- A New Culture of Learning (Thomas & Seely Brown, 2011)
- Connectivism (Siemens, 2004)
This week, I’m continuing to try and envision the future of education. I’m curious how long it will take for the common-person to realize that our education system is living in the Stone Ages. What’s better, is I’m curious how long it will take politicians to come to the realization as well. This COVID era has the potential to turn the education-game upside down and give it a good shake-up. Many students are moving online or learning from home which I think is a step in the right direction. However, I also believe the teacher is going to play an enormous role in how that child learns online. As stated in the Thomas & Seeley Brown article, the process of transferring knowledge from teacher to students simply can’t keep up with our changing times.
I’ve been onboard for a shake-up in the education systems since I really found out how the game is played. You don’t really understand until you’re in the classroom and sitting in meetings with your principals and superiors. Teachers are the lackeys, pulverized by immense weight and stress of standardized test scores. I’ve lost hours of sleep stressing about teaching, and I know I’m not alone. Teachers are handed the illusion of power and authority, when in reality…you just have your name on a door. School Teachers are submissive to parents, curriculum, administration, student-needs, the schedule and so much more. We need to step aside and allow the powers of technology do the teaching. Our jobs and focus needs to shift to a facilitator and connector. Teachers need to strategically supply rich-content on the Web to students to allow them to explore their interests. We have the inside-track on educational program the common-person does not even know about.
This school year is going to be unlike any other, but I’m optimistic it will change for the better. My goals this year is to expand my students’ knowledge base and push them to explore their interests by connecting them to fun things on the Web. We’re currently using a program called Classkick, and so far….they love it! Classkick is an interactive whiteboard software that allows me to create templates that kids can manipulate in creative and unique ways. Among its many features, there is one I’d like to highlight. Classkick has a feature that allows students to request help, and another students can hop in and assist. I’m hoping this will build a strong classroom-community. I have some high-achieving students this year, so pushing them to take on more responsibility is a win-win for me. Furthermore, my goal is to provide a lot of those rich resources in some way that extends beyond the curriculum. The MIT program, Scratch, is something I want to experiment with and push out to some of my students.
I’d like to shift gears and highlight my thoughts about Chapter 1 of the Thomas & Seeley Brown article. First of all, I admire Sam exploring his interests and sticking with computer programming. Finding it within yourself to devote so much time explore a topic of interest in commendable. In that anecdote, Sam’s learning was much richer than he would’ve received in school, in my opinion. I admire the hustle and grind of the coder, Allen, who would Google his error message and make it a point to figure things out on his own. He stumbled upon blogs, FAQs, and forums and took it upon himself to research his errors and solve his own issues. I also chuckled when reading about the college professor who felt like his class didn’t learn anything. I felt the exact opposite while I was reading. Students gathering outside of class to bring meaningful content to the forefront of a college-level class? That sounds like a dream come true to me. As a teacher, I want to develop and mold students to follow in the footsteps of the characters of these anecdotes. If I can equip them with more problem-solving skills and indulge them in programs that caters towards their specific interests, and they continue to work on that stuff outside of school hours, that would be an enormously gratifying feeling for me.
This week’s readings are just more examples of how technology has the potential to change the game of education. I fully intend to ride this trend well into the future and continue to embrace new technology and its potential to impact students’ lives for the better.