Idea Exchange

In deep conversation with group debriefing yesterday's closing session, Independent Matters: Youth Culture and Social Media, with Sekou Andrews, Soumitra Dutta, Alexis Madrigal, and Dinah Boyd. Not sure that we came to any great answers, but many great questions for educators in 2013.

While much of the session was framed in technology, because the speakers are experts and spoke in that space, there were broader questions that guided our discussion. In truth the broader theme was about educators and parents not holding children back, allowing them to move forward and jump into learning with both feet, even if it looks completely different than our own school experience or upbringing. Simply put, learning and schools should no longer be about - are no longer about - the one way flow of information from adult to child. We can and should learn as much from our children as they learn from us, and the technology realm is both an example of this and a facilitator. We need to be open to the lives that our children are living already and not assume that we are right and they are wrong about the journey or the destination.

I will be the first to admit that these notions challenge me as a parent and educator.