Real Innovation in Education Is About the Internet

We are the first people to admit that when it comes to the digital age, we've been under a rock. We are not digital natives. We are so far behind most technological innovation that we scoff at the term late adopter; we are "after adopters." That said, we are constantly looking to our more tech savvy colleagues to understand how the world of education is changing.

As education leaders, we appreciate the recent article Technology Changing How Students Learn, Teachers Say, in the November 1 education section of The New York Times. It unveils research that Pew and Common Sense Media have done on teacher perception of technology's impact on student attention, and that many teachers believe it is now more difficult to teach children using traditional methods. The article relays that "there is mounting indirect evidence that constant use of technology can affect behavior, particularly in developing brains, because of heavy stimulation and rapid shifts in attention." That assertion is serious, and it concerns us as both educators and as mothers. But what is of even greater concern to us is that nowhere in the article is there much more than a passing nod to what the Internet and digital learning could do to deeply engage and inspire active learning in young people — especially disenfranchised youth — in unprecedented ways.

Education is part of a bigger movement, across all of society, towards "connected solutions" to our hard problems. After working on the enormously hard problem of improving the public education sector for most of our careers, we welcome and want to try any smart solution — such as using networks — to solve our intractable education challenges. We see how technology-supported networks create connective tissue that allow people to collaborate and learn together directly, so that organizations and individuals can work together in new ways. These networks are increasingly taking root in and transforming many of our ways of interacting, from fundraising, to health, to energy, to learning. We, as educators, parents, leaders, have the opportunity and the responsibility to now build strong, student-centered learning networks through technology. ...

To read more, visit The Huffington Post.