My last post – “Education Needs Better Tools” – instigated several conversations this week, and each time I elaborated on what I meant, I just couldn’t quite nail it down.
And then I came across a picture that Christopher D. Sessums (a brilliant educational blogger) used in his most recent post … and it communicated in such a better and more simple way what I was trying to say.
tools make change
Granted he refered to the toast and toaster differently …
- Sessums: “Toaster = Teachers” and “Toast = Students”
- Me: “Toast = Educational Learning Resources [or tools]” and “Toaster = State of Education” …
The picture and his opening McLuhan quote nonetheless helped me capture what I’m trying to communicate:
Change is more likely to occur when we invent new tools that make participating (in the change) fun and easy and worth it.
I’m not saying that theories and philosophies are useless. Far from it. Everything starts with an idea, and we have the great thinkers of the ages to thank for laying the groundwork for most of our advancements. But what I am saying is that, given how much tools accelerate and make change, I think Education would hugely benefit if more ephasis was placed building tools to make the change happen … instead of talking about the change that should be happening.
Some Final Thoughts:
- It wasn’t the idea of looking for better land and game that spawned human expansion across the world as much as it was clothes and arrow-heads and fire-starting techniques.
- It wasn’t Martin Luther that fueled the Reformation as much as it was the printing press and the use of a common linguistical tool … German.
- It wasn’t the idea of settling the West that settled the West as much as it was the steam engine and the locomotive.
- It wasn’t the desire for “peace-and-quiet-meets-the-city” that created the suburbs as much as it was cars and freeways.
- And it wasn’t the computer that got all of us using the internet in the 1990’s as much as it was the web browsers that made it so fun and easy.
If we want educational change, we need to think about changing our educational tools.
Tags: educational change, educational tools, making education meaningful, Philosophy, Teaching Ideas