What Might a 21st Century High School Look Like?

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Permalink Reply by Deven Black on July 10, 2009 at 12:42pm

Technology holds the promise of freeing learning from a particular location or instructor.

I have long imagined a situation where a student, under guidance from a mentor, could seek out instruction or experiential learning within the the local education system or from the world at large. The curriculum would be far less specific than it now is in order to facilitate greater student control over his or her learning. This would allow for a much broader opportunity to learn because of the removal of locational, scheduling, and resource restrictions.

High schools as we know them today might no longer exist as physical spaces and become part of the knowledge cloud. Some physical space and particular identity might still exist for gatherings of small learning communities as well as for orchestra, bands, clubs, sports and other collective activities. The physical space could also serve as a technical resource center to provide access to technology for those who cannot afford to purchase their own.

Of course, this would eliminate the warehousing service schools provide the community in order to prevent job competition or other potentially undesirable effects of having thousands of youths free to roam at will throughout the day.

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Permalink Reply by Philip "Brad" Woolley on July 10, 2009 at 1:43pm

The concept of a true 21st Century High School raises some intriguing conundrums. High school is such a unique part of the American experience/culture in that learning really seems to be a rather insignificant part of the total experience. Rather the social aspect, the proms, the sports, the clubs all tend to predominate and control the experience. Point in case - remove music programs from the curriculum and no one would raise a voice; remove football from high school and the governing board as well as all administrators would be forced from the community.

A 21st century school would, to some degree, remove the sense of community from the high school. The focus would be on academics and not athletics. Rural areas, I believe, would struggle more than urban as extracurricular activities play a much more important role to the community. This would not necessarily be a bad thing. Parents would need to take a more active role in the student's achievement.

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Permalink Reply by Jan Herder on July 13, 2009 at 8:26am

Hi everyone, I wanted to strongly disagree about the loss of community in transforming a 21st High School. On the contrary. The emphasis should be on a paradigm shift that refocuses the community into one transformed by the use of web 2.0 and the immersive internet. The role of the facility and the structure of time would be different. The factory model of our current school system can be re invented by empowering the students to redesign their learning environment. The lynch pin literacy in 21st Century Literacy's often neglected is Ecoliteracy. Sustainability is a cross disciplinary topic that makes the community, and its sustainability, the curriculum. Our current facilities can become the living laboratories to demonstrate in a constructivist manner the underlying principles of many disciplines. Ecomachines, green walls, vertical farms, permaculture, renewable energy, creativity, STEM --all can be the subjects of a design science that enlists our students and their creativity into solving the most pressing issues of our society. The problem of overcrowding can be mitigated by asynchronous self directed learning utilizing the immersive internet and wireless technologies. Then, the facility, instead of sitting useless and closed a third of the year, is a vibrant, life giving community center, a living design breathing and facilitating around the clock.
Regards,

Jan

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Permalink Reply by Lisa Nielsen on July 13, 2009 at 7:59am

Thanks for the feedback so far. Please keep it coming. Here is what my Facebook Friends have said.

Marc Prensky at 3:35pm July 10
Thinking about "a 21st Century High School" is thinking inside the box. I'd suggest it's far more interesting to ask "What kinds of experiences (learning and other) should 21st century 14-18 year olds have? (And, BTW, do any of them require a special building, or--if you want to go really far-- even a deicated staff?)

Liz Keren Kolb at 12:29am July 11
Good point Marc! I love the way you think.

Sandra Bynum at 9:56am July 12
I like the question also. Experiences-investigative, inventive, inquiry, experimental, thought provoking, connecting, integrative.
using algebra to understand music and other types of sounds.
how art influences biological knowledge and how biology is influencing art.
Another thought comes to mind in using the backwards design model to target incoming Freshman and sofmore students at colleges/univ asking the question Marc posed.
Also some colleges/univs are developing really innovative classes, pooling these as resources also to help develop a 21st century school.

Marc Prensky at 2:57pm July 12
Yes, some are--but many colleges and univ are as confused as we are about what 21st c students should know/be able to do, and are clinging to the past. Think teachers colleges, for example.

Sandra Bynum at 3:26pm July 12
Yes, but just because a school has a certain philosophy or challenge does not mean there are not people inside that have great ideas and input. Univ. of indianopolis Biology for Artists and MIT linear algebra and music...
What I think would be great is to get input from students in grades 4-5, 7-9, 12th educators of these grades. College freshman and seniors, college professors..... I do not believe the answer is in one place. Another group I left out were kids who drop out of school

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