The Pinch Theory of Teaching

Over the last several weeks I have been doing a lot of reading about educational theory. If you have been following my blog, you’ll note that I have discussed the benefits of behaviourist, constructionist and social learning theories. Before I embarked on rediscovering what theorists like Skinner, Bruner and Piaget had to say, I considered my own personal educational theory to be somewhat eclectic: I took a pinch of behaviourism and a pinch of constructionism and so on. This is my Pinch Theory!

Weeks later, and with even more research under my belt, I still maintain this is a good way to practice the art of teaching. However I have also gained a better vision of how to ensure the majority of instruction takes a student-centred approach. So much of what we do can slip into a teacher-centred approach when we’re tired or feeling the pressure of the curriculum.

I think teachers need to engage in regular conversations with their peers about instructional and learning theories and to not lose sight of research. Sure we have all read about these theories when we earned our B.Ed. degrees, but how many of us (be honest here) actually consider the impact of these theories on our practice? When we teach in a bubble, we do not teach well. Our lessons should be based on research as much as they are based on curriculum.

The one constant that remains in my perspective on teaching, is the integration of technology into students’ education. Regardless of students’ ages, there is always room for technology. Of course this is a requirement of Alberta Education, but it is also something that is personally important. I’m a nerd at heart and wish very much to provide my students with some of the same technical skills that I have enjoyed. I know so many young adults (30ish is young to me!) who do not know how to use a computer, never mind know how to use one to create valuable products.

It is almost criminal to think we are sending students into their post-school world with little to no effective technology skills. Sure kids know how to use a lot of pieces of technology, but are they given the opportunity to apply those tools in productive, meaningful settings in school? How can we expect them to compete globally if they have not been given the tools to succeed in their new world?

If you read my blog bio, you would have read that I am not currently teaching in a k-12 classroom. When next I do, the first place I’ll make changes is within my own practice. Here are two of the things I would love the opportunity to change in a class of my own:

1.                  Change the focus of technology from teacher-centred to student-centred focus.

How many of you have Smartboards (for example) in your classroom? I had one the last time I taught. How many of you use your Smartboard primarily as an instructional tool? I admit I did. I tried to give students a chance to use the Smartboard every day, but honestly, it seemed like more work than I had time for.

But why do we limit ourselves and our students this way? I think a Smartboard (for example) is a great way to share information with students (Orey considers this an instructional approach), but they can be so much more. The next time I have an opportunity to use a Smartboard, I really want to be the one in the class who uses it the least. I think students should have the greatest opportunity to use all technological tools to create their own learning. Dr. Michael Orey considers this a learner’s approach to using technology, but really shouldn’t that just be common sense? How else will our students graduate with meaningful, productive, useful tech skills? I’m not just talking about Smartboards here either. I’m talking about any form of web-application or software they might use.

There are literally hundreds of possibilities when it comes to software and web-based applications  Personally, I think Smartboards are the least effective ways to allocate tech dollars. If a school wants to invest in an interactive white board, I think something like Promethean’s Multi-Input Interactive Whiteboard makes more sense. Check out the demo below or click this link to the YouTube Video.

If a school is going to invest in an interactive whiteboard, I think it’s just good budgeting and responsible support for students to purchase something that allows for some sort of physical, collaborative effort. This takes the use of the interactive whiteboard one step closer to being a student-centred tool because it simultaneously accepts multi-user input. It’s very cool.

2.                  Another change I would invoke in my teaching practice is to advocate for the free and varied use of technology in the classroom. In my previous blog post, “Technology Rich Collaborative Classrooms: Big Bad Wolf or Harbinger of Opportunity?”, I spoke about the misconceived evils of allowing students access to technology. Too many administrators are still reluctant to open the firewalls to allow the use of many web 2.0 tools. I realize quality control measures must be in place to maintain the integrity of a network. But really, do network integrity and FREE web 2.0 tools for creativity HAVE to be mutually exclusive?

