The first part of the video talks about how education has changed, how once it was necessary for students to GO to the school because that's where the information was. If you wanted to learn, that was your choice, even up to her (our) parents' generation. She shared how her family had a set of encyclopedias in the house when she was a child which started the process of bringing information to the learner.
We all know where we are today with access to information.
But I had to stop cleaning and pay attention when the speaker, Diana Laufenberg (from Wisconsin - woo-hoo!) said this:
"To tell kids to never be wrong, to tell kids to always have the right answer, doesn't allow them to learn."This is at about the 6:30 mark. Feel free to skip ahead. She shares how one student created a project that was visually stimulating, but the information was suspect. Then another student created a ho-hum visual product, but proceeded to talk for an hour about what was learned and the learning process. Here's the clip:
Her point was this: by allowing that student the freedom to make a product that worked for him, he was able to use his product for him, to fully understand the subject matter in a way that was right for him. Allowing choice in learning allowed learning to happen.
The product isn't the end result. The product is the tool students use to synthesize the information. It's not about the product - even visually ho-hum products can be excellent. It's about the learning and how the product supports the learner.
P.S. This post is a sort of free, brain-wandering response to seeing the video once. I take only limited responsibility for its content. :-)
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