I really like the video on 21C learning this week. My favorite thing was it's emphasis on how the classroom now is not the only place for learning and that is now a 24/7, anywhere proposition. I was happy to see parents involved in the video as this has been one of my main considerations during this course. I also related to it as being a parent, i understand how learning is available to my kids any time - even at times i wish they were asleep…. It reminded me of the learning that was still accessible to my kids as we travelled through France and Spain for 2 months last year. Lucky for my daughter and son, they have a teacher for a Mum and I have fond memories of working through fractions on Mathletics with my son at the ancient table of pre-revolutionary farmhouse in rural France on one of our quiet days. He kept up with and actually excelled at maths that term even though he was on the trip of his life. This shows just how learning can be as needed, when needed.
It just reaffirms one of our foci in the Change Plan being parents - i would love them all to see learning a i do. I was happy when one of our boys who is off to Vietnam for a couple of weeks to see family checked he could take his iPad with him. I hope he jumps on and uses it to record his adventures.
So true bed - and then the next step would be the travelling or absent child being able to engage in conversations or work with their classmates online...via blogs or twitter or instagram or another tool like Voxer (https://www.voxer.com); LiveBinders (http://www.livebinders.com/welcome/home); Google hangouts and Google Docs :)
ReplyDeleteThere is sometime a big shift for our "the parent group" (obviously not all parents, just a significant majority) to see the learning in the same way that we do Bec. I am still talking down parents in the playground who are somewhat upset with what Stephen Heppell had to say when he spoke at our school (I had an in-depth chat with a couple on Friday in the yard). They just want "cyber-safety" information out of these sessions, so when we start talking about the learning potential that the devices produce they're all like... "What... you want them to use the device more, and when they're younger???" "But they'll just play games 24/7, look at porn and bully each other online!!!" I'm exagerating but these are the vibes I get so regularly when I talk to parents.
ReplyDeleteDon't get me wrong the Cyber-Safety sessions are important but I really feel like they fuel the fear amongst our parent groups. I sometimes feel like by bringing up the negatives about technology it justifies the conservative stance that "technology is bad".
I acknowledge that parenting in this day and age is challenging, but this is where we LIVE. We live in this day and age and it's not going anywhere.
We have just started developing a thorough communication strategy to help overcome these issues and to start to share our message more effectively.