Students devote considerable energy and time into learning. They work day in and day out to master, create and demonstrate knowledge. When students have an audience for their work, the investment and result of their work multiplies. When students' audiences are other students, learning grows as does students' confidence as creators and communicators of content.
Creating circles of content creation and share in school communities has the potential of developing student knowledge with greater depth and investment--this potential transcends the typical school schedules, structures and routines creating a more student-centered learning environment, an environment where students throughout the grades naturally serve as mentors and teachers for other students.
The energy, intellect and creativity of children in this kind of environment would serve to ignite learning in positive, student-to-student ways. For example, high school physics students might have the role of writing computer games that teach younger students physics' concept, knowledge and skill, or English students might take the main theme of a class book and transform it to a short play for middle school students to perform.
These student-to-student communities would value the time and effort students bring to the table for learning, and see this time and effort as a commodity to share and promote to foster learning among other students in the learning community. As children grow older, their responsibilities towards the learning of others in the system would grow so that it becomes natural for high schoolers to devote some time each day to nurturing younger students in the system in multiple ways that foster academic, physical fitness, arts and social skills.
Patrick Larkin's emphasis on student-centered academic cultures has inspired this post. As I concentrate on learning design that is effective, engaging and educational, I want to think more deeply about the ways in which we can promote a learning culture that puts students center stage in thoughtful, responsible, leadership and teaching roles.
