Student
Collaboration minus a teacher
If
you haven’t come across Sugata Mitra before - Read this
http://www.wired.com/brandlab/2015/06/sugata-mitra-learn-think-like-kid/
http://www.wired.com/brandlab/2015/06/sugata-mitra-learn-think-like-kid/
Hole in the Wall – young people in India
collaborating to learn because they were highly motivated to do so by the arrival of a computer and all
without the help of a teacher
And
watch this
He tends to polarize people – My thinking
is that yes students will apply themselves wholeheartedly to learning something
they really want to know with technology/devices and collaboration can help
them get there
BUT
many things we learn we didn’t know we
needed/wanted until somebody gave us a glimpse – teachers can be those
inspiring somebodies. Effective student centered pedagogy that makes the
learning visible for students and teachers does help students to get further
faster. When opportunities for collaboration are built into lesson design by a skilful
teacher surface learning, deep learning and conceptual understanding (Hattie,
2012) can bloom in the right mix for progress with or without a device (with is good - though not always affordable so equity issues still come into it in NZ schools). I don’t
see the debate as either or but I do think deep learning and conceptual
understandings are far more likely to consistently occur when there is an
effective teacher involved in guiding the learning.
(Not COLs related I know but interesting to think about technology aiding collaboration whether its students or adults - Kay)
(Not COLs related I know but interesting to think about technology aiding collaboration whether its students or adults - Kay)
Hattie, J. A. C. (2012). Visible Learning For Teachers: Maximizing
Impact On
Learning. New York: Routledge.
I think your piece is very CoLs related, Kay... the whole concept of CoLs is deeply seated in collaboration. There is much we can translate across from students collaborating to learn how the world works and their role in it, to CoLs collaborating to learn about how they might work together around the notion that "it takes a community to bring up a child", with the purpose of developing each child into the best global citizen they can be. Much of what we are reading about collaboration points to it being the key to innovation... to creating solutions to complex problems...
ReplyDeleteI believe that, if the concept is to be taken seriously, and engaged in with true sincerity and integrity, the responsibility resting on the shoulders of the CoL will be huge and very daunting, once the scope of it is realised.
Above you refer to the need for an effective teacher to enhance students' deep learning and conceptual understandings... translated to CoLs... there a need for an on-going role to coach/facilitate effective collaboration, adaptive expertise... who is the someone skilled in facilitation to sit along side each CoL throughout their journey to support, challenge and deepen thinking focused on the shared purpose and with students at the centre? Is it a trained facilitator? Is it an MoE SAF or SA? Is it the lead principal? Is it a consulting ex-principal?
Do we know what our role as trained PLD facilitators is yet?
Different regions appear to have different approaches... such is the autonomy of our regional MoEs.