By now, you might be one of the millions to have seen Jeff Bliss's ninety second manifesto on the state of learning in his World History class. Reaction in social media has been mixed, with many folks expressing disgust at the indignation he expressed towards his teacher, and many more praising Jeff for speaking out against meaningless, uninspiring, classroom experiences. Let's be cautious with our judgement of this video since most of us do not have the contextual knowledge of the situation, the classroom, or the people involved. However, I do feel that there are at least a few things that we can learn from analyzing this video thoroughly and critically. Classroom Engagement - There is very little evidence of student engagement in this video. Notice early in the video, even as one of their classmates goes off on a rant, a girl wearing blue is cleaning her fingernails. The girl seated ahead of her is covering her face. A young man wearing light blue is adjusting his wrist w...
Ruminations about lifelong learning.