Artikel 5: Dialoog met professionals

I was able to speak to two people in education with whom I was able to have a wonderful and educational discussion about digital literacy, education and what it is like being a teacher today. The first person I spoke with is Erik Ex, who, together with his brother Luuk, traveled the world to learn about education. They went from Finland to Singapore in their old VW van (the project was called 'de edysee'), and used digital media and resources to stay in touch with their followers back home, make new friends and contacts, and discuss their ideas and thoughts on local, national and global education. Erik is a friend of mine who taught history at my old school, and is one of the brightest and most competent people I know in education. He has been invited to speak at TED talks, develop curriculum standards and ideas for educating fellow professionals for the government, and about a half dozen other projects that are as diverse and interesting as his thoughts are on school and learning in the 21st century. I spoke with him at length about ICT and education, and he had a lot to say. Essentially, Erik thinks (like I do) that the world is made anew by digital forms of communication, and that there is something social, neurochemical and entirely transformative by the ways and means we talk to each other, consume media and information and relish in 21st century entertainment platforms, or as he says “everything is everything and there is no turning it off!” This means that for students and teachers alike, it is a new dawn in education, and we can’t continue to use a patchwork problem solving solution to update old institutional standards of teaching with what is possible today. Erik cites Ken Robinson in this, as Robinson’s ideas on institutional teaching standards dating back to the industrial revolution are no longer worth reproducing for students--the creativity, the individuality, the singularity of the mind working out problems--it is all minimized in this kind of assembly line approach to education. The big ideas of these aforementioned ideas--especially that of the individual--are what Erik believes to be the ideal achievements a teacher should strive for when measuring student success: How does a student grow along his or her line of development, not how well do they fit into the arbitrary boxes we set out for them?

Erik and his brother recording a podcast on education while driving through Europe

Erik’s brother Luuk, is a journalist. He traveled along with Erik and offered up more social and economic considerations and commentary in their journeys. His main argument is the miracle of the school day in and of itself-- “90% of children around the world aren’t on the streets anymore, but from 9-3 PM, are in school. A 100 years ago, this would have been a miracle but now is commonplace.” Luuk and Erik’s TED talk focuses on different educational standards for various countries, and it is interesting how they view digital resources in education. Luuk looks at the basics and seeks to understand how economic resources play out for educational goals a country sets out for itself (literacy rates at a 100% in Finland, basic class attendance in Uzbekistan). It is interesting to note, Luuk says, that in this class of mine (digital didactiek) that we don’t discuss whether we could have laptops or smart boards, but rather how often we should be using them (or other ICT resources). The pure wealth of Holland is something that is taken for granted almost every time in this kind of self-contained debates, and it is this fact of wealth and privilege he learned to appreciate most (along with his brother Erik) during their travels.

Volkskrant, 2018.