The pinata model of learning

This weekend I got to spend a lot of time with my 3 1/2 year old son. We were talking about his friend's upcoming birthday. His version went something like this:

His birthday party is next week. We are going to sing "Happy Birthday" and then he'll blow out the candles. We'll all wear hats. Yours will be pink and mine will be purple...

And on and on the story went.

Only later, it dawned on me that he was learning about the party. And he was learning because he was interacting with the story of the party. First, there was going to be a party. Then, there were more and more details (hats, singing, candle blowing, etc.).

And only later still, did I get the image of a pinata. You start with the balloon, which then gets covered with paper mache. Then, the details get added, until you have something special. That's when I started to thing that this is exactly how learning happens. And that it is our job as educators to provide the balloon framework (the basic concepts) on which our students can begin to hang details and meaning.

Salud!

Breaking the Model

I have been interested in investigating the places where learning happens (and this usually involves technology in some way) that goes beyond our traditional model of education (teachers in classrooms, homework, etc.).

Here's some things to report --

Will Richardson posted this piece on his blog about ways that he and his wife are trying to extend their children's education:

Every Tuesday afternoon for about an hour, my wife’s office turns into a classroom where my kids are making wikis, learning about searching, and creating stories around whatever their interest is. And they’re being shown some ways in which technology can be used to connect, as in the picture above. (Click on it to see a more viewable size.) A couple of weeks ago, Steve Hargadon made a guest appearance using Skype to help them identify what they might want to work on in terms of projects. And there are plans to invite other people in to speak to them and help guide their work. (Let me know if you want to volunteer!) Real people, real work, real audiences.

Then, in response or inspiration, Neil Winton shares about his son's experience teaching and learning the computer programming language Scratch:

If ever you wanted proof that we can find learning everywhere and from everyone, tonight was it. The earth was flattening before my eyes as Andrew talked a group of kids in America through an introduction to programming. I need to think more fully about the implications of what I was watching, and I think I need someone like Will himself to give these thoughts some shape and direction. The implications of being able to find what you want to know from someone who is willing to share… even if they are not present… turns our traditional model of education on its head… and even more so when you realise that the person with the knowledge you require might be the person you thought you ought to be teaching!

What happens when more and more of us "play" with these kinds of ideas?

Web 2.0 Tools in the Classroom

Here is a presentation I put together for a workshop I did this week for teachers in my district on Web 2.0 tools in the classroom.

The slideshow has clickable links to the various tools I discussed.

Enjoy!

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What if....

Here is a quote from an interview with Harvard's Harvey Cox on the NPR show, Speaking of Faith.

I have a hunch that congregational life is going to move in a more conversational direction — study groups and, I might say, a less kind of pulpit-centered audience format into a way in which people can sort through their concerns and their doubts and their aspirations for other people. Periodically, any religious tradition does have to go through this kind of waiting, this period of expectation and openness and hope for new, new ways of expressing faith.

Now, imagine that the works congregational and pulpit and religious are replaced by education terms. It might read like this:

I have a hunch that school life is going to move in a more conversational direction — study groups and, I might say, a less kind of teacher-centered audience format into a way in which people can sort through their concerns and their doubts and their aspirations for other people. Periodically, any educational tradition does have to go through this kind of waiting, this period of expectation and openness and hope for new, new ways of expressing reform.

Inventing New Boundaries

I just finished watching the Pre-Conference Keynote for the K-12 Online Conference. The presentation was called "Inventing New Boundaries" and was "assembled" by David Warlick.

What can I say? Here is one quote that just knocked me out (I am sure they are not entirely perfect):

These digital natives have invisible tenatacles that connect them to the rest of the world. The problem is, when they enter our classrooms, we chop them off because we want them to be the students we want to teach rather than teaching who they are. And this is an insult to our children.

I am wanting to shout about this from the rooftops -- which would probably be more effective than posting it here, since I have maybe 1 reader as far as I know.

I have been trying to share what David talks about in this presentation with other colleagues and teachers and students for the past year or so. I no longer feel so alone.

A Powerful Video

Thanks to a fellow teacher, I was able to watch (and be moved by) this video. It is called "Education 2.0." Here is what the author says:

Education used to be about transfer of information from teacher to student. Now there is too much information available in the world. Much of this information is being used by people trying to sell us something: an idea, a product, a political agenda, a way of seeing our entire country.

New Hampton School's Junior Urban Adventure attempts to turn around this notion of one-way education in the same way that Web 2.0 is changing the way we think about the web. Students will learn to ask questions, make meaning from the glut of information available to them and engage, upload and maybe even start to solve some of the world's problems.

One Teacher's Digital World

Thanks to this article from Education Week's Digital Directions, which is an introduction to the use of wikis by teachers, I found this class/teacher wiki. Ms. D., the teacher, has used the wiki has a bit of a mission statement:

The learning community in Mrs. D's classroom will use this collaborative space to connect with each other and create the tools we will use to construct our understanding of the forces that have worked throughout history to shape our world.

There are links to Ms. D.'s class blog (powered by Class Blogmeister) and her class podcast, where students are producing podcasts that supplement their study of World War II.

This teacher and these students are really living that mission statement.

Very inspiring!