#25: Could home learning be more applicable for the future than learning in school?

Everyone knows that home learning isn’t the same as learning in school. They are different, but it doesn’t mean that what we regard as traditional learning is right, or better, than what we are going through at home today.

In 1665 Isaac Newton was confined to learning at home due to the Great Plague of London. At the time he was a student at Cambridge University and due to social distancing had to work from his home at Woolsthrope Manor about 60 miles from Cambridge. Newton worked at home for about a year without his teachers to guide him. He referred to this period as his 'years of wonder,' because he thrived given the opportunity to inquire. During this period he developed early calculus, new theories on optics and the first thoughts about gravity and that famous apple from the tree. Hence, it is not always that we are at our most creative and learn the most when we are learning in an institution. 

We must also remember that not all students learn in the same way and that many, as was obviously the case with Newton, enjoy setting their own parameters for inquiry, investigation, and problem-solving.

The aim of this post is not to suggest that all students working at home are going to be  Isaac Newton, or are enjoying the experience of home learning, but rather to provoke thinking about the future, what we need to learn and how we might be doing this. Hence, I am going to share two videos with you.

The first is Humans Need Not Apply. This video supports much of my fears about the future of employment and why we need to be looking at what is really important in schools and how the school prepares students for a future ruled by AI. Given what is happening in the world with Covid 19 this world might come quicker than previously anticipated because AI doesn't get impacted by human viruses, doesn't get tired, and doesn't need sick leave.

 The second video, by Heather McGowan, talks about the Future of Work and explains how the school will need to be more about giving students learning skills and that work will be the place our children will have to use these skills to learn and upskill all the time. (I have shared this before but feel its relevance is so important to today) So much of learning in the future will be done by our children independently and at home in their own time. As they recognize a threat to their own employment they will need to either increase their skill level or research and train for another job. It will be a constant cycle of work, learn, re-skill, re-employ, work, learn..........

Hope you found this interesting and gave you something to think about beyond Covid 19.