Mobile Learning Institute-Ideas about 21st-century education

 Alan November

While reading eSchool News, Oct. 09 I ran across an article about a film series that profiles visionaries in 21st-century education. Nokia and the Pearson Foundation have put together a series of videos that explore how technology is transforming educational experiences, how school leaders are testing project-based and student-centered models of learning and how student-centered learning impacts poor and disadvantaged students.

So, I went to the link provided where the videos are showcased and clicked on a familiar name to me Alan November.  In this video Alan discusses the Myths and Opportunities: Technology in the Classroom. This video isn't like most educational videos, you know where it feels stale and a little boring. This video is more like a documentary, where you feel like your being spoken to instead of at...know what I mean?

Anyway, while watching this film I began to think about what he was really saying. For example, he brings up that teaching someone how to use a piece of technology is fairly easy to do in a day workshop or even an afternoon; but what can't be done "in an afternoon is teaching people to be comfortable shifting control to the students, that can take years." I paused the video and thought about that for a moment letting it sink in. My role as a grant facilitator and instructional technology specialist is to help teachers expand on what they are currently doing in their classrooms. It's to help them see that technology does not only provide information but opportunity. Opportunity to teach their students how to be life long learners is my hope for them.

Alan goes on to discuss some myths about technology. He brought up that many people believe that technology is helping to create a better society but he thinks it provides people with their "version of the truth".  I can see his point, anyone can create a website to profess their beliefs, passions, etc. Another myth he brings up is that technology "makes kids smarter". He points that students are copying and pasting or plagiarizing more because it's easier to just copy and paste from the web than it is to think critically.

Then Alan goes into roles that every classroom should have, they are:

• Researcher
• Reflector 
• Scribe 

 He goes into a little detail about each of the roles but the main theme of each is that students have control over what and how they learn the content in that classroom and that the teacher just guides them through that learning. It reminded me of a post from last week about being a tour guide, it's a total shift in teaching for some teachers.

I hope that you will check out this video and all the other videos in the set. I also hope that it helps you to make a change in your current delivery of content in your classroom, I know it has impacted mine!