The New Face of Learning
What thoughts do you have about the ideas presented in the article, “The New Face of Learning” by Will Richardson in the October 2006 edition of Edutopia.
“What happens to time-worn concepts of classrooms and teaching when we can now go online and learn anything, anywhere, anytime?”
How will this shift impact our district? Our students? Us?
This entry references the October 13, 2006 edition of the Instructional Technology Update.
This is a powerful article. It forces you to think about the way technology is changing our classrooms, our lesson plans, and even the projects students are submitting.
Instead of assigning a report on a bird, I could challenge students to find an accurate or inaccurate web resource. They could justify thier findings with specific content from the site via an informational reflection. This would eliminate any plagiarism and require the students to look at multiple resources while meeting PSSA Anchors.
I like the section of the article which addresses the “block and bust” of technology. We are scared about how our kids will use the technology. Instead of taking a risk or having faith, sometimes we outlaw it. We’ve seeen this in our own schools with games, email, free google searches, etc…
Instead, how can we funnel the energy into creating relevant meaningful learning experiences?
Posted by on 10/10 at 12:07 PMThe power of technology derives from the people using it. The new face of learning calls into question a rethinking of learning spaces that cross traditional boundaries. Students collaborate and build networks with the new basics. When was the last time you created a mobile podcast or tracked the blogosphere with your cell phone? Do you check your gmail daily? Which RSS web feed do you use? Checked out newer browsers - Firefox, Opera (mobile and device versions too), or Safari - which offer RSS support? Used online bookmarkers to aggregate and access all your website favorites? VODcast or semablogged lately? Created web tags? Have a mobile home? Chances are your students do, and that’s part of the problem. WE teach and THEY learn differently. Whether we like it or not, these cool tools are part of the expanding new literacy and we need to teach in the 21st century, moving toward the new basics.
Will Richardson asks, “What happens to time-worn concepts of classrooms and teaching when we can now go online and learn anything, anywhere, anytime?” He embeds his answer inside his question: “time-worn concepts.” Worn is not an essentially negative concept (think antiques, age-added value), but in the sub-text of this discussion, Richardson beg us to rethink as educators our own time-worn concepts and methodologies. And we resist, frequently with the full support of a district’s “block and bust” handbook. A district’s philosophy exists for sound, protective reasons, with the students’ health and safety foremost. But - and that conjunction is a huge separator between what is and what could be - we need to forge sustainable ways to implement technology, and we could begin by using the tools students carry in their pockets.
Last year in Denver at the T + L2 Conference, Hall Davidson, in his keynote address, Media for Motivated Minds, implored administrators and encouraged educators to shift the education paradigm to teach the way students learn best: with the devices they carry in pockets and purses. DEN Network Specialist Steve Dembo‘s webinar, Teaching with the Technology Tools of the New Generation, explored then-emerging ways a simple camera phone with Internet access can become a valid educational tool. Can a district implement a policy that enables students to learn with their own “textbooks”? Some already have.
Randy asks truly provocative questions: How will this shift impact our district? Our students? Us? Our district already feels the impact as we move forward proactively to implement a five-year district-wide Technology Plan. One of our most immediate challenges for the high school is the preparation for Pennsylvania’s Classrooms of the Future grant, a process requiring extensive in-service training for teachers with the grant technology, as well as developing technology integration in existing curricula. Pennsylvania has already begun the process of requiring NETS standards in all curricula. Most of our students know more about technology than we, as educators, know or use. That imbalance often intimidates us. Why not harness that skill base and learn from our students. For students not included in the most students category, Pennsylvania’s grant initiative levels the playing field, giving all students equal access to online learning. Is this concept not a moral imperative. Now we come to us, the educators - the aha moment of truth. We have the largest distance to bridge if we continue to teach in the 21st century. So, my question is, How do we begin?
