Education 3.0
A Day in the Life: Elementary School
This chapter is about E.S. 21+, an imaginary school that follows the principles of Education 3.0. It follows one student through a day of schoolwork, to illustrate the key ideas of schools for the future. E.S. 21+ is not a real school -- it’s a hypothetical school, invented for the purposes of this book, but nonetheless within the realm of possibility, existing within the scope of current technologies and educational regulations. Nothing imagined in this chapter is impossible in today’s environment.
Good Morning, Max! His iPod repeats the greeting until Max turns it off. He's waking himself up a half hour early today to video chat with his e-pal in Scotland while she's still at school.
Schoolwork starts early for our hypothetical student, as it must if we are to achieve our objectives. The 180 days times six hours per day that’s allowed in most states is simply not sufficient to develop the skills and talents of youth necessary to success in the 21st century.
And new communication technologies, such as instant messaging, allow students to be connected with their schoolwork and their colleagues all day, every day.
Max checks the temperature outside his window and converts the reading to Celsius on his iPod.
Our student has learned, from his teachers and friends, how to use a variety of applications on his handheld device. It's part of his tool set for school and he uses it all day long. In this instance, he's getting ready to share temperature data with his e-Pal in Scotland.
Max checks the local paper online for sunrise and sunset data for his town. Now, he's ready for his conversation with Kate in which he'll share the week's data.
Max has learned how to navigate to resources online, how to use applications to analyze data and how to tell stories using data. As more and more information is linked to the web, school curricula need to be adjusted to take advantage of it, and to develop student skill in using it. Despite his severe learning disability that prevents him from decoding words, he is able to participte in this science activity, with the help of a mobile device.
Max wanders down to the kitchen where his dad is preparing the family breakfast. Max logs onto the family computer in the kitchen and sees Kate online already. He starts up his video chat with Kate, his 10-year-old e-Pal on Sanday, one of the Orkney Islands exchange weather and sunrise and sunset data for the week. He finds out that it's only 8 degrees Celcius today on Sanday. Using a spreadsheet program, he adds her data and creates an updated daylight graph which he emails to his teacher and to Kate. He notices that Kate's daylight hours are much shorter than they were last week and he records a memo on his iPod to ask his teacher about this.
Max tells Kate about the Abel's Island Take Two project and that he's hoping that his group will choose Sanday Island for their project. She asks him to send her the video they'll make. She tells him about an upcoming school trip to Edinburgh and about the seals she saw on the beach that day. She tells him that she got elected to the pupil council at her school.
The world is much more connected for students at ES 21+ . Students are encouraged to be curious and to ask questions. Max is willing to get up early to make up for the difference in time zones. In fact, Max is willing to do a lot of work before and after school because his projects interest him.
Max sends his data and graph, to his teacher and to his folder on the school’s web server.
Student work at E.S. 21+ is seldom handed in on paper. Rather its kept by each student in online folders and a portfolio, a collection of work that provides evidence of learning to their teachers and their parents.
After practicing his noiseless MIDI drums with SmartMusic for five minutes, he breakfasts with his mom and dad. At breakfast, his mother asks about his upcoming day at school - she knows what's coming up from the teacher's website and an email reminding her to go over Max's spelling words with him. This week's words are all on a survival theme, connected to the reading of the online Abel's Island project.
Breakfast together and conversations over meals are important in Max's house. Because he has a number of learning challenges, these times are especially important to him. His parents help him process what he's learned as well as foreshadow what the day will bring. At meals, they often discuss the ideas Max encounters at school. In
fact, the school provides on its web site family discussion questions that tie in to the curriculum. The family has learned to intervene with Max's learning disability through an online parent training course, listed in his IEP.
Max takes some pictures of his home, focused on those items he would most miss if he, like the main character of Abel's Island, got stranded on an island. He puts the SIM card into his card reader to take to school, and packs his bag for the day - iPod, headphones, flash drive, lunch, snack - his bag weighs about 2 pounds.
All of Max's text books are online. While there are hard copies available in the classroom, he doesn't carry them back and forth. E.S. 21+ takes advantage of the information devices that students carry in their pockets, adding applications and books online so students are ready for learning at any time in any place.
