This week included readings centering around connected learning and making learning student centered. I found it very interesting because I have been researching what will help close the gap between high SES and low SES learners. Embracing authentic learning opportunities and connecting with a student’s interests are key to this type of learning. I read this week thinking of all the ways that education could be better but is not. When I picture a classroom with student centered learning the first major shift I see is that the teacher is not the facilitator of learning. The teacher is not in front of the class teaching standards but instead is allowing students to explore as necessary. This classroom would also need space for the students to work on themselves as people. Reflection logs, journals, meditation areas, etc. How do we allow students to grow as individuals?
Students in traditional environments often feel disconnected from their learning environments because the learning is not meaningful to them. Connected learning aims to “elevate the culture and identity of non-dominate children and youth.” (Ito, et al., 2013) It allows the students to make learning meaningful regardless of cultural touchstones. As technology progresses it embeds itself into many aspects of our lives and, just as many adults do not know how to operate when their phone battery dies, students are increasingly dependent of technology. Why is it that we have not seen an equal shift in our classrooms? In one of our texts there was a line that stuck out to me, “But our schools – how we teach, where we teach, who we teach, who teaches, who administers, and who services – have changed mostly around the edges.” This struck a chord because I deal with this every day! When attempting to use technology there is a lot of red tape and once I push through that I encounter push-back from administrators about how I should be teaching. The computers seem to either be used as a babysitter or not at all. When students are asked to collaborate online with larger groups of people they are required to learn skills about disagreeing online. In The Future of Learning Institutions in the Digital age I noted that the individualized learning focused on working together with people from all walks of life. One of the key points was that the students would need to learn how to respectfully agree and disagree with others. They discussed how networked learning requires students to “correcting others, being open to being corrected oneself, and working together”. (Davidson & Goldberg, 2009) Learning how to work with others and striking a balance on how and when to disagree is something that is currently lacking in our public educational system. For evidence of this, simply look at the comments of any popular YouTube video. With 4 years of my education being in a Montessori school, I feel like I have been exposed to this learning already. I was given a taste, told to work towards it in my college programs, and then was squashed by the public-school machine. Tailoring learning to the students is parroted by every administrator and district (public) but then we are asked to teach in the same way, are evaluated in the same way, and are asked to respond in the same way. How does this differentiate? It does not. It never will. The school system is more interested in the idea of differentiation than the differentiation itself. The biggest proof of this is when teachers attend a professional learning training. The presentation is typically a PowerPoint with someone reading off a pad of paper. They go through the motions and teach in a lecture style. Sometimes there is a funny “hook” or attention-grabbing device in the beginning of the lesson, but overall the lecture is the same format without any of the differentiation that the district claims is so important. One of the big pushes in education has been for a student centered and inquiry based classroom. This is touched on many times in Structuring Equality but is echoed in the other readings as well. How do we teach these students not only become successful in educational setting but also in their everyday lives. As a teacher I strive to allow students to grow as individuals and to ask why. Challenging the system is tricky and not without difficulties but a major shift needs to happen in order to keep up with these students. We need to make sure that the students are having their needs met both inside and outside the classroom and that their learning is impactful to them. When students are treated respectfully and their ideas are taken seriously they will begin to learn and they will be invested in learning. When we create curriculum that rubber stamps each student and do not allow them to grow the students become dissatisfied with the system that didn’t allow them to grow. Schools are ‘changing around the edges’ but are not embracing digital learning and technology while students are clinging to it like a life preserver. We need to embrace digital learning and ‘connectedness’ to best reach the needs of our children. If not now, then when? Works CitedDavidson, C. N., & Goldberg, D. T. (2009). The future of learning institutions in a digital age. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. Ito, M., Gutierrez, K., Livingstone, S., Penuel, B., Rhodes, J., Salen, K., . . . Watkins, C. (2013). Connected learning. Irvine, CA.: Digital media and learning research hub. The Graduate Center Learning Collective. (2017). Structuring equality: A handbook for student-centered learning and teaching practices. HASTAC.
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AuthorEllie E. Archives
November 2017
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