Simply, I think. The first step is a self-inventory. Without asking where the technology will come from, or how you will budge me out of any computer lab (just ask and I’ll share or give it up), or without collapsing into the my-subject-can’t-integrate-technology response, just ask yourself Will Richardson’s question. Keep asking it until you are comfortable with a self-assessment: does my classroom methodology have just one time-worn approach that I can upgrade? Then ask yourself how technology could help your update. Think of it (if you’re female) as a wardrobe update: what can I add to change the look of my outfits? What new accessory could really update my look? Then ask someone for help. When I think of the long list of people who have helped me in my journey toward computer literacy, I realize that the list began with two students: Eric Gratz and Melanie Rutkowski. Debbie Green, former SHS technologist, helped me create my first two websites and Matt Meron, ‘06, created my current website. Michele Cotugno found my message board and uploaded my website for years, often several times a day. Now I am an independent learner, and I can do it myself, online directly. Chris Smith (scroll link to Our Focus - High Definition Authentic Learning) wears a halo you can see if you look closely; he survived all my help-me sessions and earned a much-deserved promotion. Tom Smith continues the family tradition and helps me as I move into new ground. Recently, I have even been helping faculty, and isn’t that the way it should be. There’s a lot of help out there; you just need to ask.
The second step is to take the leap and try it. Forget failure, or view it the way I do: a learning opportunity. I have never really learned from my successes in the same way I learn from things that didn’t work. Finally, realize that our students are amazingly generous human beings with a huge capacity to support our initiatives. I tell them when I am leaping into the unknown, the unfamiliar, and I ask them to come along and help me in the process. Somewhere in your classes you have real technology experts and you can ask them to help. They even teach well. Last year, Dan Lebo taught his Honors English class video editing and the finer points of Google Earth. Zack Creveling linked last year’s IP presentations on his website. The year before, Dan Lischner was my go-to technologist. This year, I am amazed by the number of students in each of my classes who are tech savvy; I use them as support networks in lab classes and they are wonderful resources.
How about a pain-free first step? I have registered for a series of curriculum integration workshops through MAGPI, an Internet2 videoconference providers. Looking for flex hours? Bet you could get 2 hours for each after-school videoconference you attend. Just show up in Room 120. Wouldn’t it be a great initiative if classes in our district could join us for a series of videoconferences on Toleration and Diversity. Again, we are already registered, so you could easily join us. Take a simple step. Make a beginning.
David Warlick asks the question, What should a classroom look like in the Year 2015? I’d rather ask all of us what our classrooms will look like in the next five years? I am confident that we will prove Randy’s image is correct.
Posted by on 10/15 at 02:18 PMBoth Lynn’s and RJ’s comments speak one thing to me: Our use of technologies in schools is not a fad; it is here to stay because it can revolutionize the system, just like it has the rest of the world.
One of my favorite blogs to read lately is called Dangerously Irrelevant. The blog is run by Scott McCleod, a professor at the University of Iowa. Several days ago, there was a post called A Freakonomic Analysis. In the post, the author cited the Freakonomics Blog (based on the recent best-seller) and a hospital that was having trouble with a staff that needed to understand the importance of washing their hands. After several ineffective responses to the situation, the hospital management decided to "shock" the staff into becoming regular hand washers. Here’s what they did. At a staff meeting they took imprints of everyone’s (supposedly bacteria infested) hands. With the help of some technology, they turned the imprints into images—images that became the desktop image and screensaver on all the hospital computers. Needless to say, handwashing rates improved dramatically.
The mastermind behind this is quoted, "With people who have been in practice 25 or 30 or 40 years, it’s hard to change their behavior. But when you present them with good data, they change their behavior very rapidly."
I think this is also true for us in education. What is the "good data" that we need to present to adminstrators, teachers, and community members that highlights the importance of changing our view of the educational process and the role of technology? Any thoughts?
Posted by on 10/15 at 03:43 PMI could see the good data in the dark. I could hear the buzz and feel the electricity. It was happening: students were loving what they were doing, and it was such a simple assignment. Using unitedstreaming images, students were proving that a picture is truly worth a thousand words, but in this case one would suffice. Their task: find the perfect image that best demonstrates any word from their vocabulary list. “Define” 8 vocabulary words. Could they work in teams--yes. Did they—absolutely. Were they learning--you betcha. About how many times would you guess they turned eight double-sided sheets of ubiquitous vocabulary—the whole period. Was it noisy—yep—the best kind of academic excitement noise. Did they print their work—nope—saved it to a folder in Student Projects on their H drive.
