Philosophy behind the EarthShaker Project

Everyone agrees that schools have an important part to play in teaching values and character. Likewise, there is no question that 21st century skills, such as global awareness and digital literacy, should be an essential part of the curriculum. However, when time is tight and the standardised tests loom, the pressure for schools to get ‘back to basics’ can become overwhelming. There simply isn’t time to teach every concept in isolation, so teachers tend to focus on those that are measurable, tested and non-controversial.

However, as noted by Albert Einstein, “Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted”. There is a real danger that our schools will cease to be centres of learning and will become mere test preparation centres —- training, rather than educating, our precious children.

Stephen Covey, in his wonderful book The Leader in Me, proposes an alternative approach. Rather than teaching values as a separate subject, he saw character as the ‘lens’ through which all other content could be viewed. Schools such as A B Combs Elementary, the top magnet school in the United States, have adopted this ubiquitous approach with great success. I spoke to the Principal of A B Combs, Muriel Summers, at the recent ISTE Conference, and came away feeling deeply inspired.

Diagram from the Leader in Me by Stephen Covey 

With the EarthShaker Project, I want to take this one step further, by adding technology and 21st century skills into the equation. Chris Lehmann, Principal of the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia, expressed it perfectly: “Technology should be like oxygen: ubiquitous, necessary, and invisible.”

Here’s how I see it: Students should complete activities aimed at making the world a better place (values education), share their work using 21st century tools (digital literacy) while still achieving the core curriculum. It’s a big goal, but one definitely worth pursuing.

How would this work in practice? Take the writing of persuasive texts for example. This is a part of the Australian national curriculum and is something that is comprehensively assessed in standardised tests. Traditionally, schools ask students to write persuasive texts about hypothetical topics (e.g. ‘dogs are better than cats’) using pen and paper. In the EarthShaker Project, however, students will be encouraged to write persuasive texts about matters of real significance, such as encouraging community members to reduce their use of motor vehicles and fossil fuels. They could then film their persuasive texts and publish them for an authentic audience on the EarthShaker website. By completing the task this way, students will have:

• practised writing a persuasive text;
• learned valuable 21st century skills;
• felt empowered; and
• made a difference in their local and global community.

Students today have access to tools of unbelievable power. A video made by school students can quickly find an audience in the hundreds or even thousands. At a time when technology is transforming every other industry, it amazes me how few schools have harnessed these formidable yet inexpensive tools.

Our curriculum requires us to teach students how to write a persuasive text. However, we can do better than this. A brilliant essay, read only by a student’s teacher, is an opportunity wasted. We can, and should, provide students with a platform to use their newfound skills to make a difference in the outside world.