I have been doing a lot of surfing (aka avoiding client work and practicing procrastination in its purest form) and found a number of incredibly cool web 2.0 tools. I thought I’d share them with you here.

Web Site Builders:

Something I have always wanted to do is have my students create a web site to organize materials they have created for a project. A web site allows students to incorporate video, audio, hyperlinks and documents all in one aesthetically pleasing and fun place. It’s like one-stop shopping for their peers to view what they have created. Not only will this help students gain a better understanding of the connections among the varied pieces of their projects, but it creates an unending venue for students to create and share their creations. Once they begin their web sites, they can continue to build and change them as long as they are students and beyond.

Webs.com This is a free, easy to use web site building tool, but there are ads. As long as you choose the option to create a site for educational purposes, you can rest easy knowing your students will not be exposed to suggestive advertisements. Although I design web sites, I like to use this one for student content because I don’t have to spend time designing pages.

Kafafa.com This is another web site building tool without ads. Keep in mind this site includes life updates as you edit. This means if you start building and have to come back to it later, your unfinished web site will be live.

Creativity:

Kids need multiple avenues to express their creativity. I recently listened attended an event where Sir Ken Robinson was the keynote speaker. I had the pleasure of meeting him and chatting with him afterwards at the Central Alberta Teachers’ Convention in Red Deer, AB on February 10^th. “Creativity should be a fundamental of education, not a supplement” he said to me.

How true! Education is forever cutting the arts programs, but those programs do not have to be the only media for creativity! When students are provided an opportunity to employ their natural sense of creativity in any subject area, they flourish and expand their own horizons. This supports and enhances their learning because they use their new-found knowledge through their creative process.

MyOats Remember Hasbro’s Spirograph? Well MyOats is nothing like that!

Actually, kind of is because it mirrors your input in multiple locations around a central focal point. It is super cool and would fit in really well with symmetry and mathematics. It’s a super cool tool to create some really beautiful designs too!

Aviary This is a browser-based graphics editor. It doesn’t allow you to save the image to your hard drive, but it will allow you to publish it or save it online so you can continue working on it later.

These are only a few of the tools that I have come across lately. There are countless more and I look forward to seeing any that others have found.

Technology Rich Collaborative Classrooms: Big Bad Wolf or Harbinger of Opportunity?

It has only been relatively recently that I have returned to the field of education. For the past seven or so years I have worked as a business consultant providing writing services to organizations throughout Alberta, Canada. This work has really opened my eyes to the skills students need to be taught in school.

Do you remember being in about grade 6 or 7? Do you remember sitting in your desk, in your row with your eyes on your teacher at the front of the room? Do you remember painstakingly writing down notes from the board until your fingers ached? I do. It wasn’t unusual to spend an entire day, or entire week working on assignments and sitting in desks - class after class. After graduation some went on to college or university while others entered the workforce right away like I did. Many from this generation are likely still working in their chosen fields.

But times have changed, haven’t they? The jobs teachers prepare students for today do not yet even exist! Who knows what sorts of careers will be available to our students in a few years from now? Anyone currently in grade one, for example, won’t be entering the work force full time before 2022! When you consider the leaps technology has made in the last decade, just imagine what will happen in the next.

So what are we doing to prepare these kids? What is going on in schools to ensure students have the requisite skills for a world that is yet to be? Let me step back to my time as a consultant for a moment. I’ve been in innumerable different organizations, and there has always been a common thread; every project I’ve been involved in has required team work. Business owners require teams of employees to accomplish various tasks to make their businesses run smoothly and effectively. It’s not surprising that some teams work better than others.

It’s usually pretty obvious which employees must have been home with the flu when THEIR grade school teachers used cooperative learning!

