Let’s Ban the Binder
Modern learning can no longer be captured on a page
Has your hand ever cramped up while copying notes into a binder? Do you remember the days when you had to create title pages? Did it matter whether you neatly underlined the date on each page? Can you recall having to study from handwritten notes in preparation for an exam? While binders, refill paper, and writing utensils have comprised the standard learning toolkit for many decades now, these very tools are among the most significant barriers to the change that will one day modernize our schools.
Has your hand ever cramped up while copying notes into a binder? Do you remember the days when you had to create title pages? Did it matter whether you neatly underlined the date on each page? Can you recall having to study from handwritten notes in preparation for an exam? While binders, refill paper, and writing utensils have comprised the standard learning toolkit for many decades now, these very tools are among the most significant barriers to the change that will one day modernize our schools.
Nothing says 20th century learning like the 3-ring binder. For decades, this tool has been the cornerstone of learning. Even dressed up as a cross-curricular ‘Trapper-Keeper’, the purpose of a notebook has been to collect and organize the static knowledge and information deemed most important by the teacher. Whether used to maintain notes, to organize photocopied handouts, or to collect assignments, the state of one’s binder has commonly mirrored a learner’s eventual academic achievement.
In the 1960’s and 70’s the essential aspects of a course were copied from the chalkboard; in the 1980’s and 90’s critical points were copied from the overhead projector; since the turn of the century, keynotes have been copied from slideshow presentations. Primarily meant as an aid to learners preparing for the written test, the act of recording notes on paper by each student in a classroom is a time vacuum that anchors us to arcane paradigms of learning. It’s time to take such past practices to task. (Can you say that five times fast?)
If we value design thinking, project-based learning, and co-construction, then an investment in multimedia portfolios should replace the act of recording notes.
If we care about rich tasks, multimedia products, and digital footprints, then the exploration of modern tools ought be emphasized beyond time spent reviewing notes in preparation for unit tests.
It we wish to honour students with a curriculum guided by choice, challenge, and collaboration, then we need to abandon the practice of recording identical notes into each student’s three-ring binder.
If we believe that creativity is more important than regurgitation, that inventiveness is of greater value than memorization, that learning is more experiential than observational, then we must engage students in thinking beyond pen, ruler and paper.
The future of education is unbound. Modern learning cannot be captured on a page, between the covers of a binder, or within the walls of a classroom. If teaching and learning are to reflect the shared, open, hyper-connected nature of learning, then the retirement of the binder could be the first brave step towards modernizing our practice.
While the removal of traditional tools like notebooks, binders and pencils might be seen as disruptive, I see the replacement of these tools with collaborative practices and digital tools as ‘eruptive’. By leveraging handheld devices, cloud tools, and collaborative learning practices, the modern ‘wiki-fied’ notebook has the potential to change school-based learning as we know it.
It is our comfort with the past is that delays us from making advances in learning. Older siblings, parents, grandparents, and practically every teacher on the planet will recognize the school binder as the prime artifact of learning. Because of that, it will be the intrepid among us who will are the first to retire the binder. The experiences of contemporary learners in newly unbound learning spaces will be remarkable – unrecognizable to past generations of learners. The time has come. Let’s ban the binder.
This blog post is part of a series of thoughtful responses to the question: What’s standing in the way of change in education? to help inform CEA’s Calgary Conference on Oct 21-22, (#CEACalgary2013) where education leaders from across Canada will be answering the same question. If you would like to answer this question, please tweet us at: @cea_ace
Meet the Expert(s)
Rodd Lucier
Teacher, Speaker, Collaborator
As a teacher, consultant, and speaker, Rodd Lucier regularly challenges grassroots educators to consider alternative models for teaching and learning and to co-create solutions to everyday educational challenges. He is the founder of Unplug’d Canadian Education Summit (http://unplugd.ca) and regularly shares his ideas about education and emerging technologies on his blog, The Clever Sheep at http://thecleversheep.com
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