This slim volume contains a wealth of ideas, both theoretical and practical, for transforming a classroom to better prepare students for the 21st century workplace. Alan November describes what he calls the "Digital Learning Farm", in analogy to a family farm in which children of all ages performed necessary tasks around the farm, helping to provide for the family's success. In contrast, he argues, today's education system is built around graded classrooms in an industrial model with a teacher as the central figure and students as passive receptors.While life outside our schools has changed dramatically over the past century, we cling to an early industrialized classroom model that often fails to encourage collaboration, innovation, a global work ethic, or critical problem-solving skills. ... We have inherited an organizational structure in which the teacher owns and manages the learning. This industrial model underestimates the natural curiosity of students to direct their own learning; they have little opportunity to contribute to the design of the learning process or find a sense of greater purpose in their work. (p. 5)November advocates a shift from teacher-centered to student-centered classrooms, and showcases four examples from around the country. He highlights student roles in those classrooms, as tutorial designers, student scribes, student researchers, and global communicators and collaborators. Each chapter introduces the reader to another teacher, another classroom, and another way in which students are owning their own learning.
While these four student roles are a good start, they do not seem to be sufficient for a complete shift to student-centered learning, and November does not present them as such. Nevertheless, the book is a quick but powerful read, introducing us to simple ways in which teachers can help students take control of their own learning. If you're interested in borrowing this book, just let me know.
