Pedagogy Lessons from a 3 year old

My son, who is three, has a new hobby of building elaborate "mouse houses" on our (king size) bed with all the pillows and blankets within 20 sq. feet.. These houses appear to serve as cushioned bunkers 'just in case' the Big Mouse should come along and, well, SCARE us. The Mouse House building is important stuff with speciifc technical details that I am not privvy to no matter how hard I try to understand the intricacies of Mouse House building. I am corrected repeatedly about proper Mouse House building. I adjust. I adapt. I follow my son's instructions. I get it right! Or so I think. But the rules keep changing. The carrot gets harder to reach or it disappears completely. The "rules" become more elaborate/elusive.

That's about the time I ask if the Big Mouse is coming. Should we take cover? If I ASK the question, the answer is "No, not yet.". If I declare that, in fact, the Big Mouse is coming right now, "Quick, hide!" then it becomes a reality and my son plays along. We hide in whatever lame, half-conceived Mouse House is available at the moment. Then we share a great moment of suspense and togetherness until the Big Mouse is gone (or tickles our feet or fails to materialize altogether)

As an always-reflecting Educator, I take away these nuggets from these experiences with my son:

1- How often have I as a teacher moved the carrot (or changed the rules, or had vague lessons or no clear assessment/accountability) causing frustration for my students?

2- How often have I allowed the stronger personalities in a class to rule the day despite my best plans for learning?

3- How often have I simply and explicity declared what we're doing and held fast without fail for the benefit of all (becauseI know my intentions are good and the material is rich and worth knowing).

4- Do I stay focused on the Big Mouse? In other words, how meaningful and relevant is all the learning we're doing in the first place? Can it be better? Does it have traction? Will it be remembered and retained?

Have the habits to learn new things been instilled, stimulated and nurtured so that, I, as teacher no longer cease to be required? So that learning resides with the Learner.

Finally, since we know that an emotional experience is more memorable than an "informational" experience, to what extent are feelings of 'intimate anticipation' and 'excitement' palpable in my classroom. Is it still my classroom or is it our classroom where we all construct, deconstruct, start again, change, adapt, pause, reflect, share and start again?

What If We Didn't Speak?

So, I was watching some films over at Cause Global and it prompte these thoughts:

1-A big criticism of today's learners is that teachers "talk to much".  The old paradigm has the talking head at the head of the class with students sitting in rows supposedly "listening".  Charles Schulz parodied this perfectly with his trombone "wah-wah" voice representing Charlie Brown's teacher.

2-So much "instruction" can be delivered non-verbally.  Actually,  nearly anything that needs to be learned can be delivered non-verbally....and creatively.  Or, the "talking" can be pre-recorded and put into a"fun" package connected to either a podcast or a film/video or slideshow or some other format.

3-So, what if we didn't speak? What if we tried to deliver instruction in a completely different way?  Can the classroom call to attention be something other than "listen up, class...."? Isn't it about getting student attention and sustaining it in the first place?  What if instruction was compelling, non-verbal, web-based with meaningful, enagaging expectations and assessments?  What if students had to e-mail a question/problem instead of speaking?

How would this change the atmosphere for learning?  It might take time but my gut feeling is that things might be better.  Instruction can be tailored to the individual as problems/issues arise and as we teachers point students toward potent web-based, media-rich resources.  But the most important point is that we would be slowly weening students from dependence on the voice in front of the room and redirecting it to the voices in their heads-an  empowering shift in attention.  

Putting "Web 2.0 in Education" in Context

Technorati Tags: Web 2.0 in Education,education,learning,digital learning,e-learning,classroom 2.0

Digital Natives. Digital Immigrants. Web 2.0. Rss Feeds. Blogs. Wikis. Podcasts. Digital Learning. Students as Content Creators. All of these phrases and terms are very new and very green when the whole enterprise of Education (in the U.S.) is taken into account.

Many teachers and students haven't heard of these terms. Some have bit don't know what they mean. Some know a few terms and what they mean but don't know how to use them at least as far as teaching and learning is concerned. This is where the majority of teachers and school leaders are at this point.

It is easy to imagine that the majority of teachers and classrooms have "gone digital" especially when visiting sites such as Classroom 2.0 where many excellent, enthusiastic teachers hang out and share their stories about using Web 2.0 in Education. It's not the reality, though as districts, schools, leaders and teachers worry through the idea of "opening up" the walls of education.  Considerations are under way and that must be counted as progress.

HOW DID WE GET HERE?

Rarely is the use of Web 2.0 tools in Education put into context in Education.  The exciting truth, however, is that there exists a direct relationship between research and educational evolution and the emergence of digital learning tools. 

IT looks something like this:

Traditional Teaching Methods---->  Student Centered Classroom Models (ie..Cooperative Learning)

---->Standards Based Education---->  Data Driven Instruction  ---->  Differentiated Learning  ---->

New Modes of teaching and learning including the use of Web tools

In the next post, I will examine the specifics of each piece of the puzzle.

Are We Dumbing Down Education?

Mark Pullan poses this great question and many more at his thoughtful blog:

Does “No Child Left Behind” imply that we all need to move at the pace of the slowest child?