Doing School...Differently

I just posted this to my classroom blog, and realized that it also belonged here:

As I prepare for this school year, it is becoming increasingly clear that this will not be a "business as usual" year. With our classroom's expansion onto the web, the very nature of our learning will begin to change drastically. Students in this digital classroom will be challenged - not to learn a set of information or to prepare for state tests, but rather to become creators and innovators on their own. Yes, there will be information learned, but in many ways, that will be the secondary focus behind students learning how to learn and create for themselves.

This will require a lot from the students, but I'm confident that they will be up to the challenge. We need to move past the notion that I (as the teacher) have all of the answers and the students need to "receive" the education that I am "giving" them. Instead, I want to be a facilitator and give my students the tools to develop themselves as learners. As I think back to my own education, I realize that I wanted to have more control, too. I remember coming to a point where I began doing what I knew would make the teacher happy and gave up any of my own opinions and interests. My goal now is to not let that same thing happen in my classroom.

So, welcome to a new way of doing sixth grade. It won't be perfect, and I'm sure that I'll make mistakes along the way, but if I can allow myself to be a member of this community, rather than the leader of it, we'll be moving in the right direction!

Policing the Digital Domain

Over the last few weeks, I've had the opportunity to present some technology workshops to fellow teachers in my school district. Last week, I was part of a workshop on blogging and an interesting discussion came up. We were talking about how we would like to see the students not only become exposed to blogs (and Twitter), but also become creators of personal blogs or contributors to classroom blogs. In the midst of the discussion, a few teachers expressed concerns about how one might "police" the students' posts to make sure that nothing inappropriate was posted to a public classroom domain.

The concerns of the teachers were very real, and spoke to a larger issue when incorporating technology into classroom learning. These teachers' main concern was that they might get in trouble because of something a student posts to a classroom blog. And we didn't really come to an answer for that issue so much as developing an understanding: in the digital classroom, teachers are going to have to relinquish some control and allow for the students' self-expression. Yes, this does create a tenuous situation, especially if one is dealing with a student who wants to create a problem and doesn't care about the repercussions.

However, I can't help but see this as a teachable moment that will begin to define what digital classrooms will look like. For decades, teachers were taught to control every situation and ensure that nothing went in a direction that was unexpected or potentially inappropriate. But with the modern social construct, students are going to be communicating whether we want them to or not. It is best to guide them and explain the ramifications of destructive actions in a public domain. And teachers must also be able to rely on their school districts to back them up and recognize the need for these forms of communication to move forward for the benefit of the whole student population.

Eventually, we made it clear that most blogs or websites allow users to control who can view the site, who can post to the site, and whether the content is appropriate and will remain. The tools are there to censor, if needed, and to privatize the site if one doesn't want it to be universally available. I hope, though, that these tools will not be overused, because a major part of classrooms in the digital age will be that they are student-centered in both focus and in creation of content; the voices of the students will be the ultimate key, and while that might require a shift of control away from the teacher, it's an exciting notion that I can't wait to see play out.

Getting My Feet Wet

For anyone who happens to come by this site, please be patient with me - I'm new at this. I had the good fortune to attend a talk by Will Richardson in my school district a few weeks ago, and I came away very motivated and energized to bring myself further into the digital domain than I had ever ventured before.

Don't get me wrong - I'm not a technophobe who has been resisting the digital revolution. In fact, I've been supporting it as long as I have taught (could it be ten full years now?). My higher education is in Instructional Technology and Curriculum Development and I'm the technology liaison for my school. I've spent my time in the classroom looking for ways to expand my students' perspectives and learning through the implementation of technology. But, in recent years, I've stopped moving forward. Yes, I'm still working very hard and coming up with new lessons and ideas, but I'm not pushing the envelope as I once had. I plateaued, and only recently did I begin to see where the next challenge is. To truly move forward with education and technology, I have to further explore the world of the web and all the possibilities it affords.

And so, here I am, publishing the second post on my new blog. I've entered into the world of Twitter (ayauchler - feel free to follow!). My students are starting a wiki with a second grade class in our school (which I hope to expand as next year begins). And now, there's so much to do, so many things to explore. I'm moving forward again, and it feels right. I plan to publish often, and I sincerely hope that some of what I post will be valuable to others in the same ways that so much of what I'm reading and experiencing is valuable to me. So please stop back, comment when you can, and I hope to see you around the net.