When you accept a future where students solve problems for a real audience, what becomes the limiting factor is that connection to the world.
That connection is scarce because requires a few different elements:
A properly framed problem – A company, or government department says “We’re not sure where to locate this new building. We want close to highways, high population density, and in a high foot traffic area. Maybe some statistics students could help figure it out.”
The educational element – Solving a problem is a great, but it’s sometimes not obvious how it applies to core classes like english, history and math. The role of the educator in this model is to illuminate the learning. To layer on content and encourage reflection.
A personal connection – In order to iterate on solutions, you need at least one person who can give feedback throughout the process.
An audience ready to adopt – For anyone to feel like the work matters, there needs to be a group of people that will listen to solutions and potentially adopt a good one.
What is difficult is that all of those elements are hard to find. Especially for an educator who is already at capacity with their normal work. There’s no time to go out and find problems to solve, or find people to advise, or find ways to integrate learning in more open ended ways.
Everything about this model poses a challenge to what our system is currently optimized for. But, it seems like a change we need. Hands-on learning, creating engaged citizens solving community problems. What could be better for everyone involved?