PLP Live Event – Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology
Last night PLP held its first Live Event of 2010. Will Richardson interviewed Allan Collins and Richard Halverson, the authors of Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology: The Digital Revolution and Schooling in America. A very brief overview of the conversation: The authors believe schools will not disappear anytime soon, but they contend we are not going to fix education by fixing schools, schools are a 19th century invention trying to cope in the 21st century. They assert, learning will leave schools behind if schools cannot change fast enough to keep pace with the advances in learning technologies. They also discuss the positive and negative issues associated with a changing education system such as home schooling, learning centers, distance education, workplace learning, technical certifications, equity, the role of web communities in learning. The interview was interesting, with a great deal of conversation taking place in the chat of Elluminate. If anyone is interested in listening to the interview, here is a link to the Elluminate session, please take some time to listen and offer your thoughts here on the conversation as well.
The Value of Experienced Voices
By: Dean Shareski
One of the great ideas of PLP is the use of experienced voices. These are people who have established a clear online presence and have spent considerable time connecting and sharing in much the same ways as the we hope the participants of PLP will aspire to.
In the Ontario-Lower Hudson cohort Ira Socol, Scott Floyd, Tom Barrett and Susan Carter-Morgan all led groups around their areas of passion and expertise. In each case, quality discussions blossomed.
One example came in Ira’s group which centered around the concepts of Universal Access and Social Justice. In one discussion Ira asked,
If you look at your school, really look at your school, who do you think it is designed for? Consider everything, from architectural cues to time schedules, classroom shapes and furniture, “important” courses, rules of behaviour, places to eat, to rest, styles of “teaching.” Who made these choices? Why? Which students do “better” because of those choices? Which do “worse”?
Here are some highly insightful responses:
In my first classroom, the chairs were attached to the desks. This made group work or collaboration difficult. These desks fit into the room best when they were placed in rows. Sometimes you could group 4 together. For most students, it made sitting very uncomfortable. Even now, the desks seem small in most high school classrooms. They are designed for children and not for young adults. I remember the black board in my first classroom was on one wall only and power supplies were designed in such a way that if I wanted to rearrange the room I would have needed an electrician. This made the black board the front of the room. The bulletin boards were at the back and side, so posted student work was visible to me when I stood at the front, but not to students who faced forward. The clock was above or near the door and served to countdown the time until students could exit….Kim McGill
Despite making claims to be a progressive high school, my school is designed for teacher centered industrialized education. Students travel from class to class each day, and experience each course in segregation from one another. There a few school rules, which enable students to explore there own learning, and have freedom to explore during the school day when they are not programmed to be in a classroom.
I fully agree with Ira’s comment that we are ingrained in our environment. I almost think it would be better for my school district to be more progressive if we made the capital expense to tear down the school and rebuild it.
As a digital person, teaching in a school like this is difficult for me. My mind doesn’t work in a linear fashion, whether that be because of growing up in a digital society, or possibly an undiagnosed educational disability that I might or might not have. I am not sure how we expect students to learn that way.
I don’t think we know what is natural or un-natural, since society is so ingrained in the physical and mental structure of a school…. Josh Block
And the conversation continued….
What I find interesting in this process is that Ira served to illicit ideas that I’m sure both Kim and Josh had considered before but were given a platform and someone with background and research that confirmed or expanded their ideas. Again, this is just one example and it happened in Scott’s, Tom’s and Susan’s groups as well. Experienced voices are a very key part of the work of PLP.
Oceans of Possibilities
By: Lani Ritter-Hall
Two face to face meetings –
A number of Elluminate sessions –
Sheryl and Will’s guidance and mentorship –
School teams mapping an interdisciplinary unit, planning together –
And recently on the PEARLS cohort Ning and the web, mini inquiry units begin to chronicle the ever evolving journey of teachers and students into 21st century standards based, student centered, inquiry driven learning.
In the 3rd grade at PS 16, PLPer Camille Terzino’s students have been learning the features of a non-fiction text through an “Artist Study” in which they generated their own questions such as Were they born with this gift or did they have to practice? about the artist they chose. Each student then read a book on their artist and wrote an informational report duplicating the key features in the text. They researched the country of the artist’s origin and recreated their favorite piece of art as they learned about line segments, shapes, and symmetry. The students will be creating Voicethreads with summaries of what they have learned and posting their paintings and images of the originals to the web for comparison. Camille noted:
“The kids were very excited about the project. They especially like the idea of exploring the different content areas and how art affects their lives. I can’t wait to finish their paintings and do the voice threads. I hope to have students from other classes comment on their voicethreads.”
Meanwhile 4th graders at St. Clare under the guidance of PLPers Denise Olsen and Patricia Molloy are learning about the “Census”, How has the census changed?, and conducting a census of their own. Denise and Patricia posted their map and unit in a Google Doc transparently sharing their journey in planning and learning. Then a post in the cohort virtual learning community from three of their students:
“Hi this is Anthony, Melissa, and Rebecca. We are 4th grade students at St. Clare School. Our class created a census and we would love it if you can take it. To take the census, go to tinyurl.com/scs-census.
There is also an intro that you can listen to that tells you about our census. Go to tinyurl.com/intro-census to hear it.
It would be really nice if you would take this census. Please tell your friends and family about our census too. If you know anybody that lives in a different country please ask them to take our census so that we can compare data from other places.
Thank you for your help! Anthony, Melissa, and Rebecca”
And Denise and Patricia note:
“We are moving along on our project. The fourth grade class is using the census (actually creating their own using Google forms) to learn about people. After the data is collected, the students will work in groups to analyze the results. Each group will be assigned one of the questions.”
As PLPer Joanne Teasdale and her kindergarten students at Blessed Sacrament explore “Oceans of Possibilities” she writes in her unit plan:
“How can teaching young students to seek information about a high interest topic (Oceans and ocean life), help them gain understanding of the natural world and stretch their worldview to help them to become caring, knowledgeable stewards of the earth and life-long learners?
This project was created to open up the world to my young students. The world of reading, writing, inquiry, practical practice and joy in learning. It was meant to empower the students by giving them the tools to seek out information, and enable them to transfer these tools to build their personal ‘fund of knowledge’.”
And Joanne reflects in the virtual learning community:
“My young students are just coming into their own – as far as skills – so we are doing map skills and ocean life studies, and book reviews at present – the rest is for the future! The student’s are very excited and really into learning about ocean animals. They have passionate favorites and already have a great vocabulary going: carnivores, omnivores, herbivores, camouflage, baleen, kelp forests, coral reefs etc. It makes going to work a joy every day!”
Their Ocean Book Reports, read by students with illustrations, garnered a plethora of comments on Joanne’s class blog and clearly demonstrate all they have learned.
They have connected, they have collaborated—and it’s just a matter of time until some take collective action. It’s truly refreshing and very exciting to read and hear the enthusiasm of both teachers and students as they all explore more deeply the oceans of possibilities that arise through 21st century inquiry driven learning.
