Embracing the skills that our students already practice daily in promoting continuous learning

The “Hour of Code’ and 1984

It is still a challenge for many of us baby boomers to fully accept that the world is now very different to what it was when our current educational system was designed. As we are all fully aware, the education system is still run by people who were educated in the 60s, 70s and 80s.  George Orwell wrote a novel which was set in 1984 – the themes were based on using media manipulation and advanced technology to control people. What has happened since and where are we now in 2020? Does technology control us or do we control technology?  Children are now born with mobile phones in their hands - right?

Annually we celebrate teaching our children about the Hour of Code - a global computer science initiative that creates a fun and creative environment for students – students practicing programming.  They love it. They are actually very good at it. Many use it to become on line entrepreneurs.

Relevant learning in the classroom

So what are WE (myself included) supposed to do to help our students develop the self-belief that is required to have the confidence to develop more relevant learning styles creating a more meaningful and relevant environment in our classrooms?

The answer is simple…  we need to change our teaching styles

Really that easy?? I wish it was  …!

Changing the way you teach means a complete change in mindset and an unpacking of everything we know or experienced when we were taught. Not just from the standpoint of our own lesson planning but also from the lens of the students that have learned a specific way for many years, regardless of its effectiveness – and the still predominant establishment driven aims to pass examinations or else they become failures.

We can be the change

So what do we as teachers and educational leaders need to consider… and what do we need to do in these rapidly changing times?

Just as with a shift in any sort of thinking, the first thing we need to do is accept that what we are currently doing may NOT be what is best for our learners.

Let us consider what students experience today that could be used in our classrooms so that we capitalise on their own experiences to enhance the student learning and reflect their real world experiences.

Knowledge is accessed very fast indeed

And it is continuing to accelerate. The computational ability of computer chip is speeding up as computers and mobile phones evolve – responding to a mere voice request, Alexa? Siri?

This does benefit learning in the classroom.  Let us think of it as no longer the role of the teacher to teach knowledge didactically but the rate of feedback and iteration that we provide to our students. The faster we can provide information about a student’s performance on a task, the more likely the student is to modify what they do for the next iteration. And they will do it fast. The faster the feedback the more immediate there will be a shift in thinking and a faster redirection or correction of errors.  Students are creating their own software as we speak using computer coding.

2. Creativity – worksheets are limiting learning

I must admit that as a student I enjoyed worksheets. They gave me instructions of what to do and I didn’t have to think very hard to get the right answers. Or if I didn’t know – it was easy to find the answer to complete the task.  Homework done. It gave me a feeling of accomplishment.  I was good at worksheets. But some of my friends hated them.  Always in trouble, detention, lines….

In todays world, we don’t get instructions.  More often we need to think critically about the how to find the answer to an issue, if there is a solution at all.  So in reality worksheets didn’t really help me develop an understanding of how to tackle real life challenges. I was actually not provided the opportunity to  “creatively solve problems.” And indeed if I did think creatively, and it did not fit the "Mark Scheme", I lost marks.  It was pointless to think outside the box – not allowed. And exam boards still do the same.  The students who think out of the box and provide different solutions are not necessarily the ones that will get the best grade in an examination. 

Changing our mindset  

We can change all of this by a relaxed change in mindset.  It does not cost. It saves time. Many ideas are now available to initiate learner agency. For example Project-Based Learning (PBL) is about ‘Design Thinking’ which help students learn and develop evidence of what they learned through the process. It allows students to show their understanding of knowledge in a different way.  The worksheet is replaced by a different type of instruction ..  “create something that shows me everything you learned.  You decide how you want to present it.”

Teachers no need to be NERVOUS… you can still retain your rubric (non-project standard specific) so that you can assess the content!  

Students who gravitate to technology will seek to create innovative products.  Indeed it is likely that this will be self-selected by the student and you may not really understand the technology behind it.  And what happens is magic – because your standard is now not fixed in stone, it becomes flexible and inter-related with their own lives and their understanding of it. The standard has suddenly come to life. And they are ready to tell you about it with such renewed enthusiasm and in a variety of ways.

3. Accountability and connectivity

What I see in society now are that students rarely do something JUST for themselves. When you watch them, much of their preferred activities relate to connecting with others and usually by using technology.  In fact we are also doing the same - we post on Facebook and can’t live without WhatsApp .  We also present our lives to the world.

The authentic audience can inspire learning

Extending the conversation of creativity would be to consider how students can share their own work with an authentic audience. This gives you, as a teacher, another useful motivational tool so that students feel more accountability for the product of their learning. Why not inspire them to publish, share and present their learning or research. They do this every day.  They are experts at it.  But it’s not usually about their learning – it’s about their social life. 

When published , encourage the audience to react to the publication.  To the student its this feedback that matters as when they have to own the quality of their work, higher effort is sure to occur. Use peer-to-peer, motivate them to share their findings with experts in an associated field, parents, the community, posting a YouTube video or creating a published website to share what was discovered.  This after all is the generation that finds this very easy to do – even if we don’t.

You can still maintain your control if that worries you. Depending on the age of the student, you can consider whether to allow comments on videos and website publications. You can allow  “Likes”  which they understand – and if you want to be more real you can open up options for feedback.

Innovation and learning

None of this is revolutionary. Teachers have tried to create learning opportunities that engage students in an authentic way and provide them with feedback. The difference is in the innovation that is quite rapid, the way the students present their learning.  It is about relating their own learning to the way they function in the real world - they want and expect feedback faster and more frequently. We can use this as an opportunity to cultivate opportunities for creativity, and hold students accountable for the work they do in authentic ways. The focus is on improvement and developing new skills as new challenges appear – and they will.    

Creativity and technology - realise problem solving

So – who can tell me how to use Javascript to feed a dog?  Or is it Python?  It's not just about Minecraft and creating computer games. These languages are not the future. Only this morning, one of my 13 year old students explained to me how they developed an App for on- line shopping initiating a dog food delivery where at the same time they communicated with someone at home for the dog to be fed on the delivery – all using coding and the use of Alexa while still working on their assignment at school.  

How can we embrace the skills that our students already practice daily in further impacting what happens in our classrooms to learning?

Tassos Anastasiades