Week Six Overview

Essential Question:

How does the culture of your current teaching environment differ from the learning environment you experienced as a student?

Dates to Save:

Thursday 4:30 – 5:30 AKDT – Twitter Focus Session #ETLEAD

Reading:

A New Culture of Learning: Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant Change. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. Available:http://www.amazon.com/New-Culture-Learning-Cultivating-ebook/dp/B004RZH0BG/ref=dp_kinw_strp_1

Chapters One and Two

Watch one of the following two videos:

Note: I do expect the reading and video to be two of the three resources you will use as you create your posting. Please use the resources in your initial posting. Demonstrate you have done the reading. Demonstrate you have watched a video. Demonstrate please your willingness to learn. Some are doing this well…some – not so much :-).

About the Week:

Two things define the new culture of learning as viewed by Thomas and Brown (2011).

A massive information network that provides almost unlimited access and resources to learn about anything.
A bounded and structured environment that allows for unlimited agency to build and experiment with things within those boundaries (i.e. – the classroom)

The world has changed since we were students in a classroom. Some of us are “pre-PC” – that is we went to school before cell phones were prevalent, before even a teacher had a computer in her classroom, and before the internet was a tool for the everyday public. We are pre-Mosaic, pre-connectedness, and pre-Google. Our idea of school culture is likely still based in our experiences – however, this world, the world in which the pre-PC teacher thrived – no longer exists.

Some of us grew up in the post-PC culture. We may have had teachers who used technology. How did they use this technology? Did they embrace the new culture as defined above? Or did they use Powerpoint as a glorified chalkboard? Did they wow us with authentic abilities to communicate and create, or did they use the whiteboard to show us movies and clips without having to pull out a video player, and to show Word documents instead of using an overhead projector?

It may be that rather than helping our students move into a new culture of learning, we are actually trying to preserve the culture with which we are most comfortable – we’re just doing that with more convenient tools. Your essential question focuses on the comparison of your classroom today with the classroom you grew up with. If those classrooms are very similar – you aren’t alone! Many of us have comfort in the way we are educated. We became teachers so that we could replicate that environment! Our fondest memories consist of these environments, and it is difficult to break out of that mold.

We started our class experience with “Teach Like a Pirate” so that we could unleash our inner creativity and Pirate Self in the classroom – whatever that might mean to us. Now, we will be applying that creativity and inner identity to technology. Today’s student can’t separate technology from everyday relevancy. Many of them grew up with games on iPhones, with interactive books, and with Skyping their grandparents. What happens if these students come into schools, and this relevant aspect of their lives is absent? It’s possible (and probable) that this will create a disconnect. Schooling becomes something “else”. It isn’t a fluid part of authentic learning.

Ponder these issues as you create your blog posting this week. The text will provide some stories and some context that might assist you. Our point is not to look at where we are, and to despair. Our point is to look at where we could be – to dream – to hope – to plan – and to unleash our creativity on our classroom.

Due Friday:

Create your Week Five Blog, responding to the Essential Question. You should add at least 3 resources from your own research to the blog posting.

Use Twitter to share your blog address with the #ETLEAD community.

Due Sunday:

Comment on the blogs of others.

Create a blog entry outlining the way that you contributed to the learning of others, and the impact of your interaction with others through social media (Twitter, blog responses) on your learning.

Submit the URL for your Blog Postings to Livetext on Sunday.