What was my good data? They finished in one period, did more than 8 words [there was a contest to see which team could do the most, but the competition was student driven—honest], bought into the concept of Visual Vocabulary, and volunteered to assemble the 6 sections into a Study Guide for the SATs [someone’s Graduation Project--maybe--digitized in Photo Story 3]. Were they saving to a community flash drive—aha. Did I grade them on the spot—visualize my very large smile. Were they spot-on perfect: amazingly yes, yes, yes. Nice surprise, you might think, but I could see it coming…
Was it a win—win. Totally. Did they see my hidden agenda—nope. Did they anticipate my next step: yep. Did they beg to do the assignment again—“could we please use videostreams next week.” And you know my answer…but back to my agenda. I want to do digital poetry for the Allentown Art Museum and digital storytelling [if I ever get the rest of my back-ordered microphones] for my authentic history/lit unit. I really could teach the process [have two ready-to-go PowerPoints from the Keystone Summit], but I’d rather let my students discover that they already know it. So, now they know how to edit and insert images; next step: edit and embed videos. Final step: add sound and voiceovers. Isn’t that digital storytelling, without telling them….
Do I have good data—I’d say the best—and it really was unsolicited. Did I update a “time-worn” concept and make it better. Yepper, and I just cannot begin to tell you how good it felt and how much FUN we had. I smiled all the way to my car and into the weekend.
Posted by on 10/16 at 08:31 PMOn a different note, Randy’s Issue 9 opened a “secret” to learning.
In a book that I did not like [Puppets] by a writer whose work I admire [Daniel Hecht], I took away from the text one teaching philosophy: “Questions are a window into intelligence.” In teaching, we focus on crafting questions: overarching questions, essential questions, contextual questions, analysis questions, synthesis questions—to the extent that questions have achieved genre status. Questions are the anchor of the Understanding by Design initiative of staff development several years ago. As Randy notes, effective teaching incorporates sound questioning techniques that enable activities associated with them.
Far too often, though, questions are like a one-way street. We ask, and students answer. Hecht’s quotation asked me to rethink how I thought about questions. In a sense, the quotation became a metacognitive exercise: it made me think about the thinking involved in questioning. It also made me a better teacher. I view every question from students as a window into their intelligence, an opportunity to explore how they think. Don’t questions speak volumes about who we are, or are not…
Lately, I value questions as much, and sometimes even more, than answers. A reading strategy I learned from one of my students last year was “25 Questions.” She learned this approach in a Bible Study class. She was told that for any complex passage in the Bible, she should write 25 questions, as quickly as they came into her mind. She even modeled the exercise. Then, she gave me a scriptural passage and had me write 25 questions about the passage [which I must admit I did not fully understand]. Somewhere between question 17 and 20, I began to understand the magic of 25 questions. I understood what I did not know, but in that knowing, I moved toward what I did know.
Posted by on 11/01 at 04:55 PMThank you!
Posted by on 11/02 at 10:30 AMWhen creating my time capsule entry, all I could think about was my 36 year old self reading what I wrote and looking at the picture that I posted. It is hard to believe that I can preserve my 16 year old thoughts to look at them years from now. Not to mention that the setup of the entire site is amazing. I explored entries from different countries, loving the feeling that they were all experiencing the same feelings that I was. It is an amazing undertaking to make and online time capsule for people all around the world am I am very thankful.
Posted by on 11/03 at 11:33 AMGreat way to put yourself out there...learn more about other people.
Posted by on 11/06 at 05:09 PMI think the time capsule is a great way to recall a special memory or value I had during my previous years. I always enjoy looking through old photos or things I have written when I was younger. When I am older, I know I will love looking back on a moment I found so special.
Posted by on 11/07 at 11:29 AMGood experience and easy to do.
Posted by on 11/07 at 04:33 PM
Next entry: Yahoo! Time Capsule