One of the most articulate, insightful, witty, and funny speakers of the conference appeared at a TEDxTLN seminar today at NA Central, the conference headquarters for NSBA’s National Affiliate program.
She was 12 years old.
Adora Svitak also wasn’t physically present at the conference. A 12-year-old author and frequent speaker around the nation, Svitak was a TED speaker, one of many brilliant minds that the nonprofit TED group videotapes presenting short talks for use at meetings internationally.
In a short video taped at this year’s TED Conference in Long Beach, Calif., Svitak encouraged adults to put more faith in young people’s innovationand view them as useful partners in the education process.
“We have a lot to share. I think that adults should start learning from kids . . . the students should teach their teachers,” she said. “Learning between grownups and kids should be reciprocal.”
“Adults seem to have a prevalently restrictive attitude toward kids, from every don’t do that, don’t do this’ in the school handbook to restrictions on school Internet use,” she said. “As history points out, regimes become repressive when they’re fearful about keeping control. And although adults may not be quite at the same level of totalitarian regimes, kids have no or very little say in making the rules, when really the attitude should be reciprocal, meaning that the adult population should learn and take into account the wishes of the younger population.”
Her youthful perspective neatly supplemented the advice of a panel of educators who spoke about how students embrace technologyand how educators need to keep pace.
One panelist, Lucy Gray, an education technology specialist at the University of Chicago’s Center for Elementary Mathematics and Science Education, noted that the popularity of social networkingfrom YouTube to Facebookalready is changing how students learn.
They’re “not just consumers of content,” she said, “they are creators of content. It has empowered them, and we need to leverage that.”
The School at Columbia University, an independent K-12 school, is following that strategy by having students write book reviews onlineand encouraging other students to comment, Gray said.
Students also are making “avatars”online personalitiesinspired by historical figures, and they are listing various characteristics and interests of those historical figures and linking them to those of students.
“You see the connections between historical figures and people,” Gray said. “It’s clear, real, and simple. It models for our kids the digital kinds of skills we want kids to have.”
Such use of technology is important, as the nation’s interest in teaching 21st century skills requires schools to not only teach contentbut make technology part of the learning process. “We must infuse [technology] skills into the content. We need to teach more artfully.”
Tech-savvy students can help, she said. “Be open to letting kids drive the technologies in the classroom. Engage them in ways that they really are learning outside the box.”
And those who missed hearing from the child prodigy still have an opportunity. Her remarks are on the TED website: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/adora_svitak.html.
[...] frequent speaker around the nation. In her speech given at a TEDxTLN conference she contends, Adults seem to have a prevalently restrictive attitude toward kids, from every dont do that, d…. Her point is well taken. In the classrooms today, students download, blog, text and IM on a [...]