How is the role of the teacher and learner changing in the 21st Century?
It was September, 1999. The last few months of the 20th century and I was teaching Grade 5 at Suddaby Public School. A very old school that was opened in 1857 and home to the first Kindergarten classroom established in Canada. Those walls had history! And there I was strolling its beautiful, spacious 3rd floor hallways to the computer lab. Off to book a “time”. Forty minutes, once a week, the class and I would file in, mindful of cables and ready to share chairs as we doubled up in front of the screens. I wish I could tell you what the lesson was, but I honestly can’t remember. What did we do then? I know there was typing practice. (Almena was big) I’m pretty sure there was word processing, probably a story or something to do with that week’s spelling list. But what else? I did a quick search and thanks to the Huffington Post found a few reminders.
Ah yes, good ol’ Jeeves!
There it was, the world on one page of links! Research time.
Wish I could say I was on the Google Bandwagon right from its Beta start but sadly I only vaguely remember using this.
Even after looking at those images, I remember more of what there wasn’t. There weren’t any phrases such as Digital Citizenship. Yes, we had to make sure they didn’t type in any bad words, but that was about it. There weren’t many places other than word processing to finish tasks, certainly no way to work together and only the emerging email system for sending messages. Blogger was just getting going but it would be a few more years before I knew of many people using that tool. I as a teacher felt like I had access to a giant encyclopedia, a huge newspaper and endless paper to write on. Meanwhile back in the classroom, the 3 C’s (create, collaborate, communicate) were done by students on paper or in performance (music, art, phys.ed). Using the computer was a separate activity, a separate subject for the most part.
We were just beginning to connect with the world. Throughout the next 15 years, it got faster, more detailed, full of imagery and most importantly became a 2 way street. We take in information and we put it out there too. I’ve only ever heard people comment on how quickly technology has moved and/or changed. No one will tell you that it has come along slowly and it has been easy to integrate the tools and information wealth into our teaching and curriculum. Some teachers will tell you that the content in our jobs has doubled or tripled and yet the school year remains the same length. This in turn would mean that students need to learn more than before…..just because we have access to more? And what about the phrase “21st Century Learning Skills”? http://www.edweek.org/tsb/articles/2010/10/12/01panel.h04.html http://www.skills21.org/
While there is a push to the development of these skills, there doesn’t seem to be a consensus in education that the 20th century skills are to be forgotten or replaced. How do we as teachers make this happen? Multitask, integrate, leave things out? Twenty-five years ago I didn’t have to ask….What will I have time to teach this year and what tools will I use? I find it strange that as I become far closer to the end of my career than the beginning, I know less and less about what the next year will be like.
Hi Patricia, your section of this post relating to your first initial experiences with a computer class really resonated with me. I remember when I was still in elementary school and having some of my first computer classes. Many of these classes consisted of simply typing something up, on Corel Word Perfect, that we were working on in class. Even though the internet existed it was not something that we used for educational purposes, rather simply to play games. It's really amazing too see how far education has come since then an the integration of the Internet into a regular classroom routine is great.
ReplyDeleteAmazing is right! Glad to bring some memories back....
DeleteHey Trish ....loved reading through the definitions ..... I have to wonder if the one woman thought about what interested the student in the learning rather than if they were learning. She does not seem to be getting the whole picture. I find whatever means you can use to make that student believe in themselves as a learner,is the tool you need to come up with ...otherwise we are just trying to fit them into something they are not comfortable with. Let that student teach you !
ReplyDeleteLove your last line! We use that often in our PD sessions here in Waterloo.
DeleteWow...this post really resonated with me. In fact, my TedTalk, about 5 years ago, was of a very similar reflection. Suddenly, as the internet opened up to the world, we could communicate with individuals, not just websites or companies or organizations. I was struck by this and always have been. Even as the tools get more intricate and so many, I find myself always going back to the beginning. What is the most essential skill, or even tool that we need to use to become better citizens? Tools that promote co-learning, collaboration and relationships. My fear is that the internet will get so big, that personal connections are at risk of being lost. Thanks for this post Trish. I love the questions...
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