I really enjoyed Richardson’s book, Why School? His writing style was simple and engaging and he had some really interesting and valid points. Our world is becoming increasingly online and this is impacting every aspect of our lives, yet schools have been very slow to adapt and adjust. Learning no longer only takes place within the confines of a school where knowledge is delivered by a teacher. Real learning happens anywhere, anytime, and with anyone. Learning and literacy are changing rapidly in this internet age. We need to equip students with the skills they need to navigate this online world. We are now consumers AND producers of media (Facebook, blogs, Youtube…) so we need to teach students the skills necessary to participate. In particular, students need to be taught to judge the reliability of the information they find. But educators should also focus on teaching students how to enter and interact within various online spaces; how to sample and remix content in a meaningful way; and how to experiment with various media as a form of problem solving.
Here’s an interesting site from New Zealand which lists the top 10 ICT trends for each year: http://www.core-ed.org/thought-leadership/ten-trends
One of the questions asked by CORE is how can we make the most of technology to extend learning? How can we create effective online learning experiences that are both personalized and exciting for our students?
I can get quite excited about all the possibilities but then I remember the reality of my classroom and my school. It’s laughable, really. I have one ancient classroom computer, my own personal MacBook that I bring in each day, an LCD projector, access to a school iPad “lab” of 10 iPads which are shared amongst 450 students, and extremely unreliable internet access. There just doesn’t seem to be enough money for anything in the Vancouver public school system. My students are not wealthy but most do have access to a computer at home. How do we free up money to make decent technology accessible to EVERY student?
In the meantime, I will continue to search out new ways to use the technology I do have to provide meaningful educational experiences for my students. Going forward with Richardson’s ideas of “new school”, I plan to focus more on discovery-based education and assessing what students can DO with what they know.
I think your point about students entering and interacting in online spaces connects to your previous example of destructive personal behaviour circulating through digital media. As educators, we continue to navigate the difficulty of life and learning outside of school, and life and learning inside school. Especially when it comes to using digital technologies to enable, enhance and enrich learning. In addition, we are not only using digital technology for learning curriculum or implementing innovative pedagogy, we are teaching our students how to conduct their lives online, how to know what is healthy and productive, and what is unhealth and destructive. In my opinion, the VSB needs a very proactive, positive, knowledge-generative group of teachers who can influence public perceptions of teaching in the VSB and lobby for adequate ICT resource policies to ensure all students get a fair chance to be productive citizens in the knowledge era.