Educators today are faced with the daunting task of wearing many hats in and outside their classrooms. Yet, the monumental task is teaching the basic skills and building blocks of reading, writing, analyzing, synthesizing and researching while instilling in students the desire to ask questions and then seek out their own answers. This is not the learning of information and standardized tests, but rather the skills that lay the foundation for continuous learning throughout life. Teachers struggle to teach a massive amount of information, while also teaching students thinking and learning skills that they can then apply throughout their academic years and adult lives. The greatest skill a teacher can impart to a student is the desire to learn and the ability to learn independently.Adapt to an Ever Changing World
Adaptation and the acquisition of new knowledge, skills and abilities is more important today than ever before. Generation Y students and those of future generations are not training to work in current business environments and today’s world. Instead, these students will be employed in jobs that do not yet exist. For example, we can look at the dramatic integration of technology in recent history as an example of how adaptation is vital to success in the future.
The first personal computer was created in 1971.1 Less than 15 years later, in 1983, nearly 70 percent of the nation’s elementary and secondary schools reported using computers in some level of instruction. At this time, schools could provide one computer for every 125 students. Today, students across the nation share one computer for every 3.8 to five students;2 and over four million Americans work in Information Technology.3
Technology use has increased in a relatively short period of time, changing the function of the world before our eyes. Most people employed today had to learn computer skills and adapt the way they write, think and work in ways that weren’t taught during their formal education. Many parents of students today can remember black and white TVs, computers the size of rooms, rotary-dial phones and pay phones that took nickels and dimes. On the other hand, many nine- and ten-year-olds that were born around the year 2000 don’t even recognize the sound of dial-up.4 This type of rapid change in the world we live in requires preparing students for life by instilling in them a desire to explore and learn as well as giving them a solid base for self-directed continuous learning. Creating this desire and foundation prepares students to lead innovation and prosper in life.
Teach Learning to Learn for Lifelong Learners
Learning to learn is about teaching students to:
- seek out information
- think critically about ideas and the information they are exposed to
- be resourceful
- and generate an endless curiosity during and beyond their formal education.
It is teaching students the skills they need to advance in life, helping students understand how they learn and engaging students to take responsibility for their own learning. Students need to grasp hold of their education, absorb information they want to know, recognize it isn’t always easy, develop the building blocks to be persistent and understand the various ways to access and retain knowledge.
Learning to learn readies students to lead and adapt to the ever changing world throughout the rest of their lives. So, I leave you with this question: What are you doing to help your students learn to learn?
Mona Westhaver
President and Co-founder, Inspiration Software
- “When Was the First Computer Invented?” Computer Hope’s Free Computer Help. Web. 03 Dec. 2010. <http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000984.htm>. [↩]
- “Computers in the Classroom, Then and Now – Digital Education – Education Week.” Education Week: Blogs. Web. 06 Dec. 2010. <http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/DigitalEducation/2009/04/computers_in_the_classroom_the_1.html>. [↩]
- Kontzer, By Tony. “Computer Jobs Hit Record High – Workplace.” Enterprise Technology News and Opinions on Storage, Security, Business Intelligence and IT Management for CIOs – CIO Insight. Web. 06 Dec. 2010. <http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/Workplace/Computer-Jobs-Hit-Record-High/>. [↩]
- “The Decade According to 9-year-olds on Vimeo.” Vimeo, Video Sharing For You. Web. 06 Dec. 2010. <http://vimeo.com/7989835>. [↩]
