In Finland the educational system, as it is today, was build slowly. It is still strongly relying on the work of Uno Cygnaeus ( 1810-1888 ) who was influenced by the early European “constructivist” Pestalozzi ( 1746–1827 ) and Froebel ( 1782 –1852 ). The idea that children learn the best when they areactive and build things was not really invented by John Dewey or Piaget – they only were able to present the idea in a language of positivist science, when the earlier thinkers thought themselves as “pedagogues” or educational philosophers.
My prediction is that the schools that initiate and establish contact with other schools for authentic inquiry based learning using connectivist tools will gain greater immunity from irrelavence. Relavence will become increasingly important to parents/students when choosing venues for learning to occur. A colleague once said to me that academic results at the private schools she chose for her kids were not as important as the lifelong connections they made with friends with influence. Optimistically I disagreed, but the power of connectivism whilst not immediately apparent is related at the contextual core to this element of Darwinist process.
Criotical skill, making meaning out of experience. Statistical methods and qunatitative data will tell what is going on but not why. Qualitative approach grounded in the lived experince with customized interventions. I like Twitter and IM idea and the notion that you don't need a hard drive full of stuff but a network of people who know stuff.
The British government has created a computer-literacy test that challenges teens to solve realistic problems (how to control crowds at a soccer match, for instance) using online resources. The more sophisticated these tools become, and the more adeptly test makers use them, the better assessment will be.
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