I stumbled across an interesting post and consequent interview with a high school student on Infinite Thinking. The reason I found it so interesting has to do with my focus over the past few weeks: I, along with 2 compatriots, have been drafting an academic technology plan for the college. The first iteration weighs heavily in favor of student engagement and authentic learning which may shake a few conceptions about technology and its place in education.

As we wrote and re-wrote the plan we referred to research by Stephen Downes, Dee Fink, Alma Clayton-Pedersen, and others who all had great stuff to say about education, change, teaching, and oh yeah, students. I wish I had come across this post earlier. It just confirms a lot of what we wrote. Did I mention that this kid is 14?

“The current learning system–one task, one person teaching–will just not be relevant in the future. And it’s not reflective of what college or work life are like. The education system owes it to students to prepare them for that world. We shouldn’t necessarily be teaching the tools, but teaching the thought processes that go into them. The teachers owe it to themselves and their students to be learning these new Web technologies.”

And did I mention that this very articulate kid got a wrist-slapping-comment from a teacher who tagged him with the name ’smart-ass’? Wow. Is this what change feels like?