Putting Students in the Driver’s Seat of Learning

As a 16yr old, I remember just how excited I was to get my driver’s license. I had been working at a fast food restaurant for 3 years, tucking away every dollar I made so I could buy my own car. I practiced driving with my dad almost every day in his clunky manual 4×4 truck, as he gave me tips, advice, and guidance so that one day I could drive my own car wherever I needed to go. My dad knew for me to be an independent and capable driver, I had to be behind the wheel and experience the road for myself.

Fast forward to today, and the lessons I learned while driving with my dad continue to shape my views and actions as an educator. Providing students rich opportunities that help them learn how to learn, and equipping them with the skills, mindset, and experience needed to be a life-long learner should be our number one focus.

This is the true goal of using ed-tech in education: putting students in the driver’s seat of learning.

There are so many great educational analogies I continue to pull from my experiences in learning to drive with my dad.

  • Process over product
    • Learning to drive is all about the experience during the actual drive.
  • Guide on the side
    • Imagine how little I would have learned if my dad was behind the wheel and I sat in the passenger seat as he told me what I needed to know? Like guiding a new driver, the greatest benefit occurs when we put technology and learning in the hands of students.
  • Learning in real-life isn’t about getting a grade
    • My dad never looked at me after a drive and said, “C+, son”. His feedback was always formative, timely, and helped me with my next steps in being an independent driver.
  • Reflecting deepens the learning
    • My dad would always review each drive with me afterwards. Asking me simple questions like, “what did you learn?” and “what would you do differently next time?“.
  • Learning is messy
    • I can’t tell you how many times I stalled my dad’s truck and got stuck on a hill. That didn’t matter though, as my dad wasn’t looking for perfection. He knew that stalling over and over again meant I would learn how to use the clutch in any situation. It was all about failing forward. It’s these types of trial-and-error experiences that help students develop adaptive skillsets where they can leverage tech to deepen their learning in any situation.
  • No two drivers are the same
    • My sister and I took very different paths in becoming independent drivers. She chose to drive an automatic and took longer before she was comfortable in driving on her own. Again, this didn’t matter, as my dad personalized the learning experience for each of us.

The analogies truly are endless.

By providing student authentic opportunities to be in the “driver’s seat“, we truly prepare them to one day drive their own learning wherever it needs to go.

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