Trung Le, a designer for Cannon, was asked to design a school in the Cayman Islands. There was a catch; the school would have no corridors. Le was inspired by a project from the UK called “The Classroom Portrait Project,” which was a year’s worth of documentation of classrooms and what they looked like all around the world. These portraits revealed that the idea of a classroom being a place to learn had been institutionalized regardless of where the school was located. There were many factors that influenced Le’s design, but most importantly, he wanted to create a space that supported critical thinkers. The goal was to “generate new behaviors” and challenge expectations of what learning spaces look like. Le claims that everyone is naturally curious about certain things and that their environments should reflect this. He also claims that everyone is biased in believing that we, as humans, need to be at the center of everything we create. In order to transform our educational system, Le believes we need empowerment, self-organization, and emergence, all of which will lead to transformation. Transformation, Le says, is not a simple thing to do. Le suggests that this transformation is like the metamorphosis from a caterpillar to a butterfly. In other words, schools prepare students for order and neatness, while the world outside of school is unpredictable and messy. Le states that the future of learning is “dynamic, connected, global, cultural, and powered by technology in terms of connection” (Le, 2013).
I agree with Le’s position on preparing students for the unpredictable world outside of school. At this moment, I can’t confidently say that my students are prepared for the “real world.” I certainly didn’t feel like I was when I graduated high school. I think this is a great disservice to our students because our jobs as teachers is to facilitate their transition from high school into the real world. One of the things that I’ve been doing since beginning co-teaching is asking myself whether the skills I’m teaching in class transfer into the outside world. If the future of learning begins with classroom transformation, then one way I can implement this is by changing the focus of my questions from how to why.
YouTube. “The Future of Learning: Trung Le at TEDxNYED.” Online video clip. YouTube, 11 June 2013. Web.
I agree with Le’s position on preparing students for the unpredictable world outside of school. At this moment, I can’t confidently say that my students are prepared for the “real world.” I certainly didn’t feel like I was when I graduated high school. I think this is a great disservice to our students because our jobs as teachers is to facilitate their transition from high school into the real world. One of the things that I’ve been doing since beginning co-teaching is asking myself whether the skills I’m teaching in class transfer into the outside world. If the future of learning begins with classroom transformation, then one way I can implement this is by changing the focus of my questions from how to why.
YouTube. “The Future of Learning: Trung Le at TEDxNYED.” Online video clip. YouTube, 11 June 2013. Web.