Education futurist Frances Valintine is the founder of The Mind Lab, which has so far taught one in 20 New Zealand teachers and countless school students about digital technology.
Frances Valintine chair and founder of Mindlab by Unitec Photo: RNZ/Joanna Mackenzie
Kids today are a "generation of self-educators" learning in a very new way, Frances says.
"There's a lot more enquiry and a lot more investigation."
Particularly primary schools have changed dramatically – where once you'd find books, worksheets and an overhead projector, today there is often no fixed set of learning material, she says.
Kids aged 12 and under have never known a non-digital world, and schools are beginning to understand that access to smartphones doesn't have to be a bad thing, she says.
"[Children can use them to] collaborate on documents, they can use the camera for filming and editing, they can use the microphone to record information for podcasting, they can even develop coding on their phone."
Frances says she's often asked whether using screens at school makes for too much screen time overall – and she flips the question back.
"If [adults] woke up in the morning and were told that we had to regulate how much time we could use the computer, it would just sound nonsensical, and yet we're constantly having this debate about how much screen time [for children]."
In the traditional 'chalk and talk' teaching model, the teacher at the front of the class had all the knowledge, but now learning is much more collaborative.
Great teachers see themselves as facilitators, she says.
"They navigate between what they know and what they don't know, looking across the class and saying 'Who is informed in this space? And who would like to do some enquiry and bring this information in?'
"The knowledge will keep changing so it's about making sure the students know how to continue to learn and to find good sources of information.
"We're trying to prepare students for their future, not for ours."
The societal disconnect between who has access to technology and who doesn't is disappearing, Frances says, although students from Decile 1-3 schools don't pay for the Mind Lab programme.
Less privilege can lead to better adaptability, she says.
"Where education has typically failed the community, and when parents are actively saying 'please make sure what my kids learn is going to give them a successful future, more than what has worked out for me', we find a real commitment to change and a real commitment to progress and understanding the new world."
The teacher's job now is to cultivate skills rather than give knowledge, says Toni Dunstan, a teacher who trained with the Mind Lab.
At her school Woodford House, students teach the teachers about technology at 'speed geeking' sessions.
"Groups of staff move around small groups of students, who are the experts, and each student has three minutes to present on some aspect of technology that they want to share – from their favourite app or website to tricks or shortcuts they've learnt for Google Docs."
Technology and learning
Veronika Meduna joins a school group for a morning at MindLab, using fruit and vegetables to build musical instruments. Audio
