“Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today. ” Malcolm X
So, this week’s topic is certainly a daunting one. Just trying to rethink how I can approach education and my teaching style gives me considerable anxiety. So, trying to consider tackling educational institutions and how to reinvent them to align with this digital boom we are experiencing is almost too overwhelming to think about. It is clear from all of the readings we have done this semester as well as this week’s, “The Future of Learning”, that in order to best meet our student’s educational needs some change needs to take place. Does that change mean a complete shake-up of institutionalized learning or does it more so mean a restructuring of education as well as a review of what best practices are taking place? I think it falls somewhere in the middle and it will need to start as baby steps as wide sweeping reforms may be overwhelming to the entire system. There were a couple of reoccurring themes that presented themselves is this weeks article; the importance of peer to peer learning, the role of informal learning environments, collaboration, and openness. I would like to touch on them all briefly while throwing in a smattering of other things.
So, this concept of openness is an interesting one and I think a very tricky one. Essentially it is the idea of sharing knowledge and information with all and not necessarily looking to put your stamp on it per se. Now, that definition may not be exact, but I think it is a pretty good one to start with. Knowledge and information under this idea should not belong to any one person but be made available for all. In theory that sounds amazing, in practice, it sounds impractical. I actually have this discussion with a colleague of mine regularly. She wishes that more teachers freely shared their resources as opposed to monetizing them on sites such as Teachers Pay Teachers. My argument is that due to the nature of people, you will have the same groups of people creating and the same group taking advantage of those creations. I am not a “cutesy” teacher and therefore putting together cute projects in slides or whatever it may be is not my thing, but there are plenty of people that really enjoy doing that. I am more than happy to pay that person that spent their time to create something nice just so I don’t have to. Now I in some ways understand this isn’t the perfect example of this concept, but I do think it is one that makes sense. In the article, there is a discussion of how to protect intellectual property as well as how to reward individual contributions. The author even discusses this particular book that was essentially crowdsourced by a large number of experts. In this case, this book was not developed for monetary gain, but what if it was. How do you reward those that spent hundreds of hours contributing compared to someone who maybe contributed far less? Until we develop a more utopian society where the almighty dollar does not rule, I am not sure if I think open sourcing will catch on as much as many hope, which yes, does limit access to those that are economically disadvantaged.
Peer to peer learning, collaboration, and informal learning environments is some ways all go hand in hand. By no means is peer to peer learning and collaboration limited to informal learning environments, but it does seem as though that is where we first saw these concepts emerging amongst young people. These concepts have actually been a reoccurring theme that we have seen across the readings and videos throughout this summer. I will be honest, until taking this class I obviously understood that my students were learning quite a bit outside of school, but I hadn’t really considered how valuable this type of learning could be. For example, yes, I knew that many of them were working on Scratch in their free times, but I only saw that as them improving their coding skills which is terrific on its own. I hadn’t considered all of the accessory/secondary lessons they were learning of perhaps math skills required to navigate the Scratch axis, or the social skills needed to function in the Scratch community. These are but two small examples of secondary learning that was occurring, that the student hadn’t even intended. I am sure learning like this is the norm now and not the exception and we as educators need to find ways to bring this into our classrooms.
The informal learning that we know is occurring on a daily basis is essentially peer to peer learning. What is interesting about that is that generally these peers are not individuals that likely know each other and may be from thousands away, completely different cultures, vastly different ages, but they are tied together by interest. This can be wonderful because with the use of the world wide web we have the ability to connect with such a variety of people that we would usually never have access to. Just as the people we can connect with are diverse, so is the knowledge that they may be willing to share. This is a tremendous way to be exposed to thoughts and perspectives that individuals may never otherwise be exposed to. Now, with that said, I am completely uncomfortable with any of my students participating in this type of learning without significant supervision. I teach kindergarten through fifth grade and I’ll be honest, I think I would be wary of anyone under the age of sixteen having contact with complete strangers that there is no way of vetting who they say they are. Even at sixteen, you still have to be concerned about inappropriate conversations and coercion. I could probably write an entire blog on my safety concerns in relation to young people and the internet, but I will try to stay on topic.
Although I personally would not like to see peer to peer learning occurring in informal online communities for my students, I do see it in my classrooms daily. I am a big proponent as I know many teachers are of “ask three before me”. Essentially, if you don’t understand something that we have covered, try asking some classmates before asking me. That not only frees me up to work with students that are really stuck, but it allows classmates to teach each other. I think if you can explain how to do something to someone else, it usually shows a good grasp of the topic. The interaction is beneficial for both students. Another way that I see this happening in my classroom, is when I learn from my students. Now, I wouldn’t exactly consider myself their peer, but if the main goal of peer to peer learning is to step away from the hierarchical system of the students learning from the teacher, then I do think this happens at times with my older students. I have a few students that have taken the basics of different programs I have taught them and they have run with it. They get very excited to come in and show me something new they figured out, and I get the added bonus of new information. I often let them show the class the new “trick” or whatever it may be and therefore there is another instance of peer to peer learning taking place. I think there is a time and place especially with younger students where you need to keep the hierarchical system in place, but I do think that we need to be more cognizant of allowing students the opportunity to learn from each other. We as teachers also need to be more open to realizing that we don’t know everything and that there are plenty of lessons that our students can teach us. Essentially develop a more collaborative approach with our students in order to improve education for all.
The last point I need to hit on is that of collaboration which I started to mention at the end of the aforementioned paragraph. I am going to be blunt, some of the students in my building suck at this. I know, that is a harsh statement, but it is incredibly true. In the current day workforce, we all understand that most jobs require individuals to be able to collaborate and work as a team. I can not stress enough how important it is that we start to teach our youngest students how to collaborate. Too often people think that if you develop a group project and pair up students, then their job is done and collaboration will just naturally happen. NO. Students need to be taught how to collaborate, how to listen to others, how to take turns, how to compromise, how to do their part. I strongly feel that if there is one easy change we can make to education that will see the greatest return in future workers, it is that of teaching them collaborative skills and giving them more opportunities to practice those skills.
The author started off the article basically saying that standardized testing is what is killing education and student interest. The idea that all students are the same and will be able to perform the same as their peers in all areas is ludicrous. We all have different strengths and it is those strengths that we should be fostering in our students. Now, that doesn’t mean that if a child struggles in math but is terrific in science we should simply give up on math. Maybe instead though, we find ways to use those science strengths to learn the math skills the student is lacking. On an elementary level, I understand that we do need our students to learn and master the building blocks of math and language arts to be successful in any future endeavors, but there have to be ways for us to also incorporate more choices for how students get there. As students reach high school and move onto college, that is where there truly could be more freedom in teaching to student strengths and preparing them for being contributors in our ever-evolving economy.
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