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)