Podcast: Innovative Education

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Learning Together

A teacher walks around the classroom. She navigates students gathered in groups around the room. There are tables, desks pushed together, and cozy corners set up for comfortable collaboration. Students are clustered around computer screens, tablets, and phones. This is not free time, this is valuable time to learn and create. This is the scene that plays out daily in many of today’s classrooms across the country. Technology has changed not only the way teachers deliver information but the way students learn and communicate.

One major trend in educational technology, that seems to only be gaining momentum, is the use of social media in education. This trend is not happening in the classroom with students so much as it is happening beyond school hours as PD for teachers and faculty as well as PR for school programs and initiatives. What sets this educational trend apart from others seems clear. Would a teacher rather give up a Saturday or spend an hour after teaching all day to drive to another location and attend training? Or, would they rather participate in a Twitter chat while cooking dinner or grading papers? The choice is clear. As data moves faster and information becomes easier to access, professional development needs to be just as easy and fast. Schools and businesses that deliver professional development have to compete with all of the resources and enrichment teachers can find on their own.

Teachers are not the only ones finding new learning and ideas online, students are as well, and teachers must find a way to capitalize on this. The use of personal devices, such as phones and tablets, is another trend in education. If a campus does not have a ‘bring your own device’ policy, they have 1:1 ratios of students to iPads or laptops. This trend is two-fold. It serves to keep students engaged while also teaching them to navigate the flood of information and use technology for more than entertainment. While most students are able to find videos or answers to simple questions using technology, they continue to have difficulty formatting word documents and discerning credible information. This is where the benefit of devices in schools is validated. Teachers have to keep their fingers on the pulse of the newest apps and websites in order to keep their use of technology current and applicable for their students, which is why that professional development is so important.

Beyond their use of devices in school though, is the need to be able to collaborate with peers to create new learning. Where devices seem to isolate students, collaboration provides the opportunity for students to hone social skills. Walking into most classrooms today and one will find tables or desks in groups rather than the rows of previous years. Seating is arranged to encourage conversation. Most lessons are planned with time for students to brainstorm with peers or work together on common assignments. While there is always time for independent learning and reflection, value is placed on what students gain by sharing ideas with one another and teaching one another. This time together also encourages important communication skills and how to be tolerant and accepting of one another.

Writers and movie producers have predicted what the future has in store for society. The learning in classrooms today was hardly imagined thirty years ago. And with students learning together, on a global level, guided by their teachers, it is almost impossible but exciting to imagine what the classrooms will look like in thirty more years.