I participated in a discussion about high school teachers efforts to include some “elementary” type activities in their classes. All agreed that the kids were more engaged, participated more, and subsequently learned more when they had an opportunity to pursue these “elementary” style activities as opposed to more traditional high school instruction. The whole notion of elementary vs. secondary wasn’t quite sitting well with me.

Then I watched Clay Shirky‘s video clip from the web 2.0 expo in San Francisco back in April.

For me, the salient point is “Media that’s targeted at you but doesn’t include you may not be worth sitting still for.” This has been rolling around in my head – surely there are applications to education. This becomes even more apparent while reading Shirky’s book, “Here Comes Everybody” where Shirky writes (wonderfully and engagingly) about the basic desire for people to share and work collaboratively.

Then I read David Warlick’s post where he suggests substituting EDUCATION for MEDIA in Shirky’s statement … and I was brought right back to the conversation about “elementary” activities at the secondary level. It’s not that they are elementary – it’s that they’re participatory. The kids are engaged when they share, collaborate, and produce. By the way, that notion has nothing to do with technology.