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Don Tapscott / Nov. 16 2010 / No comments and No reactions

Needed: A New Model Of Pedagogy

The film Waiting for Superman has sparked heated discussion about the failures of the U.S. public
school system, and more broadly with public education everywhere. The movie argues that teachers
are at the center of the problem and that the solution is charter schools.
But it’s wrong to blame teachers, who are usually a) underpaid, and b) striving to do the best with the Twitter
limited resources they are given. Nor does the research show that charter schools achieve better
outcomes. The root of the malaise in our schools is the outmoded model of pedagogy. Teachers and Carrying the Beyond Superman discussion
text books are assumed to be the source of knowledge. Teachers “teach” – they impart knowledge to about the schools to Huffington Post.
their students, who through practice and assignments learn how to perform well on tests. Please join in! Will be hot discussion.
http://huff.to/aiIHV5 # 2 hours ago
This is the very best model of pedagogy that 18th century technology can provide. It’s teacher- Don - @dtapscott
centered model that is one way, one-size-fits-all and the student is isolated in the learning process. It’s
time for a rethinking of the entire model of learning. We need to move to a customized and New Huff post: @dtapscott and I on
@waitingsuperman and educational
collaborative model that embraces 21stcentury learning technology and techniques. This is not about innovators in Canada and Portugal
technology per se – it’s about a change in the relationship between the student and teacher in the http://ow.ly/3aUIE # 1 hour ago
learning process. Anthony - @adw_tweets

By now, virtually every schoolchild in the U.S. and Canada knows how to use the Internet to have fun,
Check out Don Tapscott 's video for
talk to friends, play games and explore. But when they get into the typical classroom, most of them Ericsson's shaping ideas project--very
step back in time, to a world that would be familiar to teachers 200 years ago when blackboard and cool! http://fb.me/z3J42XBS # 7 hours
chalk were introduced as a brilliant new way to visualize information. ago
@macrowikinomics
But what would happen if the classroom were brought into the 21st century? One doesn’t have to
guess: there are some extraordinary initiatives that come from some surprising places, outside the US.
The province of New Brunswick in Canada did it five years ago when it handed out laptops to Grade 7 Praise for Macrowikinomics
and 8 students and teachers in six schools, French and English.
"Wikinomics heralded a new era of
The results from the first two years of the pilot project “have been dramatic and overwhelmingly collaboration in business. Now Tapscott
positive for all involved with the project,” according to two prominent academics who reviewed the and Williams show how business,
two-year project. The report card, by Michael Fox, vice-president of Mount Allison University, and Jim government and civil society and people
Greenlaw, dean of education at University of Ontario Institute of Technology, was glowing: Students everywhere can leverage technology to
wrote more, and produced higher quality work. They demonstrated effective research, analytical and work together in new ways to solve the
evaluative skills in the digital environment. They were more interested in learning. School was more fun. greatest problems of our multi-polar world.
Their grades went up. The results were so positive that New Brunswick expanded the one-laptop-per- Critical reading."
child program to cover 3900 school children, or 23 per cent of Grade 7 and 8 students, over five Bill Green Chairman and CEO, Accenture
years, ending in June. More >>
Yet still today, most public school classrooms in Canada remain stuck in the trapping of the 18th
century, not in the 21st century in which we live. Many policy makers blame the perceived cost, which
Macrowikinomics Team's
could be as much as $1,000 per year if you include teacher training, maintenance, and all the other Upcoming Plans
costs of ownership. (The New Brunswick program cost $37.2 million over five years.) Yet the real issue,
as Fox and Greenlaw suggest, is our vision: Are we, the adults, willing to accept that children who are Don Tapscott Private Event
growing up digital learn far more in an interactive, collaborative environment? Are we willing to accept New York, NY · Tuesday, November 16, 2010
that an Industrial Age form of education isn’t much good for children who have to work in a digital age?
Don Tapscott York Region School
To break from the past takes courage and vision. If policy makers are hunting for a model, they might Board
take a look at Portugal, a modest country across the Atlantic that’s turning into the world leader in Sheraton Parkway Toronto North Hotel, Suites
rethinking education for the 21st century. In early 2005 Portugal’s economy was sagging, and it was and Conference Centre · Thursday, November
running out of the usual economic fixes. It also scored some of the lowest educational achievement 18, 2010
results in Western Europe.