On the bus, Max reads a chapter of Abel's Island on his iPod, while listening to his teacher read along with him. He stops and repeats, clicks on unknown words, and hears their definition and pronunciation. When he's finished reading, he records his response to the chapter on his iPod. It will be uploaded to the teacher once he reaches school.
In addition to providing the full illustrated textbook for each subject online, the school provides an extensive library of electronic texts that can be downloaded to students’ laptops or to their iPods, formatted for ease of reading on these ubiquitous portable devices.
Max's teacher knows that Max learns best by listening, but he does need to practice his reading. So the teacher provides podcasts and recorded books to supplement Max's learning in school. These are automatically downloaded as they are needed in the syllabus. When Max clicks a word he doesn't know, his iPod records which words he's selected. These will be available later to his teacher.
When Max gets to school, he logs onto network from his classroom laptop, registers his attendance and lunch count, uploads his pictures to his folder, greets his teacher, and adds his weather data points to the class chart.
Students themselves carry out many of the day-to-day administrative tasks of the school. Beginning in first grade, before they can read their own names, they learn to click on their picture to register their attendance and lunch preferences. The teachers at ES21+ expect students to contribute to small group and class projects, carrying out these tasks without being reminded.
Max joins his small group in the media center. His group's task today is to brainstorm characters and plot for their upcoming skit on Abel's Island, Take Two. The assignment includes shipwrecking them on the shore of an environment very different from their own. Max's group votes to land on Sanday Island, and asks Max lots of questions about it.
At ES21+, students are used to taking charge of their own projects. They are encouraged to become experts on their own particular slice of a project. Even students with learning challenges can inform the group and extend its learning. The skit they are planning is part of a carefully planned integrated unit, incorporating language arts, geography, science, art and math skills.
The group goes online and spends a few minutes learning about Sanday Island and looking at pictures of Kate's school and at some of the migratory birds and seals now in residence. Max uses the online dictionary to read and define words he doesn't know.
Students at ES21+ know how to locate information on the Internet, find a variety of sources and discuss what they are learning - all independently. And they know how to employ mobile technoligies to overcome their learning disabilities.
Their group advisor (who floats from group to group throughout the period) shows them how to get started planning their project by developing a storyboard with Inspiration software. She quickly shows them how to use Inspiration to map their ideas. They sketch out their skit and send it to their teacher for feedback. One member of the group records voice notes as they go along. They divide up the characters so that each student is responsible to create a clay character in art class and describe its identity in writing.
While the teacher is present, the students are used to getting technology instruction on an as-needed, just in time basis. They don't visit technology on a weekly basis - they use it daily as needed.
The students return to their home base room for snack and conversation. The teacher asks who was able to reach their e-Pals that day and they share their experiences.
It's assumed at ES21+ that students will be responsible for doing their homework, which often consists of reaching out beyond the school and community via the Internet. They can do this independently and don't need a special time during the school day to carry out these tasks.
Max goes to his small group math class. Max struggles with math as well as reading. As he settles in for his math lesson, Max plays with NumberLine on his iPod, practicing fractions and decimals.
The school provides lots of reinforcement for students who struggle, not only small group instruction, but challenging activities that can be carried in the student's pocket. Max can discreetly play his instructional games and get support at the same time.
Max's math teacher uses the daylight graphs from the classroom to develop a lesson on daylight changes over time. He and Max record data from other students' locations: Oahu, St. Maarten, the Aleutian Islands. Together, they notice that the lines are steeper for some locations and shallower for others. The line for the Sanday Island is much steeper than that of St. Maarten. Pulling out a globe, Max's teacher helps him locate the various places. Max is curious about what it all means.
It's not unusual for the math teacher at ES21+ to incorporate geography into his lessons or to use data from the classroom to guide the math lessons he presents. Together, the various teachers make sure to give Max and his peers connected experiences. The visual nature of the graphs allows him to understand the mathematical and geographical concepts despite his reading disability.
