More Sir Ken Robinson...

 Please make provide comments on how the comments in this presentation relate to the design of your school in Finland.

Comments

[Katie Mitchell]

This video is very interesting. I like how it incorporated divergent thinking to be a method for learning that all students excel at. Talking about students as a product of a manufacturing line is interesting, and I agree with some of it, but how can you break down every barrier and paradigm of learning and start fresh? Where would one even begin? We're trying to be more open minded in our school and work with constructivism, but we fall back on our experiences with school and design because that's what we know. It's hard to just step off the cliff and develop a whole new educational design system. It seems more daunting than the lunar landing Dave likes to reference; sure, people could have died from a bad design there, but a badly designed school could stunt children mentally and emotionally and have far reaching complexities. There has to be some standardization or it's extremely difficult to measure and observe that children are developing and learning.

[Whitney Christian]

The presentation relates to our school design because our school is going to have a strong art focus. Our school is located near several art schools, therefore the community will be able to encourage creativity and collaborate with the students. Robinson talks about how students are medicated and numb to learning instead children need to be engaged which a constructivist based school focuses on.

[Deidre Glore]

This video reinforces what we have been discussing. Our current education is no longer reaching the needs of todays students, neither are the subjects that are taught. Students need more stimulation in the classroom, where creativity can be explored and their personal needs can be met. There are all different types of learning abilities and personality types that factor into a child's learning experience. For example, If a child is diagnosed with ADHA then an environment can be controlled to be facilitating and stimulating the way that they learn.

[Ashley Wood]

This video addresses all of the reoccurring problems within the school system today. The standard curriculum for children across the country was developed on the basis of industrialization. This creates a factory based curriculum that focuses on a straight forward standardization of learning, where everyone learns the same thing in the same way. This creates what we see today, what I myself was brought up and educated on- a test based education filled with federal requirements and standardized tests left and right. This tells students that, "Hey, if you scored below a certain percentile in a certain subject, you must be dumb!", creating insecure, ADHD children learning things that just aren't that engaging. Sir Ken Robinson addresses these issues and suggests how they should be changed and adapted because the world we live in has changed.

[Rebecca Pollard]

This is a great talk given by Sir Ken Robinson with great illustrations. He really digs deep into the problems of today's education system and hits the nail on the head. He is exactly right in saying that the problems mainly reside in industrial revolution ideas and the increasing rate of medicated children. The problem is not the children, it is the educational system. Therefore, it is our jobs as designers to create stimulating learning environments that promote, rather than suppress learning in schools today. We also need to approach education through the idea of teaching the "whole" child rather than just traditional subjects. It is very important to think of each child as an individual as Robinson said rather than branding them based solely on their age. Designers have a great chance to change the way children are taught from now on and we need to really take advantage of this opportunity. This is an extremely helpful tool to help us with the next design phase.

[Barbara Milling]

The illustrations in this video are really neat. He talks about how again children and labeled and medicated, and how students get so easily distracted in school.Children learn by intercting with things, or by not just sitting in a classroom listening to the teacher standing in the front. Most learning happens in groups, which is the way that most children need to learn.

[Julie Williams]

I feel like this video brings up a lot of issues that cant be aimed at one person or group of people. i took it as the people that are to blame with the issues in the country are the adults because the children are just being led to do what was done before them. Sir Ken Robinson brought up some interesting points about children of different ages being at the same educational level but instead are forced to conform into the age that they currently are. I also found it ironic how he was talking about cheating in school, however when you are out of school it is called collaboration. Collaboration is something that we do in interior design a lot and it is never looked at as cheating, but earlier in my educational career it would have been. One thing i did not agree with was his stance on ADD/ADHD. I do agree that it is not an epidemic, however as someone who has it and struggles with it, it is a real thing. Overall i found this article very thought provoking and interesting. I also feel like the illustrations really helped drive his points home.

[Emily Hwang]

The visual representation of the graphics and the verbal information was great! It was interesting to see how the artist was able to convey Sir Ken Robinson's speech. Definitely an interesting and attention grabbing video. The issues that he brought up about how kids in todays society are constantly being pulled in every direction from numerous distractions. He made a good point about how 50 years ago, when our parents were in school, they didn't have as many technological distractions as we do now. Many kids are having trouble paying attention to lectures and sitting attentively in classrooms because they are not able to absorb the information in a efficient way. I think this video helps our group in our concept because our focus is to engage the students beyond the classroom. We do not want to isolate our kids in a single building or learning space, but to give them a variety of different venues and learning opportunities. We want to take the students outside of the traditional learning environment and activate them in hands on learning and experiences.

[Sarah Sugg]

Beautiful illustrations! It literally made me sad when he talked about the study of the kindergartners whose divergent thinking skills dwindled to almost nothing over time. What are we doing to our children?! And the comment about the ADHD epidemic really made me think too. How can people go on believing things like this when it is so clear, just by looking at a diagram of the United States, that it is completely bogus?! We have literally sucked the creativity and individuality out of people before they could even fully develop it. This video really re-motivated me in terms of the purpose and direction of our school design. If we get stuck in traditional methods and designs, we are guilty of doing all of these things to the children who attend it. We are not aiming to create children who come off of an assembly line and then throw out the "bad" ones. We want the children to create themselves. After all, they are obviously way better at it anyway.

[Erin Roig]

This video addresses many of the issues that we are facing in our design. We are constantly falling back on the ways of learning from which we were taught. Classes don't have to based on age if some students are better adapted than others, but at some point the school has to address the need to students to move ahead in their education. Some students would become comfortable in a slower moving class instead of pushing themselves to move ahead. At the same time though, how would you determine when children could start school? Many parents are beginning to teach basic knowledge (ABCs, 123s, some even reading) before they even send their children to Pre-School, so how does a school decide when the children and start and how far along they are? Some children get a head start at home which leaves others behind. These issues need to be addressed. I do not see how our education system can be re-evaluated and corrected without starting from scratch. How would a school be evaluated by the government? Is there any research showing that the children who attend constructivist schools are better off than children who do not?