Let Students Innovate

Let Students Innovate is an article written by a young man who joined Edutopia to "get the students' voices heard."  While he had a couple of decent ideas, I was somewhat disappointed in reading the article.

This young man seems to believe that teachers do not respect their students and that teachers need to be "taught" by the students about innovative things to try in the classroom.  My disappointment comes from the fact that his two "innovations" are not actually all that new.  One of his ideas is to use google docs.  My school has, for the most part, been using google docs in all of our classrooms for the past two years.  In fact, it clearly states in my syllabi that students MUST have a google docs account!  His other idea has something to do with creating a social media team.  While this idea probably has some merit, he doesn't include enough details about what is involved to help a teacher reading the article introduce this concept to their own students.  (I am assuming that MOST students do not subscribe to Edutopia!) 

I do agree with Recckio that allowing students to innovate in the classroom and have a say in their classroom environment is one of the keys to a good education.  He states at one point that teachers and administrators don't seem very concerned with helping students prepare for college and the real world, and I am truly saddened by this statement.  I know so many teachers and administrators who ARE focused on these things...but, unfortunately, that does not seem to be how this one student thinks.  Perhaps we need to do more as a professional group to promote all of the great "innovative" techniques we are using in the classroom?