Monday, July 21, 2014

Reflection Day 1. SOLE

I think The TED talk with Sugata Mitra puts what Sir Ken Robinson says into practice.  Robinson says learning needs to be more organic.  Mitra shows that with a Self Organized Learning Environment, it can happen.  It was amazing to me to see what happens when a computer is put in front of children and they are just allowed to play with it and learn it themselves.  What was even more interesting to me, was the collaboration piece that went with the learning.  The children were talking with each other, learning together, learning from each other. They were engaged, interested and were retaining the knowledge at a much more efficient rate.  It was more about the students learning to be "thinkers" as opposed to learning the content. This was very exciting to me.

Putting it into practice.



 A self organizing system really takes the teacher’s role out of “the keeper of knowledge” and into "facilitator of learning."  This can be a difficult transition for some teachers, districts, and even on a state level where standards are still so content based.  

Because the students work in groups, there doesn't need to be one computer/device per student, which I think we tend to get hung up on when talking about technology being accessible to students in schools.

Yong Zhao said, “Technology is not a choice.”  I think it’s sometimes a struggle to get staff on board with technology.  The fear of it can get in the way.  Unlike, the situation Mitra was in, we have a situation where the students will most likely have more knowledge of technology than the teacher, the teacher can feel at a disadvantage   They might start small and choose to add it to an already planned unit.  I think this is a great 1st step into technology.  But how do we shift from that to full integration of a self organizing system?  Ongoing staff development needs to happen not only in technology but in collaboration with each other. Teachers need to be equipped with management tools. Maybe staff development should look like a SOLE and they can find the answers together.

3 comments:

  1. Thanks for your thoughts and ideas, Robyn. The SOLE is an interesting, though pretty radical step. It would be interesting to see it work in BSD. Great to have you in class!

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    1. I definitely think it would look different in a more affluent district. Certain management techniques and expectations would need to be in place for both teachers and students. The essential questions would be at a higher level. I'm also thinking at more of a middle school level. I wonder what it would be like if they came to middle school with the necessary tools and expectations because they were used to it from elementary.

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  2. "Because the students work in groups, there doesn't need to be one computer/device per student, which I think we tend to get hung up on when talking about technology being accessible to students in schools." Isn't it interesting that we have pushed our ideal image of everyone being an "individual" into all aspects of our lives? We don't want our children to be clones, we want them to have individualism and show why each one is special in their own right, but it has spilled into, "if you can't do this on your own, then you are showing that you haven't learned," so everything is getting out there by yourself and getting it done, better than anyONE, faster than anyONE... We forget that humans are a social animal and truly, it only makes sense that we will learn best in groups, teams, with others to bounce ideas off of, with others to give us validation and encouragement... (not just the ONE teacher) :)

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