I recently read Trustee Sue Huff’s blog post on Reboot Alberta in which she raises some great ideas on how democracy will/can operate in the very near future, based on Clay Shirky’s “Here Comes Everybody.” It is great to see political leaders explore these ideas and be progressive in using technology to create policy instead of using policy to react to technology. If you read her post, consider how Finland has made high speed internet access a legal right and, if we did the same in Alberta with our underutilized Supernet, consider the implications that would have for your classroom and our district. What skills would your students need to have to participate in a wired democracy? What technology would your school/district need to ensure 100% accessibility?
Every time I think I get close to an answer to these questions, I realize both the urgency of the solutions and how much more I need to learn. There is no silver bullet, but we’re going to have to take a few shots in the dark.
This got me thinking about how often I have said that we need to educate students for their future, as though that was a long way off. It’s not. It’s already here. We are back to educating students for the world they live in. Unfortunately for us, we haven’t had a lot of time to figure it for ourselves, the rate of change is too fast, and the near future is just as unpredictable as the far future. We are in the same boat as the students we teach as we try to figure out how our own world is changing. Our best hope to enlighten our students for their now and near future is to explore our own new horizons.
Heeding Thamus 