Making Connections

The truth of the statement, “It’s not about the technology, it’s about the pedagogy”, has become clearer and clearer to me over the last 12 months.

After spending the last few days working on a presentation for a conference and trying to present my argument for a shift in our teaching approaches in a way which is (hopefully) not too confrontational I’ve really come to realise that it’s true.

At the end of the day does my classroom need technology in it to be innovative, to be 21st Century? In short the answer is no…despite my belief that technology used well can enhance a class’s learning environment, making it more flexible, more personalised, more open. At the end of the day though teaching (and more importantly, Learning) will not be stopped in a room without technology.

So, if technology’s not the key to kids learning, what is?

It’s us…the teachers.

It doesn’t matter if we’re a graduate, a veteran with 30 years experience, a part-timer, a specialist…whatever, if we’re doing our job we’re:

• Engaging students
• Providing them with a variety of independent and collaborative projects to enrich their learning experiences
• Facilitating their growth towards independent, life-long learning
• Supporting them

As a technology enthusiast I have caught myself occassionally thinking poorly of a colleague who doesn’t use technology in their classrooms. There’s a lot of misunderstanding between those of us converted to technology and those teachers who as of yet haven’t jumped on the bandwagon – and we really need to make sure that that misunderstanding doesn’t evolve into an us and them attitude.

Those of us who are already converts need to understand that everyone’s experience and engagement with technology is different and we can’t expect those people with fear/confusion/hesitation to take a giant leap forward and jump up next to us. Some people will take YEARS to see that what we’re achieving is valid, while others need to be shown once and then the next time we look around they’re way out in front of us.

For me, from now on, I’m going to stay very aware that it’s not about the technology, it’s about the pedagogy and instead of judging those not yet on the technology wagon I’m going to try understanding where they’re at in their journey.

I’ve got a feeling it’s likely to get more of a response than “You must integrate technology to be a 21st Century teacher.”

Through my Twitter network tonight I stumbled upon yet another blog of high interest for me. Shanetechteach over at My Journey with Digital Pedagogy works in the same system as me and it turns out he’s one of the Advanced Pedagogical License holders (I achieved License level June this year) – so he’s definitely one I’ll be watching keenly from now on

1. Blooms Taxonomy Revised
2. An analysis of the essential 21st Century Skills
3. and this great image I came across through my blog surfing a few weeks ago:

Thanks, Shane for making me think a bit more about this and connect some of the dots that have been eluding me all week!

Image by andreaspears @http://www.flickr.com/photos/95767977@N00/566663776

The more I think about this the more I worry I’m doing the wrong thing trying to push the boundaries…

All year I have encouraged my students to be independent, creative, expressive…themselves. I have shared their learning and guided them. Rarely have I ‘lectured’ (less and less as the year has gone on). And the dividends have been well worth the effort.

But the reality is this…

Next year I may have a small group of these students I have done the hard yards with, but it is unlikely I’ll have more than a few. They will be split up, spread across classes and teachers, and in doing that they will encounter the very thing I worry about…19th century teachers.

My students are used to a teacher who pushes the boundaries, who shares their experiences with them, who replies to emails (generally with a 24 hour turn around, but it’s usually much quicker). They are not used to a teacher who says/thinks the following things:

When I first decided to mix things up in my classes it was because I was bored. I had classes full of incredibly bright students who would come into my room, sit at their desks and copy whatever I wrote on the board. A lot of my colleagues expressed their envy of having such compliant classes…

But they wouldn’t answer a question without first looking to me, they wouldn’t share their opinion, they were educational zombies. I remember when I came clean with the group and said, “I’m bored teaching you, so you must be bored too.” they were shocked. They honestly had never had a teacher say something like that to them before and when I gave them the unit and said “you know how to write a short story, let’s play” they didn’t know how to cope. They thought I was joking and one boy said, “I’m used to not thinking during class, Miss.”((!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!))

That particular boy now occassionally finds his way onto the Australian Stock Exchange website during my lessons but he’s also a stand out student on his assessment record (and besides, he’s teaching us all about the exchange, very informative stuff). My classes are fun to go to now (for me at least) – we have conversations, we laugh (sometimes hysterically), we learn new things (books, movies, technologies…even curriculum content sometimes ).

Next year these students are going to be in classes with teachers who take a very different approach and I worry that they’ll go back to being those educational zombies they were – simply because that’s what teachers expect students to be. Are those of us who are pushing the boundaries helping our students for the small snippet of time that we’re working with them, or are we setting them up for a fall when they move to a different teacher who hasn’t yet been moved to shift?

Have I set these students up for a fall, or will they fly no matter what?