Diana Laufenberg shares how education has changed from her grandmother’s time to her own, and how it has become more accessible with technology.

She talks about her experience teaching American government and using the internet as a tool for authentic learning.

In this TED talk published in 2010, she also discuss about challenging her middle school students to identify someone in their own life who had made a positive impact and to put their own voice over it.

You can also find out about her current teaching experience at a public school in Pennsylvania, where they embrace the information surplus and let go of traditional paradigms. They allow students to fail as part of the learning process and encourage experiential learning.

Diana gives an example of a unit they did on responding to an oil spill, where students produced a series of infographics. They processed out loud what made certain visual products great and talked about the learning process.

She concludes by saying that education should focus on empowering student voice and experiential learning, rather than just getting information.