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results in Western Europe.
Anthony D. Williams GovLoop Chat
So Prime Minister Jose Socrates took a courageous step. He decided to invest heavily in a GovLoop.com · Thursday, November 18, 2010,
“technological shock” to jolt his country into the 21st century. This meant, among other things, that 2:00pm
he’d make sure everyone in the workforce could handle a computer and use the Internet effectively.
This would transform Portuguese society by giving people immediate access to the online world. It Don Tapscott Trent Alumni Event
Gladstone Hotel · Thursday, November 18,
would open up huge opportunities that could make Portugal a richer and more competitive country.
2010, 5-7:30pm
In 2005, only 31% of the Portuguese households had access to the Internet. To improve this
penetration, the logical place to start was in school, where there was only one computer for five kids. Don Tapscott The Speakers Forum
The aim was to have one computer for every two students by 2010. The National Club Toronto at 303 Bay Street ·
Friday, November 19, 2010
So Portugal launched the biggest program in the world to equip every child in the country with a
laptop and access to the web and the world of collaborative learning. To pay for it, Portugal tapped into Powered by Plancast
both government funds and money from mobile operators who were granted 3G licenses. That
subsidized the sale of one million ultra-cheap laptops to teachers, school children, and adult learners.
Here’s how it works: If you’re a teacher or a student, you can buy a laptop for 150 Euros (U.S. $207).
You also get a discounted rate for broadband Internet access, wired or wireless. Low income students
get an even bigger discount, and connected laptops are free or virtually free for the poorest kids. For
the youngest students in Grades 1 to 4, the laptop/Internet access deal is even cheaper — 50 Euros
for those who can pay; free for those who can’t.
That’s only the start: Portugal has invested 400 million Euros to makes sure each classroom has access
to the Internet. Just about every classroom in the public system now has an interactive smart board,
instead of the old fashioned blackboard.
This means that nearly nine out of 10 students in Grades 1 to 4 have a laptop on their desk. The
impact on the classroom is tremendous, as I saw this spring when I toured a classroom of seven-year-
olds in a public school in Lisbon. It was the most exciting, noisy, collaborative classroom I have seen in
the world.
The teacher directed the kids to an astronomy blog with a beautiful color image of a rotating solar
system on the screen. “Now,” said the teacher, “Who knows what the equinox is?”
Nobody knew.
“Alright, why don’t you find out?”
The chattering began, as the children clustered together to figure out what an equinox was. Then one
group leapt up and waved their hands. They found it! They then proceeded to explain the idea to their
classmates.
This, I thought, was the exact opposite of everything that is wrong with the classroom system in North
America.
The children in this Portuguese classroom loved learning about astronomy. They were collaborating.
They were working at their own pace. They barely noticed the technology; it was like air to them. But
it changed the relationship they had with their teacher. Instead of fidgeting in their chairs while the
teacher lectures and scrawls some notes on the blackboard, they were the explorers, the discoverers,
and the teacher was their helpful guide.
Yet too often, in the American and Canadian school system, teachers still rely on the traditional model
of education. Teachers often feel that this is the only way to teach a large classroom of kids, and yet
the classroom in Portugal shows that giving kids laptops can free the teacher to introduce a new way
of learning that’s more natural for kids who have grown up digital at home.
First, it allows teachers to step off the stage and start listening and conversing instead of just lecturing.
Second, the teacher can encourage students to discover for themselves, and learn a process of
discovery and critical thinking instead of just memorizing the teacher’s information. Third, the teacher
can encourage students to collaborate among themselves and with others outside the school. Finally,
the teacher can tailor the style of education to their students’ individual learning styles.
Portugal has been careful to invest in teacher training to capitalize on the possibilities of the laptops. It’s
also thinking of creating a new online platform to allow teachers to work together to create new lessons
and course materials that take advantage of the interactive technology. Through this collaboration, the
Portuguese school system will create exciting new online materials to educate children. Lots of ideas are
already making their way into Portuguese classrooms, says Mario Franco, chair of the Foundation for
Mobile Communication, which is managing the e-school program. There are 50 different educational
programs and games inside the laptops the youngest children use. The laptops are even equipped with
a control to encourage kids to finish their homework and score high marks. If they do, they get more
time to play.

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time to play.
It’s too early to assess the impact on learning in Portuguese schools. Studies of the impact of
computers in schools elsewhere have been inconclusive, or mixed. One key problem is that simply
providing computers in schools is not enough. Teachers facing a classroom of kids with laptops need to
learn that they are no longer the expert in their domain; the Internet is.
It’s heartening to know that a tiny province like New Brunswick is giving teachers plenty of opportunity
to change their mode of teaching. Teachers can tap into government funds to create new and
innovative programs. They can work with teachers around the globe to come up with new ways of
teaching that make the most of the technological tools. Teens in New Brunswick are encouraged to
meet teens around the globe in online forums and collaborate with them on projects. Technology, in
other words, is only the tool. The real work is creating a new model of learning – one that fits the 21st
century.
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Article written by Don Tapscott

Don Tapscott, one of the world’s leading authorities on business strategy, is
Chairman of nGenera Insight. He was founder and chairman of the international
think tank New Paradigm before its acquisition by nGenera. Read more about
Don.
Follow Don Tapscott on Twitter

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Harold Jarche 9 hours ago

I haven't seen any real changes to pedagogy in New Brunsw ick. It's still very much teacher and content centric.
Bew are of lipstick on a pig.

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kstooshnov 10 hours ago

I agree that the outdated pedagogical methods are holding back the digital natives in Canadian classroom, and as
evidenced in the recent film Waiting for Superman the United States as w ell. One of the most absurd images from
that documentary w as an animation of teacher pouring know ledge into her students' head. It is very indicative of
the "old school" pedagogy in North America w hich sees students as blank slates or empty containers, w hile the
new er, more collaborative classroom model as seen in Portugal and a select few classroom around the country,
such as New Brunsw ick, the student actively take part in their learning. Your article is right in pointing out that it
"is not about technology per se" but more to do w ith teachers and others in the field of education catching on to
w hat interests and engages their students most.

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