Education Outside the Institution

As a group, we had recently been feeling very discouraged by the School Shaped project. It was disheartening to see how often teachers avoided using technology in the classroom, and to get feedback that solutions that they were most interested in were ones that we couldn’t deliver on. For example, one teacher requested faster wifi which while possible to create is out of our control.  We observed in the classroom the administration taking a top-down approach to new technology in a classroom that typically took too long to introduce and involved insufficient training. Most teachers seemed intimidated enough by it to avoid using it all together. In interviews, one very experienced teacher explained that the only tool she need to rely on to get student attention was snapping her fingers. In general, implementing something in the classroom seems to require battling a ton of inertia in the system. With this in mind, we feel that the most impactful work we can do will not be implemented in classrooms. This led us to explore opportunities to encourage and support children’s learning outside of the educational institution.

There are several possible avenues of exploration for products within this area of opportunity. The first of these is to take subjects that are typically taught in the classroom and try to frame them in more engaging ways. Many of us remember using a scale to understand algebra, but this sort of idea is not always carried over to other subjects. In addition, many countries outside the United States will often try to teach upper level concepts such as those involved in relativity, calculus, or other base systems to children while they are still young without going into details. This means that when children see these concepts later they only need to learn implementation rather than implementation and concepts.

The second vein for education outside the classroom is teaching things that are not explicitly taught in school. This ranges from typical lessons like time management and organization all the way to body language, understanding culture, learning how to learn, and thinking logically and critically. We feel that these are often lessons that people pick up outside of the classroom setting. Since these skills are important for everyone, it is essential that everyone have at least some exposure to them. We have been unable to talk to students yet, so much of the evidence that we are drawing from is what methods we used to learn.