Gestern habe ich ein paar Auszüge aus der Rede der EU-Kommissarin Neelie Kroes auf der Online Educa vom 1. Dezember als Kommentar unter die Diskussion zum #speedlab2 gepostet. Da geht der Text meines Erachtens aber etwas verloren und ich finde die Rede so klasse, dass ich einige Auszüge in einem eigenen Artikel nochmal aufnehmen möchte. Den Volltext gibt es übrigens hier und den kann man auf der Website von Neelie Kroes auch kommentieren und disktutieren. Die Aufzeichnung der Rede als Video habe ich leider noch nicht gefunden.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

[…] In the last 20 years, the information and communications revolution has really taken off. The Internet, smart-phones and tablets are a world of opportunity. And they are as readily available, as readily usable for today’s generation as the home telephone, radio and the television once were. These days people can enjoy access to information and expect it anytime, any place, anywhere. […]

Elsewhere in the world, people have realised this potential. In South Korea, all classrooms will go fully digital by 2015, ending the paper and textbook era. I recently visited a primary school in the slums of Nairobi, Kenya – and even there they’ve realised the potential of ICT, they are teaching kids computers. Even there it’s having an impact on the children, broadening their skills, expanding their horizons, and opening up new hope for the future.

So, why, here in Europe, do most of our classrooms still feel like they did when I was at school? When digital media can be combined to create interactive rich content to help teaching: why are we still based on blackboards, textbooks and a uniform approach for everybody? In today’s digital world, are we really doing all we can to ensure we use the digital revolution to educate, to enrich, to enlighten?

My goal in the EU is clear: to get Every European Digital. That has to include education and training. We need every teacher digital, and every student digital. Right from the very start of formal education, and as part of lifelong learning.

[…] If these solutions can transform our relationship to knowledge – how we find it, access it, acquire it – then it is our duty to make sure everyone has that opportunity. They should not have to wait until they are locked onto a career path – they should have these opportunities from the earliest age, including at school.

No two people learn alike. There are as many ways to learn as there are learners. Some people need time to approach an idea from new angles; but those who get it straight away will get bored if they can’t move on. Some people want to hear an explanation, others to see a demonstration. Some learn best by themselves, others in a group. Some in a formal learning environment; others at home over morning coffee. And so on.

Technology can respond to this: it can tailor learning. It can help people learn at their own pace, in their own way, wherever they are, and throughout their lives. Let’s embrace that fact. And let’s change the way we learn.

Because if we don’t provide these opportunities we will be guilty of a grand failure: a failure to give our children the best chance in life.

Of course, the words are the easy part. I know you share a desire to fulfil this potential. The hard part, of course, is changing things. […]

To really make this case, we need to join forces. Because to transform education, we will need not just education experts; not just technology experts; not just funding experts. We need all three: we need people from all those areas to sit down, work together, and understand each other’s needs. That is the only way to get products which are useful to teachers, trainers and students. Products which are reliable, user-friendly, and which make a difference on the frontline.

I propose to get everyone together: in a common, multi-stakeholder platform. So those making technology can learn the needs of those in education. So educators can learn, support and champion the benefits of new technology. And, overall, so we can mainstream new technology into the European education and training systems. […]

Changing learning through technology might not be an overnight process – but it will be a revolutionary one.

At the moment, we are on the right road, but we are moving too slowly. So let’s speed up – let’s work together to put this right at the centre of our public policy agenda. Information and communications technology has already transformed how we connect, interact and transact. With the right ingredients and the right approach, we can also give learning and education their rightful place in this revolution. […]

We have to think not of „what is“; but „what could be“. Not simply to repeat the comfortable habits of the past; but to capture the massive opportunities of the digital future. Learning new things is not just for pupils and trainees: it is for everybody in our education and training system. Teachers, too, can learn to do things differently.

If we do this, we can build a system where teachers have the technological tools to reach out to students of all needs, backgrounds, and abilities. We can stimulate an economy that produces wild, exciting innovations to support the education sector. And we can build a society where education is an endless adventure for everybody.

Ladies and gentlemen: will you join me in this revolution?

Ich habe vor, den gekürzten Text der Rede morgen zur Grundlage für eine Seminarsitzung mit Geschichtsreferendaren zu machen. Im Mittelpunkt der Diskussion sollen dann die folgenden drei Fragen stehe

Natürlich könnte man einwenden, dass aufgrund des Wandels sich vielleicht in Zukunft auch die bestehende Struktur von Schule und vor allem die Unterteilung in Fächer auflösen wird, hier geht es jedoch um einen pragmatischen Ansatz zu notwendigen und möglichen Veränderungen auf Ebene des Unterrichts.

P.S. Nachdem es im Seminar eben so viel Kritik als Reaktion auf den Text gegeben hat, habe ich einige Stellen im Text noch einmal markiert und damit hervorgehoben. Im Volltext findet sich die Idee dann auch noch ausführlicher.