A week of technology infused learning and teaching, project based learning initiatives, and exposure to international education initiatives has been cranking the gears in my head. I’ve been mulling over how all of this can be integrated into the current (or changing) paradigm of teaching in the U.S. I hate to be a pessimist, but I’m not sure it can.

The investment in both time and money needed to do it right is overwhelming for an education system that is trying to meet current education standards and provide textbooks and other fact-based materials. If the project based learning strategy is to be as effective as the MET school’s curriculum, the role of the teacher must be turned on its head, technology becomes tools used only as needed, and learning is individualized, more than democratic.

This last point demands some explanation. I’m all for democratic education when it results in rich opportunities available to students and access to resources, but I do not like lowering learning opportunities to meet a lowest common denominator in the name of equality. One child should not have to sit quiet just because she/he already grasps the context while time and classroom energy is spent guiding the child that need additional scaffolding to learn. Democratic education should mean the choice to be learning all the time. Democratic education should mean learning is made relevant through connection to a child’s immediate community.

In a disconnected world, project based learning resources would have to use professionals within the child’s immediate community. Students in Chicago would have different community resources than those in Pink, Oklahoma. Textbooks could provide a minimal leveling of resources, especially when professionals are limited (rural communities).

In a connected world, we can have equal access to knowledge resources and even professionals through internet resources. Web 2.0 has made this even easier with collaboration tools. Democratic education means empowering children with access to knowledge resources to guide, sustain, and strengthen their own learning without the fear of misuse and inappropriate content hampering access.

Perhaps integration of Learning 2.0 is a reality with the right amount of student empowerment. I’ll have to mull over the idea even more.