Clarence’s Classroom ideas
Have just finished watching Clarence Fischer classroom 2.0 presentation.
It’s morning tea time here at my school so I’m typing as fast as I can.
He made some great points about the ‘new classroom’ that fitted into my ideas and extended my thinking about pedagogy.
How classroom pedagogy works, currently, is a little like that old addige about personalities being the sum of my yesterdays. Classroom Pedagogy is an evolution of ideas and strategies which appears to go in cycles if any ‘older’ teachers in my school are to be believed.
The problem with Classroom 2.0 is that it does not fit into the cycle process it is a whole mind shift that is required. It is not something that is a fad and we will come around to it again in another few years after with finished with Intergrated learning style (or thematic study, as they used to call it)
Clarence stated Pedagogy- our ability and enthusiasm for this shift will go hand in hand with the support and encouragement we get ‘from the top’ (the senior management in the school- rather than the ‘the Ministry) How long can a teacher sustain their motivation if ‘the change’ is not really a change but an add on to the current, already overloaded, system. For a sustainable pedagogical shift their needs to be an attitude change. I was talking with friends not so long ago about this very issue and the importance of matching ‘Web2.0-teachers’ with ‘Web2.0-management’ – what a powerful potential for change!
Clarence talked about this attitude change and I fully agree with his observations. We are very fortunate in
New Zealand right now. Our Minister of Education seems to have something of a Web2.0 understanding of the education community. The current Ministry Document also nod towards this shifting in education. However, I feel there is something of a time-lag between these publications, the minister’s speeches and what it looks like in the schools across
New Zealand. Should this be a grassroots movement or a directive from the top? Some combination of both is what is required, that what an attitudinal change is all about.
The Tools, or rather access to the tools is vital, there are many more Web2.0 tools available than the few Clarence mentioned. All of them have value in the social-networking realm and many of them show great promise for the educational setting. Education and Learning are all about the relationship and the collaboration in learning that allows our students to become the ‘life-long learners’ they need to be.
The change that is required should begin with us. If you are reading this, or have heard Clarence’s presentation then you are well on the way to making this change. We all have responsibily in our schools to ‘infect’ our staff with the desire for this radical change.
I loved the ‘studio’ style of classroom and what I could see in the classroom with its layout and environment encouraged me to look again at my classroom, through fresh 2.0-glasses.
What we can learners together. Let’s work like it.
Thanks for your thoughts on my presentation at K12 online. Its been interesting (and inspiring) watching the reactions this week. I want to pick up on one point that you have written about: the fact that 2.0 classrooms are “different” and are not part of the cycles that education often seems to roll through. I’d like to think this is true as well. (But of course that may just be hubris, only time will tell.) 2.0 classrooms are about so many things on so many levels from information access and tools to pedagogy and scheduling through classroom design and management that they need to be different. They need to be about rethinking what we do, how we do it, what we value enough to assess and how we organize our spaces to allow new possibilities to emerge. So I hope we are doing things differently. Our kids need it to be. Thanks again for your thoughts.
Simon,
Melanie
I think we would all would go farther if direction came from the top down. Sometimes it feels like an uphill battle. From the outside looking in it seems like the schools there in New Zealand are farther along than the U.S. At least here where I am. How do you think NZ ranks in Web 2.0 in the classrooms? Are you educating yourself mostly with what you now know or do you have people leading your professional development in technology? Our training is way behind what I need to know.
First let me begin by saying a big thank you to Clarence, for taking the time to respond to my blog post. I will certainly be looking at reviewing my classroom ’space’ in light of the ideas about ‘classroom2.0′
Melaine, you ask a great question and I have to say that my professional development in ICT is more down to my own desire for learning and the support and encouragement I’ve recieved through the sitech-champion schools project I blogged about last week that any deliberate PD provided through my school directly. Having said that it was my Principal’s vision for the school and observing my natural passion for ICT that ‘plugged me in’ in the first place.