As consumers of technology, we know how quickly change happens. When was the last time that you dialed in a telephone number from memory? When was the last time you read the newspaper on newsprint? When was the last time that you developed film? For me, it's been years since I dialed a phone number from memory, a couple days since I read a newspaper on newsprint, and almost nine years ago that I took film in to have it developed (and still have cameras at home from my wedding 9 years ago that need to get developed).
In the world of adult education and literacy, the technology available as a means of personalizing learning haven't surfaced in the same way that they've surfaced in the K-12 world.
About a month ago, I experienced global learning by virtually attending the Education On Air conference powered by Google for Education. It provided insights to the way students are learning how to learn and gave educators permission to give students permission to fail and to fail along with the students.
Fail?!
Yes, fail. You learn more from failing than by succeeding and those who never learned how to pick themselves up after failing get stuck in middle-management level jobs forever. In the USA, it's a four-letter word, but in Finland, students are rewarded for failing.
I see how empowering project-based, hands-on learning is for the students who attend schools that embrace it and wonder why we can't move forward with it in adult education & literacy.
