There is a really neat post by David Warlick on 2c Worth titled ‘Visions of School 2.0′. He writes about the traditional classroom and his vision for the ‘2.0 classroom’. You know, the ‘if you were given the $ and a free hand what would you create’ sort of stuff. The traditional classroom has anchors (’Desks anchored students, and the front of the classroom anchored the teacher. Textbooks anchored the content, and the walls anchored the relics of what was learned and what was to be learned. Grades anchored our children’s attention and teaching the same thing the same way year after year anchored our definition of what it was to be a teacher.’) And for today’s students - ‘Their information experience puts them in control, gives them information that becomes a raw material for new information experiences. It connects them to wings instead of anchors.’
Classroom size, design, infrastructure, furniture and available technologies are topics sometimes discussed when I work with teachers. Topics like – how few electric points there are in the room and the crazy place who-ever-it-was chose to put the network outlets (near the sink … in the back room…by the door. What were they thinking?!) and how it would be better to have more computers in the classroom rather than having a computer suite.
Design and furniture faults and lack of hardware can be handy excuses – ‘I’d do this, but…’ ‘I’d love to have…’ There is always a solution available if you are determined and brave. Investigate your options! Think and enquire! Is this possible? How do I do it? How much will it cost? So let’s get started… get a couple of ten metre network cables and move your computers to the locations you want ($30), or get a wireless router ($170), buy 2 multi-plugs ($7), initiate a discussion in a staff meeting about your school ICT model (free), buy or adopt plants ($50), provide a water urn ($10), play music (free), put wheels on furniture ($50), ask your Principal to *please* buy your class its own digital camera (free), fundraise for a class data projector ($1500), make a screen ($5), redo classroom wall displays to support thinking and learning strategies (free), encourage conversation and collaboration (free). Get rid of the anchors and provide the wings. The results, as they say, will be priceless.
Entries (RSS)