Student Choice

John Wooden posted the following note on the Bruin's bulletin board on the values of the choices we make:

There is a choice you have to make, 

In everything you do.

So keep in mind that in the end, 

The choice you make makes you. 

The world of today's adolescent is wrought with choices, some good and some not so good. Definitely more choices than most of us grew up with.  But, with these choices comes the consequences of the path chosen. 

One of the most valuble skills we can provide for our students is the ability to see the effects of choice. 

How to measure the causal relationships of choices made. And, how to create a balance between choices made for safisfaction today and choices made in preparation for tomorrow. 

One of the most troubling trends I have noticed in recent years is the lack of understanding of the ramifications of what is done today and how it will effect the future.  Whether students have simply grown up in a society that values immediate gratification or if they have simply lost hope in a sense of the future, high school students today have great difficulty in dealing with any issue that requires them to see beyond today and most definitely if they must see beyond tomorrow. 

Students need to develop the steps necessary to set goals, develop plans, create paths for success, recognize obstacles, adapt to change and actualize success.     

The "I want it now", attitude of the 80's and 90's will not suffice in a world where the only constant is change.  Students need now, more than ever a sense of future and the path necessary to get there.  No longer can the path be culminated in an end but must be toward development of skills for change.  No longer can the students of today depend on a career path that may not be there a decade from now. Technology has changed the game and continues to do so with each new device, program or operating system.  

The choices students make today will serve them only if they understand that the greatest ability is in the ability to see ahead of the curve and look to a future where change is the norm and the skillsets for success are the ability to think critically, communicate effectively and work collaboratively.  

        

SHIFT HAPPENS

The video Shift Happens, created by Karl Fisch, and modified by Scott McLeod; Globalization and The Information Age is a excellent introduction to the changing paradigms of today's world. 

There is a great deal of information about population dyanamics, technological advancement and the changes in communication that our students currently face and continue to deal with in the future.  The most telling stat that I tend to direct students attention to is the number of job changes that most people will go through as technology and the job market will be in a constant state of flux well into the future.  The ability to learn, unlearn and relearn will be the most valuable skill students will need to develop as they will be in a constant state of adjustment as jobs change, are replaced by technological advances and allocated throughout a global economy.

It is also important for educators to understand that we are preparing students for a world that we cannot predict and  for jobs and technologies that have not yet been invented.  Therefore, the one skill we can prepare them with, is the ability to LEARN.

Shift Happens is great conversation starter. Some of the questions I use based upon the students I am working with include:

• What are your initial reactions to what you saw in the presentation?
• How do you see these changes is your own lives? personally? as a student?
• What are the most important skills students will need to move into this type of future?
• How does this change the way schools should be doing things? teachers? students?
• How can educators prepare you for a future that we can not predict?
• What support mechanisms will you need as you move forward?
• Do these concepts create fears, worries, apprehensions for you? Why?
• What does this type of change mean for us socially? 
• Does this future create an impersonal world?
• How will mankind maintain the speed of life that is created, almost demanded with this type of technology?
• How will this type of technology affect adaptations in our evolutionary progress as humans?
• What further developments lie on the horizon?
• Is there anything left to invent?

Fo more information on Shift Happens go to Change Agency.