Max returns to his classroom where a discussion of last night's chapter of Abel's Island is underway. He joins in by sharing his images -- projected directly from his iPod -- of those things he would most miss if he were to get lost on an island away from home.
All students read some shared books and are encouraged to participate in group discussions at ES21+ - whether they do so with images, writing, or speaking. All learning styles are supported.
At lunch, Max sits with his buddies. They talk about their own projects: While Max' group is using Sanday Island, other groups are using Oahu, the Aleutians, and St. Maarten. They get into a lively debate about why some places have fewer hours of daylight than others. They decide that some places are just lucky. A teacher on duty, overhears the conversation but doesn't provide the answer.
Debate and speculation are encouraged at ES21+. Often, the teachers will respond with a neutral "Hmmm," or ask an extending question, rather than provide quick answers.
In his small group reading class, Max plays his podcast reflection of last night's reading homework. He's mastered the difficult passages thanks to the computer's ability to speak text. Max shares the pictures he took that morning at home. He and his teacher work on a list of accommodations he'd need to make on the island as a way to guide his thinking. Then, they work together inventing Max's character for the group skit.
Max gets support from his teachers and parents, but at the same time understands that he needs to figure things out for himself. His teachers firmly believe in the malleability of intelligence, that there are no unintelligent students, but many who may need targeted support as they progress through the school. Max is not discouraged by his learning challenges. He is learning how to meet them with the help of his technologies.
In his Art class Max constructs a clay figure for the group animation project, after first sketching it on the computer. He has very strong art skills and creates a miniature seal, an exact replica of the seals on Sanday Island.
Students come with a wide range of skills, and these are encouraged at ES21+. While Max has serious deficiencies in reading and math, he's able to shine in art class.
Max joins his group in the media lab where they combine their ideas and nail down their story. They've each brought a clay figure and one of the group has produced a background for their claymation. Max comments that it looks remarkably like Hoy Beach on Sanday Island.
Working with the Flip video camera, they set up their movie. Max goes off to ask the music teacher to lend them percussion instruments to get background sounds. Another group member is sent off to find the technology coach (a high school student who is doing this job as his internship) to better understand how they will edit their movie once it's complete. They are eager to use a combination of technologies to tell their story.
The groups at ES21+ have a strong commitment to each other, each member doing his part. They are not shy about asking for resources and help.
Max and his class relax as their teacher reads another chapter from Swiss Family Robinson, relating it to their ongoing study of islands around the world. Finally, they each draw a challenge question out of a basket. Max gets the question, What island in the world is most densely populated? To find the answer, Max must determine area and population, then figure out how many people live in each square mile. He grins as he goes out the door - this one's going to be quite a challenge for him!
ES21+ uses every opportunity to relate literature and other topics to provide its students with a rich experience. Daily challenge questions are all related to the topics under study.
Max stays for extended day, and logs onto the computer to complete his script. One of his jobs is to spell check and read over the group's document. He finishes this task before joining the after-school games in the gym.
By giving Max the job of group spell-checker, his teachers and peers build in extra reading practice that has special meaning for his group.
At pickup time, Max shows his father the clay dragon and tells him all about the group's skit. He asks his dad about why St. Maarten has a longer day than Sanday. His dad's not sure but says they can work on that at home.
ES21+ provides a program of studies that is highly integrated, challenging and meaningful to its students. The parents at ES21+ enjoy being asked questions they can't immediately answer. They are sure that their children will do well in later years because they are curious, inquisitive, and positive about their learning.
After supper, Max goes online with the family computer and is happy to see his group is still online, as is his teacher. They have an impromptu group video conversation about where they'd want to live - in a place with very short winter days or longer ones. Max says he wants to live in a warm place where the days are longer, to which his teacher responds, "Do warm places always have longer days?" Now, it's Max's turn to say "Hmmmm..." as he glances over at his dad and mom.
Learning doesn't stop at 3:20 PM at ES21+ and everyone knows it. Rather than spend afternoons and evenings in front of the television, students are encouraged to continue talking to each other, continue debating, and continue learning.
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copyright © James G. Lengel 2010 |
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