Superlearner

When I read articles like this one “superlearners” I get excited – wow this is what we are talking about, taking risk, collaborating, using resources, actively reconstructing knowledge. It was even printed in Harvard Magazine! Then I look at the date 1991, and I feel sad, because I am reminded that we (educators) have always known that there is a better way to learn, and a better way to teach. However, we have continued to choose otherwise. Are you a superlearner?

A professional learning network

Are you ready to read and write and discuss ideas with people daily? Are you ready to get help polishing ideas, and hopefully help others polish theirs. Are you ready to maintain multiple ongoing discussions covering a variety of topics. Karl Fisch wrote “Ideally, this would also describe schools; places that were not defined as much by prescribed curricula, but by a climate of intellectual curiosity and a culture of ideas, where good ideas influence other good ideas.” He wrote this three days ago.
The idea of a community of learners is not new, but the ways in which we can connect and collaborate has shifted. Face to face meetings hold less and less value; in fact they are quickly becoming a really insufficient way to get things done.
The big million dollar question is what does all of this mean to schools – to the way we teach and to the way we learn. Knowledge has become as accessible as air, all of the answers are out there; now it is the questions that are important. And the great questions will take multiple people to answer – where do you find your answers or better yet how?

Digital Immigrants or Natives

How long will people hide behind their age? I was not born in a large city, but I am quickly learning how to navigate one. Sure time has changed, but at some point you are expected to change with it. Do you want to go to a doctor who has not changed in twenty years?

Keeping up with the times is expected in any profession, and education shouldn't be any different.

It is not the tools

As long as we focus on the tech tools, and how they can change education, we are barking up the wrong tree. It has never been about the tools - it is about how we teach and how we learn. Yes the way we learn. Teachers should be master learners before they can be teachers.

When will we see this shift? When will people stop asking about tools?

Educon 2.1

It was a good conference. I enjoyed some of the presentations, and picked up a couple of valuable tools. Coming from a private school, I forget the constant struggle, whether real or perceived, between us (teachers) and them (school system). These conferences tend to be a rallying cry to the tech elite and administrators to fight for change or else become obsolete. On a lot of points I agree with them, but it still strikes me as funny, that we have to go through all of these "call to action meetings" in order to get people to use something that makes their lives easier, and helps kids get more out of their own learning.

I again look to other professionals and say "do you tolerate this?" Is using a new tool an option at your company? We have to move from the argument to use it, into the expectation that you will use it.

Do you get it?

I am coming to the realization that if you don't get or use technology in your personal life, you aren't going to get it or use it in your professional life. If you spend 2 hours a month online, don't get facebook and have never read a blog, I don't think you are going to all of a sudden start incorporating technology into your teaching. Why would you?

I also think that training only helps a little bit. If you can't learn on your own, or figure out how to use something on your own, there is only so much I can show you. A colleague told me I don't want to train them to do what I am doing, I want them to go off and create something new, something I could use. A few will, but most will only be able to follow a recipe, and unfortunately the thought of creating something new terrifies them.

Sorry I don't have any answers, only frustration.

Simplicity
Having just survived another Christmas, I have been thinking a lot about simplicity and minimalism. The 100 thing movement is an interesting concept, and personally one I would like to embrace. I am not sure how my wife or three kids would feel about it, but part of me thinks they might embrace the more streamlined lifestyle. Some things would be harder than others, like books and socks, but I guess more trips to the library wouldn’t be a bad thing.

Naturally I started thinking about these ideas and how they might shape or reshape a school’s technology landscape. Like most schools we have an abundance of “stuff” that we no longer use, and are in the slow process of getting rid of it. We also have an abundance of older desktops, monitors and printers cluttering classrooms and workspaces. We are moving away from this model, and are starting to lease laptops and provide specialized labs as well as centralizing our printing.

However, I would like to think beyond the infrastructure changes, and take a look at how technology can really help streamline and simplify the day to day operations of our school. My desk has piles of paper all over it, and I still waste time looking for stuff. Where is the paperless world I was promised? Meetings still take time to schedule, and collaboration still requires face to face meetings. There are better ways to do things, but like my family it may take a while for people to fully embrace the simple life.