Frost on the Brain in October

Yesterday’s first meeting of the third season of Cohort 21 was a very positive experience, overall.  It’s always great to be reassured that no, you aren’t the only one out there doing this edtech stuff, and no, you aren’t crazy for thinking that it can be beneficial for the students in your care.  The people were great.  We were forging new connections, and learning about some great tools for our teaching kits.   All positive, all good.

At the end of the day, we came back together from our breakout groups for a bit of wrap-up and some explanation of the upcoming year.  And then it happened…  The question was posed, ‘So, why do we use edtech?  What’s its purpose?’  And there it was.  The question that I can see on the faces of sceptical colleagues.  The question I am asked during parent meetings.  The question that asks me to look deeper at what I do and at the teacher I have evolved into.  The question that, if I reflect honestly enough, I think might lead me to a professional metamorphosis if I’m not careful (or should that be if I’m lucky?).

This shift has been brewing in my mind for a long time now.  In fact, its initial spark was probably ignited during my B.Ed. as the result of some pretty forward-thinking workshops on the future of education.  It has been smouldering over the course of a decade as I first got comfortable with the requirements inherent in keeping a job, and then began to think about what worked best for my students.  While I haven’t been a very diligent reflector in terms of journaling, I think about my craft constantly.  More recently, it became apparent that there really may be a shift happening in some areas of education when I attended the Building Learning Communities conference organized by Alan November.  There I discovered educators who truly embrace the ‘who owns the learning’ philosophy.  They allow student choice and encourage student voice.  They act as students’ coaches and mentors, completely comfortable with giving up control of the learning process and outcomes to their students.  I was in awe.  It felt so right.

Of course, as often happens when you attend a great conference or PD and then return home to the daily grind, a lot of the inspiration and momentum of that amazing week was lost.  The demands of anxious parents, intense administrators, deadlines and home life left the brilliant utopia of student-centred learning trampled in the dust.  I managed to squeak in some positive changes to my courses, but the overall practice hasn’t evolved.  And now here I am at the beginning of a journey with C21.

Two paths are diverging.

I can see the answer to the question, ‘why is the current educational system flawed?’  By now we’ve all heard about how the industrial model that doesn’t require students to be able to think in order to pass is outdated.  But what’s been done with that knowledge in the last ten or twenty years?  In essence, the methods being used in most classrooms around me are the same as they were when I was the note taker.  Sure, those notes may look sexier because they are delivered via SMART board, and written on a ridiculously powerful machine.  But that’s just using a very expensive blackboard or pencil.  It hasn’t transformed the process of teaching and learning.  Meanwhile the world outside the classroom is moving on, changing at an ever increasing pace.  Although we’ve been given the technology, we have not yet changed our mindset to fit today’s learner.  For that reason, today’s students’ needs are not being served.  They are not being prepared for the world that they will inherit.  Something has to change.

This might be where I take the one less traveled by.

So the question is still hanging there, unanswered.  Why edtech?  What does it bring to the table?  Although I am not certain of anything at this point, I have a hypothesis that I think I’m going to work on this year through my C21 experience.  Until now, I may have recognized that there was a better way to do teaching and learning, but I had no idea how to get there from here.  What I’m beginning to see is that technology is going to be my bridge.  My hope is that edtech is going to take me from a classroom that exists between four walls to a classroom that knows no boundaries and is connected through collaborative projects to classrooms from around the world.  My hope is that edtech is going to allow my students to have a voice that is heard by an audience larger than one.  My hope is that edtech is going to help me put the focus on the students, and let me be the coach.  My hope is that edtech is going to help me give back the learning.

As I consider taking this road that may lead to a complete revolution in the way I approach teaching, I am glad to be in good company with my C21 peers and mentors.  I am also going to be relying on my administrators and colleagues to pick me up and dust me off when I fail but to believe and have faith that each failure will bring enlightenment.  For my part, I vow to laugh at myself, keep an open mind, and try to encourage others to find their own pathways.  This change has been a long time coming, but I think I may finally be ready  to believe in myself and take the first step.  If I can do that, then it will make all the difference.

 

 

 

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