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Author David Price writes: "If schools are coming into direct competition with the learning opportunities available in the informal social space, it has to be said that this is a pressure, which barely registers within the political discourse.

 

In the following pages, Price describes three cases across the globe — in London, Sydney, San Diego — that have mapped a vision that answers the questions above. Here’s what they have in common:

 

- By insisting that their teachers and mentors share their learning, all three have de-privatized teaching and learning.

 

- By opening up the commons, and by designing workspaces without walls, they have brought Edison’s ‘machine-shop culture’ into education.

 

- By bringing into the commons, experts, parents and investors, they have given an authenticity to the work of their students that is impossible to simulate in an enclosed classroom.

 

- By modelling collaborative working to their students they have fostered the peer learning which is at the heart of ‘open’.

 

- By emphasizing adult and real-world connections, they ensure that students are preparing for the world beyond school by being in that world.

 

- By making their expertise and intellectual property freely available, they have created high demand from their peers and ensured that knowledge travels fast.

 

- By seeing technology not simply as an aide to learning but as the imperative for change, they ensure that their programs are relevant to societal needs and societal shifts.

 

- By trusting in their staff and students, and by giving them freedom and responsibility in equal measure, they have fostered a culture of learning that rewards respectful challenge, shuns unnecessary deference, and therefore constantly stays in motion.

 

Via Gust MEES