Small Changes; BIG RETURNS

I have set up 3 playlists for the bigreturns group (just my profile is available here as of tonight)  at myFreepath . When you download Freepath and sign up for myFP at the same time, ask to be invited to my group and you'll be able to see a comprehensive tools list (with homepages and student work if we've used them already); a sample unit in Social Studies 10 showing how leading edge tools can be integrated, and a general pot of other stuff I thought would be of interest to people at the conference.

QUESTION: What are your beliefs about of the integration of new tools into your work in the classroom?

In our Learning Centre all students work individually on a variety of subjects in a large classroom area. Debra and I share this large storefront-type open room with all the distractions of two different classes going on simultaneously.

When there are fewer than 10 kids in our groups, keeping the kids on task is fairly straight forward.  However, we both can have upwards of 17-20 on our lists. Debra tends to get a younger group -- mostly grade 10’s -- many of whom have been recently ejected by their mainstream schools because they are difficult to manage. I teach math and science -- the 2 subjects that students find the most difficult to work on without constant help.

When our kids can’t work independently, we turn to better-crafted instructional packages to keep them interested and engaged.  It’s a matter of day-to-day survival for us. Therefore, we believe that keeping the students engaged, on task, and working independently requires us to put enough actual instruction into the packages so that they can understand the concepts without continual teacher input. This way they’ll be interested in and capable of working on their own for longer periods.

“Why everything old is new again, but better” (borrowed from Caroline Gray; see references below) is the banner we’re working under. We have no time or interest really in throwing out everything we’ve always done and starting over -- not after the more than 30 years it took to get good at what we do!

What really interests us is that there are a lot of smart young people out there developing easy-to-use tools to make tech-challenged people like us look good.  With such tools we can get students to perform tasks on the computer that we’ve always had them do by hand -- draw idea diagrams, work out time lines, collect research, make posters, build bibliographies, work through lesson packages. These tools enable our kids to produce work they can be proud of and that they can share with the world.  Such tools eliminate a lot of the struggle they used to endure to get the job done.  They can concentrate on the message rather than on the construction.

We want students to unplug their headphones, logoff Facebook, and get out of MySpace for a while. As shown in the affective domain model diagram above, no learning can occur until students are (a) receiving us and (b) have a willingness to give us their attention. We want students to give more of their 'brainspace' to schoolwork -- not just the bit left unfilled by loud music and text messaging. However, the 2 pre-requisites for engagement in learning -- i.e. receiving and willingness to pay attention -- are seldom elicited by our just insisting that the students turn off their devices when they pass through our doors.

To take them where we want them to go, teachers have to start from where they are -- but not just in the academic sense.

Students learn more from teachers they know care enough to forge a connection. We need to be willing to make ourselves vulnerable by taking some steps into their technological world and then guide them confidently into our world from a place at their side.

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Filed under  //   blended learning   Bloom   Caroline Gray   enhance learning   Freepath   ILC 2008   model of engagement   myFreepath   San Jose   tools   using technology  

“Blended learning is a custom approach that applies a mix of training delivery options to teach, support, and sustain the skills needed for top . . .  performance. With blended learning, the tried-and-true traditional learning methods are combined with new technology to create a synergistic, dynamic learning structure that can propel learning to new heights.”

The title of her article, Why Everything Old Is New Again -- But Better , has become the theme for my life and my career, for my day-to-day work and how I feel technology ought to be used to enhance learning. For more about this, please take a look at my workshop lens in Squidoo à Small Changes; BIG RETURNS.  

When I first started teaching and used to imagine how I'd end up, I'd myself working as a teacher trainer -- perhaps teaching in university or as a faculty associate helping student teachers learn how to work in the classroom. Now I think that goal may be within reach, but with a different twist, because I'm getting enormous pleasure from helping colleagues -- many near dinosaurs like I almost was -- renew, refresh and re-energize their work.

                                                                                                                       

Filed under  //   blended learning   Caroline Gray