Learners come in all shapes and sizes and there are opportunities for every student to access a learning style that suits his or her individual needs. Whether it's restructuring curriculum , redesigning classrooms or utilizing online learning there are options that can help reach all learners. It should be our goal to build models that provide options. Schools now have the ability to create flexible learning spaces based upon the needs of its students.
Providing opportunities for each student is our goal. Schools must recognize that to reach that goal we must look beyond our current model. We must evaluate space, time, location, and approach when examining potential learning. There are viable options right now that schools can incorporate into their culture.
Models
To obtain this goal of learning that suits the needs of all students there are options that can be implemented.
Online learning is nothing new but creating an option where students can learn on their own pace is something that can be easily incorporated into a school. Allowing students to learn a subject, like Math, through a program like Kahn Academy has long term benefits for kids who "don't get it". There needs to be face to face time to support that learning but online individualized learning has a big upside.
Sometimes the model of the school can be improved to suit the needs of the community. Generation Schools in New York, NY take an approach that challenges the traditional schedule and structure of the curriculum.
Redesigning how and where we work is as important to the content itself. Flexible learning spaces are essential to ensuring that learning is not confined to desks in row but rather a little bit of chaos.
Speaking of chaos. One of the ideas that has the most potential to provide opportunities for all learners is to follow the idea of Design Thinking. A process made famous by IDEO and that focuses on groups working together, has a great deal of potential to solve problems and make learning authentic. The book Change by Design has helped a great deal in shaping my thinking on this topic. Here is an article by GOOD magazine on the importance of failure. This whole idea will be a post for another day.
These models all have potential to help improve our schools we we move further into this new century. And it will be classes like "Open Course in Education Futures", being taught by George Siemens and Dave Cormier, that can help schools understand these shifts. Classes like that and reports that examine the "Impact of the Internet on Institutions of the Future" will help us move towards schools shifting and addressing the needs of all learners.
Technology is no longer the focus, it is the learning. So forget about teaching blogging, let's focus on new models of teaching.
Posted via email from Dave Bill's Posterous
[...] (source: David Bill: Learners – in all different shapes and sizes) [...]
ReplyDelete