I think that the short video below summarizes how today's students feel when they are still addressed to as if they were "pitchers to be filled up with facts, facts, facts"!(Charles Dickens' Hard Times)
The first thing that comes to my mind is that we urgently need to innovate and adapt our schools to the actual needs and expectations of our students. In few words, they are living a digital age and we have some tools that facilitate "learning by doing" and project-based learning. I think that a strong point to persuade skeptical parents and colleagues would be to explain that those tools empower the users. Whiteboards and tablets among others as laptops will do that our learners become more independent and personalize their learnings. However, we have young students. We teach in Primary schools and that means that children need adults' guide. At schools will be teachers,and at home will be families.
In this point I want to share a project I have finished with 6th graders. As I told you some days ago, I introduced an oral activity where students had to ask in pairs some questions about their routines with devices and homework. After talking and taking notes, I collected survey answers and did a research about how much time they spend on those activities. The data is meaningful. Just think about it.
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