Shouldn't we ask kids what they want to learn?

Is there such thing as a dumb question?

Maybe that was one. But as long as someone needs to know something, the answer is no. There’s not.

Education is frequently about toeing a line. Children learn to show up, take instruction, and have faith their teachers – about whom they usually know little - will teach them what they need to know.

We all must trust those teachers, who likely spend as much time with children as their parents.

So how do the learners know they’re learning what they need and buy in appropriately? Are they allowed to question the process?

Generally, … no. That’s frowned upon. Because questioning norms makes people uncomfortable. Things remain the same and we avoid real progress.

Which is where SMILEUP comes in. SMILEUP (Stanford Mobile-based Learning Environment) is designed to help students develop higher order learning skills by asking those questions.

SMILEUP re-shapes learning by asking a question of its own: What do you want to learn? What do you need to learn?

OK, that was two questions. It’s a fluid process.

School is as much about routine, discipline, falling in line, and keeping a child “busy,” as it’s about learning. It’s like treading water. No one is going under, but are they really going anywhere?

SMILEUP combines a mobile-based question application for students with a management application for teachers (we haven’t forgotten them). Students can create multiple-choice questions with their mobile phones and share them with classmates and teachers during class.

That’s right – kids can get on their phones during class. How’s that for making education fun?

There’s frequently little fun and personal investment for kids when it comes to school. Past education models have often been, ironically, about what they weren’t about – “mindless” TV, video games, loitering, getting in trouble, etc. At times it was about spinning a positive out of an absence of negatives. Which isn’t progress. It’s stagnation.

Who says that’s how it should be? And why? Just because it’s easy?

Easy and meaningful don’t have to be mutually exclusive. SMILEUP’s main goal is to develop students’ questioning skills, so they never feel like they’re asking a dumb question. SMILEUP wants to encourage better, and more, student-centric activities and practices in the classroom.

And, just as importantly, SMILEUP wants to make that environment accessible to all, with its low-cost, wireless learning environment.

It’s easy and feels fresh. And fresh is usually great.

The people behind SMILEUP are proof that always searching for a fresh approach works. President and CEO Ryan Byun got his degree in education from the University of Seoul in 1995 and immediately went to work applying cutting-edge educational programs on multiple levels before taking that passion into the private realm, where fewer obstacles and less bureaucracy can bar innovation. He taught at multiple private academies and led planning and strategy at South Korea’s CMS (Creative Math & Science) Education. He’s worked extensively in research and development and is a teacher of teachers, certified in teaching “thinking power” to CMS instructors. He’s fluent in subjects ranging from astronomy and psychology to philosophy, law, and business management. And, as the father of three sons, he also understands the value of parental buy-in, as the other vital side of guiding tomorrow’s thinkers.

David Yi is chairman of SMILEUP’s board. An aspiring K-Pop star by night and education champion by day, David helps integrate SMILEUP into classrooms, with an emphasis on the Bay Area’s Tri-Valley, where he lives with his wife.

Steven Kang oversees SMILEUP’s technology development and school roll-out. A San Francisco resident, Steven is originally from South Korea and is a successful entrepreneur and former director at Samsung Electronics. He’s a foodie who loves traveling when he’s not managing teams on either side of the Pacific.   

The people at SMILEUP are lifelong learners. They know what they know and what they don’t know and are finding better ways to educate. They want to help teachers feel the same way. Helping motivated teachers with new methods only enriches the teaching process.

Do we want children to be pacified and hold them to a standard of learning just enough to squeeze by? Shouldn’t the people doing the learning have some say? Even if their brains aren’t fully developed? While it’s true they haven’t learned as much as the adults, they also don’t have as much to unlearn.

SMILEUP realizes the world has become a smaller place (that’s not to invoke the theme of a certain Disney attraction, because no one learns if that song is in their head for days at a time). But it’s true. Life no longer halts at lines on a map. SMILEUP has launched in more than 30 countries, including the United States, China, India, Argentina, Taiwan, South Korea, Indonesia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Tanzania, and many more. The United Nations has called SMILEUP one of the most innovative tools for the schools of tomorrow.  

SMILEUP is intended for a wide range of educational settings, recognizing that education has unique circumstances all over the planet. The content is agnostic. The one constant is encouraging students to make critical inquiries, instead of just memorizing answers. Being able to ask the questions invites students to buy into the process.

And shouldn’t they? It’s their brains doing, and benefitting from, the work. We live in a world of humans typically fearing stepping outside the box. We don’t talk to strangers. We don’t ask them questions.

Why not? Why shouldn’t kids with ripe brains and an intellectual blank canvas have a say in what they learn? SMILEUP believes that’s where it starts.

What do they want to know?

Have we asked them to tell us?

We should.