Significant Learning Environments
I no longer want to teach middle school math. The creation of a significant learning environment is so much more than teaching the subject. Middle school is the strange age between being a child and a young adult. Left to their own devices, they will be watching videos on YouTube or finding ways around the firewall to playing games. How do we give these students freedom in learning, but also keep them on task? We can do this by creating a blended learning environment encouraging students to work collectively and helping them discover how they learn with the unlimited amount of digital information available (Thomas & Brown, 2011, p. 36).
Challenges
How do you enjoy learning? Using technology, a space could be created for students to pick the type of learning they choose. A type of collective where all learners could find the style that suits them (Thomas & Brown, 2011, p. 62). For example, a digital space created to teach equations with links to videos explaining the process, games for practice, manipulatives to explore, problems to work without the worry of being right or wrong and a blog for students to discuss ideas and add to the collective. (Thomas & Brown, 2011, p. 63). “Members can present personal problems to the collective in ways that surpass simple question and answer sessions.” (Thomas & Brown, 2011, p. 70)
My Plan
My innovation proposal is to flip my classroom and use class time for station rotations. During the station rotations, technology will be use to meet the needs of the diverse learners in every classroom allowing students opportunities to look at mathematical concepts at their level, promote higher order thinking, making it relevant with real-word concepts, and enhancing the significance of the material taught (Sheninger, 2016, p. 113). Part of the technology time will be designated for the participation in the collective, integrating it into the process of learning and giving our students time to explore concepts.
The Impact
There is no question that technology is growing at an expeditious rate. A new culture of learning is changing the way we learn and think. This new culture "thrives on change, integrating it into its process" (Thomas & Brown, 2011, p. 37). We can either be proactive, embracing change or be reactive, fighting what will inevitably come. Beginning the process of collective learning is a step in the direction of the new culture of learning.
Can This Work?
At the end of every 7th grade school year, I hand my students a graphing calculator. The next year, every 8th grade math student will use calculators. I explain the basics and then let them explore. We discuss different keys on the calculator, but then I tell them that there are YouTube videos that will explain far more than I can. This is true with any topic. I am far from the smartest person. At this point, there are some students looking up videos, some are asking me questions, and some are asking other students questions. Collective learning is already happening in classrooms on a small scale. Including the digital component would add to the number of learners being impacted.
It's Not a Free For All!
If you step into any middle school classroom, learning will very seldom happen if there are not guidelines and rules. This is not a boundary free process. The idea is to help students learn information under “a set of constraints that all them to act only within given boundaries.” (Thomas & Brown, 2011, p. 81) Our job is to help students learn how to learn by understanding their intellectual development. (Ambrose & Meyer, 2010, p. 158) I no longer want to teach middle school math. I want to show students how to learn.
Resources
Ambroise, S. A., & Mayer, R. E. (2010). How learning works Seven research-based principles for smart teaching. San Francisco, Ca.: John Wiley.
Sheninger, E. C. (2016). Uncommon learning: Creating schools that work for kids. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
Thomas, D., & Brown, J. S. (2011). A new culture of learning: Cultivating the imagination for a world of constant change. Place of publication not identified: Publisher not identified.
Sheninger, E. C. (2016). Uncommon learning: Creating schools that work for kids. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
Thomas, D., & Brown, J. S. (2011). A new culture of learning: Cultivating the imagination for a world of constant change. Place of publication not identified: Publisher not identified.