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.
