Life in a 21st Century school – what our pupils think

A while ago now I read The Fourth Way. In it, I found a passage that I really identified with. Sometimes, the focus is on technology and not learning, but a 21st Century school should also develop virtues such as compassion, courage, sacrifice, long-term commitment, service and perseverance.

During our work facilitated by a 21st Century Learning Alliance Fellowship, we have been asking pupils what they’d like at school. One, somewhat surprising, wish was that the new school combined technology and traditional methods. These included outdoor learning opportunities, physical books and a library and arts space. It was clear from our findings (which asked the opinions of around 10% of the school’s population) that young people do not want technology for the sake of it. They also want to be able to have a control over the technology that they do use. The rationale for this was that often teachers use tools that do not stretch their thinking.

This also links to some evidence presented by Jim Wynn at the Innovative Education Forum in Berlin that over reliance on technology leads to lower performance.

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David Rogers

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