, fisty5, writes in his entry:
“i believe that we school-goers should be encouraged to think for ourselves, to be able to ‘go on adventure’ in our lessons.”
It’s an unsurprising sentiment – most young people seek independence and change. However, it’s pertinent to the times we live in. Perhaps never before has there been such a structured educational system and such an unstructured world outside the classroom.
David Brooks (referencing Robert Wuthnow of Princeton) has said:
“Young people grow up in tightly structured childhoods… but then graduate into a world characterized by uncertainty, diversity, searching and tinkering.”
Exploration, discovery and adventure are words that keep cropping up. Unless students are taught how to tinker, how to explore, perhaps only the inherently adventurous will prosper. There is a delicate relationship between having freedom and knowing how to use it to your best advantage.
Rebecca Thorman has written a great post called Gen Y needs boundaries for action which discusses the difficulties with autonomy for students. She says:
“So while it may seem like we’re enjoying our freedom, research shows that we’d be a lot better off with more structure, less choice, and working through problems instead of moving on to our next big adventure…
Because passion needs direction. It needs filters, and red tape, and four walls. Passion needs to be challenged to be passion at all.”
In another post Thorman discusses the need for Generation Y to stop agreeing with one another and start questioning.
And this is where we are at with SocialLearn – blurring the boundaries between formal and informal education, encouraging passion, providing structure to enable fludity and designing the social network that encourages people to challenge each other.