Talk:Designing the 21st Century School
From School Computing
Scheduling... that is the bug bear... no progress there no progress anywhere
Here are intriguing snippets from edubloggers that speak to this topic. I don't agree that technology trumps pedagogy, because that would be like saying machines trump humanity, but I think the point is well taken about the power of these communication tools to deeply impact "traditional" pedagogical practice Demetri, 23 December 2007...
There is just no question in my mind now that we are witnessing the initial phases of a social, cultural, and scientific change that will rival--and likely eclipse--the advent of the printing press. And it is not because of the pedagogy. While this change confirms some core beliefs that many of us have with regard to teaching and learning, and reopens the door to implementing them, the cause of this dramatic change is technological, specifically the read/write Web (or Web 2.0). It is the use of the Web as a contributor as much as a consumer of information. -Steve Hargadon [1]
It's so easy to agree with Steve on this. Techno-enhanced communication, collaboration DOES trump pedagogy, or at least, the way we go about structuring learning in schools. I am fundamentally at a loss to explain the profound shifts in how to approach teaching and learning to colleagues whose days are scripted, determined by curriculum scope-n-sequences that purport to scaffold teacher-driven instruction, and provide engaging learning learning environments. Plato's Cave comes to mind. -Miguel Guhlin [2]
The problem of the edublogasphere (and actually the whole blogasphere) in the context of learning is that people in the sphere do not - at least often - form any groups (an entity of individuals with an objective). -Teemu Leinone [3]
Whatever our passion- educational change, climate change, global change, social change, political change. How are the conversations we are having within our communities bringing about change? How are your various webs of co-evolving conversations making meaning and evoking action? How do we use our communities and conversations as a venue for social change? Because if we are not moving toward action, then we are just droning on and on using valuable time that could be spent on making the world a better place. -Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach [4]
Why do we have to keep asking how technology will change how we approach teaching art or any subject? The fact is, it's changing how people interact at the most fundamental levels OUTSIDE the classroom...you either use it, or you don't. If you don't then what is it about your field that is isolationist, anti-social, and insular? I ask because that's what you're choosing to teach. -Miguel Guhlin [5]
Many of the ideas we find simple are in fact not simple, in both the conceptual understanding and actualization of these concepts... Unless we understand how our ideas sound to others, we may actually be causing more harm than good in creating the changes in schools, pedagogy and practice we seek. -Alec Couros [6] "The importance of understanding how we sound to others when explaining technology solutions." -MG [7]
Read Will Richardson's you don't have to go to college blog post. Also, in "Some New Years Dreaming," Will writes, "[We need] a different model, one that is built on really small groups of students that meet in physical space studying and learning about the topics they are passionate about and who are also connected to other small groups of students with like minded passions from anywhere in the world via the Live Web, where long term collaborations and research and learning can happen over extended periods, all of it real work for real audiences, published and reviewed by engaged readers participants acting as mentors from global audiences. The adults in the room are co-learners with the students but also educators who can model and navigate the skills and competencies, the “network literacies” (sorry, Tom) that the kids in the room need to have to leverage the connections they help facilitate. And there might be some high-level, virtual administration in there somewhere, to make sure the connections and logistices are working. And there might be parents learning alongside their students, and others who are involved at different levels of the process. Regardless, it’s a place where learning is at the heart of everything. Not grades. Not tests. Not college acceptances."
Will quotes Clay Burrell, who says, "More and more I wonder: is school a good place for teachers who want to make a difference in the lives of their students, and to the future of the world? Is there a way to leave the daily farce of gradebooks, attendance sheets, tests, corporate and statist curriculum, homework assignments, grade-licking college careerist “students” (and parents), fear of parents and administrators, and fear of inconvenient socio-political truths - and at the same time, to make a far more meaningful impact on the lives of the young?…I’m not sure how much longer I want to work for schools. I’d so much rather teach"
“Creativity is as fundamental as literacy and numeracy," shared Sir Ken Robinson . "All young children have immense creative confidence. What strikes me is how few adults do. If you ask adults, they mainly think they’re not very creative. All young children think they are up to a certain point..” This article highlights the work of 3 children from Texas and Tennessee working in creative collaboration. When I first read Sir Ken Robinson, I thought I understood his point. Upon reflection, I realized I was wrong. At one level, I was distinguishing between children being frivously creative and adults focusing their creativity on useful projects and under appreciating themselves. Online Read/Write Web tools enable both adults and children access to the same opportunities for creativity. In a presentation available online, researchers distinguish between personal creativity and societal creativity. -Leader Talk [8]
NYT:
In their book, the Heath brothers outline six “hooks” that they say are guaranteed to communicate a new idea clearly by transforming it into what they call a Simple Unexpected Concrete Credentialed Emotional Story. Each of the letters in the resulting acronym, Succes, refers to a different hook. (“S,” for example, suggests simplifying the message.) Although the hooks of “Made to Stick” focus on the art of communication, there are ways to fashion them around fostering innovation.
To innovate, Mr. Heath says, you have to bring together people with a variety of skills. If those people can’t communicate clearly with one another, innovation gets bogged down in the abstract language of specialization and expertise. “It’s kind of like the ugly American tourist trying to get across an idea in another country by speaking English slowly and more loudly,” he says. “You’ve got to find the common connections.”