Jay Cross asks whether we should consider school separate from work (at least, rhetorically). I say no!
I remember a case where a professional school (Vet? Dental? Darn, I hate aging) developed a tool to support their learners. They were (pleasantly) surprised when their learners asked (demanded) access to the tool for their professional life post-school. That seems to me a good example of when you’ve successfully bridged the chasm between schooling and life.
Would that we could do that with college kids, or even children! Ask David Jonassen: we don’t provide kids with problems in schools like they’ll face in the real world. We should, and then provide them with the tools they’ll find useful. Open book test, open Google test, absolutely!
So, what tools should we be thinking learners should use? I’ll suggest diagramming & dynamic modelling as two.
Over the years, school has made itself separate from work. At the end of school, each student should have some practical tools for later use. For instance, my wife took a special program on problem solving in Grade 5 (this was a university-sponsored pilot project) and still uses these techniques. Like me, she doesn’t remember much else about school other than her role in school play, her friends, etc.
A first step would be to open up the schools to the community and get away from standard curriculum, counting teaching hours, standardized test, etc. Until schools change, I consider them separate from work, because they are completely disconnected from work/life. It doesn’t have to be this way.
BTW, here’s a good example of diagramming – http://www.idiagram.com/CP/cpprocess.html