So let’s take a look at Collaborative (Cooperative) Learning for a moment. According to McRel (2007), Cooperative Learning should entail

·    Groups of only a few individuals of varying abilities

·    Used regularly, but not exclusively

How many of you work at jobs that require you to frequently work as a part of a team? Generally every team member brings certain strengths to a project too – not everyone has precisely the same skill set, right? So if we know kids today ultimately have to work in this sort of a setting, it makes sense they learn how to do it in school.

Cooperative learning in schools is really about social learning. Given that we are social creatures, we can make a pretty good case for teaching students to work and to learn in a cooperative learning setting. Lev Vygotsky talked about learning in a social capacity by drawing on the strengths of a more knowledgeable other to allow a student to move from a state of “What I know” through to (and beyond) “That which I don’t yet understand” (Orey, 2010). When we teach students to learn through social settings such as group work, and to learn from their peers, we are really giving them a leg up on life after graduation. When students understand they can learn from members of their team as well as their leaders (teachers, or employers), they will have skills they need to succeed in the workforce.

But wait – remember we talked about a workforce that doesn’t yet exist? Is cooperative learning the be-all-end-all solution to preparing kids for future careers?

Not by a long shot!

Any project I’ve ever been involved in used every imaginable bit of technology necessary to get the job done. Outside of learning to use production tools (i.e.: MS Office Suite, etc.), there are a host of web-based applications that will prepare our students for working in tomorrow’s world. Here are some of the web-based tools I’ve actually used for work and some ideas for using them in the classroom:

You can see this image alone here.

These are only a few web-based tools that can be useful in the workplace. And these are also the most likely applications to be banned in schools. Students are not allowed access for fear of what doors these tools may open. These tools, and others like them, connect individuals both globally and locally. They allow us to learn from colleagues/peers we work next to or collaborate with over vast distances.

So if collaborating and working as a team is a part of the “real world”, and if using web-based applications have a viable place in the workforce, to what degree are students being given access to the very tools they need to prepare for their working lives? Are we really preparing these kids for success? Rather than deny them access for fear of evil, why not teach students how to use these tools productively and how to handle the bad stuff they will (and likely already have) encounter? After all, these kids are going to need these skills, and a whole lot more, for the next 70+ years, aren’t they?

Alas, I am but one and not everyone would agree with me on this one. If school personnel did agree with me, students would have virtually free access to any tool that exists. They are already using these applications in their free time anyway, so why not harness these skills and teach them to use the tools productively?

My guess is that this isn’t happening because of fear. A fear of the unknown. A fear of losing control. A fear of the big Bad Wolf of technology.

Take, for example, David Sobel, Director of Teacher Certification Programs at Antioch New England Graduate School in New Hampshire. I recently read his article "Take Back the Afternoon: Preserving the Landscape of Childhood in Spite of Computers" (2004) where he suggests manufacturers of technology are doing a great disservice to society by targeting marketing efforts on children as young as four or five. Mr. Sobel would have us believe that these same manufacturers should be ashamed for trying to secure young children as technological consumers for the next 60 years (Sobel, 2004). 

...Wait a minute…

They WILL be technological consumers for AT LEAST the next 60 years!

Here is that link to my Voicethread I was telling you about above.

Voicethread is a tool that allows users to create an interactive photo album. This is a great way for students to share work they have created, or to initiate discussions students can continue outside of class time.

This could be cool: I have an envelope full of 8x10 photos that I have used as story starters. Scanning them and uploading them to a voice thread and having students start conversations in Voicethread would help them to expand their own ideas for creative writing.

At the very least, it’s pretty cool way to share ideas and I hope you’ll check mine out:

If you’re not into that, you HAVE to watch this YouTube video. If you haven’t really bought into what I’ve shared with you yet, this video is SURE to convince.

But this is just my say. What do YOU think?

Take Back the Afternoon: Preserving the Landscape of Childhood in Spite of Computers (Sobel, 2004)

Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works (McRel, 2007)

Emerging Perspectives on Teaching Learning and Technology (Orey, 2001)