Page 153 - Microsoft Word - The Future of Learning April 2017.docx

Understanding the Learning Process is a challenging task, and being able to apply the Learning Process is equally challenging as it is important, even though learners may not always succeed in reaching the level of understanding that we may aspire them to achieve. Ensuring that learners have the right mind-set concerning their ability to learn is foundational to the success in the learning journey ... and we are all learners.
Understanding and being able to apply the Learning Process is foundational within any curriculum framework. Applying the Learning Process allows us to practice building understanding and knowing how to apply that understanding to be innovative and ingenious. What we have not done historically, is to look at the capabilities that are required to achieve the notion of developing independent, lifelong learners. Independent, lifelong learners can contribute successfully to their community, while accepting a measure of global responsibility toward each other, along with the sustainability of all species and the ecosystems that allow us to live in a sustainable manner.
It is for this reason that learning and knowing how to learn is central to a curriculum that we desire to be relevant. The learning domains that we may apply that learning to, will most likely continue to be the six/seven domains that have become established over the last few hundred years, at least for the next 10-15 years. Increasingly, these learning domains will transition into integrated units of work that are based on the conceptual architecture that is encouraged throughout this resource.
As was mentioned previously in the text, the capability set for last century is distinctly different from the capability set that is required by almost everyone, in this century. The percentages have been quickly creeping up and we are now approaching 80% of people being required to be highly competent, understand how to learn almost anything ‘on the fly’, as well as being able to communicate effectively, particularly via the use of oral language, whether that be via listening or speaking. We are also observing the increasing role of collaborative decision making and learning, whether that is face to face or remotely via online videoconferencing. Devices are allowing us to access knowledge, create deep understanding and then share that new understanding quickly and easily from almost anywhere, at any time and with almost anyone.
We are beginning to appreciate the subtlety and nuance of when it is appropriate to make use of the technologies we have available to us. Right now, these technologies are still ‘very shiny and new’ and we are somewhat in awe of what they allow us to access and do. There is a tendency to worry about our teens who seem constantly tethered to some form of device and there is the perception that they will not learn how to socialise in the conventional sense of the word. The nature of our resilience tends to indicate that the majority will continue to grow up remarkably well adjusted.
Almost overnight we have mostly become global citizens and we are not exactly sure what to do with this newly found capability and what vulnerabilities this may open us up to. We are still tearing off the Christmas wrapping and we still don't fully understand the present that lies within. These devices we play with appear amazing but being able to access information and other people, almost at will, is possibly more of a Pandora's box than we may fully imagine right now.
Within this technological upheaval the purpose of education is simultaneously changing and morphing into something that most educators have never experienced before, and we are the ones that have the responsibility for designing what these learner’s school experience should be! We are trying to predict, or guess, what the most important skills and capabilities will be in a global, online, multicultural world, that we have never encountered before and this is complicated further by the changing work and social places that we are also a part of. The shift from an overarching ‘scarcity’ framework to one of abundance also has significant potential to change our fundamental way of life as automation, robotics and 3D printing take over many jobs
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