The One World Schoolhouse: Education Reimagined Filled with Questions

My teaching partner and I have begun to read and reflect on the book One World Schoolhouse by Salman Khan.  Below is a post with some thoughts in regards to the first few chapters.  We will continue to reflect in future posts.

"It's my belief that each of us has a stake in the education of all of us.  Who knows where genius will crop up?  There may be a young girl in an African village with the potential to find a cancer cure.  A fisherman's son in New Guinea might have incredible insight into the health of the oceans.  Why would we allow their talents to be wasted?  How can we justify not offering those children a world -class education, given that the technology and resources to do so are available - if only we can muster the vision and boldness to make in happen."  Khan, Salman.  2012. One World Schoolhouse.  Retrieved from http://www.audible.com/pd/Nonfiction/The-One-World-Schoolhouse-Audiobook/B009HVNGQI

As I begin to listen to the audio book, One World Schoolhouse:  Education Reimagined, my passion for helping students succeed is reinvigorated.  It's hard for anyone who listens to the radio, watches television, or reads on the internet to say they have never heard of Khan Academy.  However, I wonder how many are like me?  They have heard the name Khan Academy several times, they know it's receiving lots of attention, but they don't really know what it is.

The book is written and read by Salman Khan, the founder of the Khan Academy.  Khan believes in a world where education is free and available to all.  As I listened to his ideal world that got him started down this journey, I thought to myself; yes, I want that for everyone too.  In fact, I think most educators would agree with me.  However like me, many of us stop there; unwilling or unsure of how to make change to the system we live in.  I was impressed that in such a short time frame that Khan, someone who is or even a teacher to begin with, has started to make strides and bring learning to people in all parts of the world.  Well, at least to anyone who can access the internet.

So many of the questions Khan asks in his introduction are valid and important questions.  Questions that I know I have asked myself before; "Does the standard classroom model - broadcast lecture in school, solitary homework in the evening - still make sense in a digital age?  Why do students forget so much of what they have supposedly  " learned" as soon as an exam has been taken?  Why do grown-ups sense such a disconnect between what they studied in school and what they do in the real world?"  Khan, Salman.  One World Schoolhouse.  While reading these questions I was reflective of my own practice and was left thinking about many of my struggling students.  I often spend many nights lying awake thinking of how I can better help them.  More question came to me:  How do I support their different ways and pace of learning when I have 28 students in class?  If I provide video to view at home, as I know the Khan Academy has many of, will this help?  Is it enough?  If I want to change my practice to better fit the digital age (which I am trying to do, by the way), how do I still do this within the confines of the curriculum and confines of the public school system I work for?

At one point in the book he talks about the challenges that a student faces when the class must move on to keep up with curriculum, but the student is not ready to do so.  In Ontario, we have tried to curb this problem with the Individual Education Plan (IEP) that allows students to move forward with their peers, while still working at their level.  However, I'm not sure this process is truly helping these students get the learning they need.  Often students must sit through lessons that are above them before the teacher can work one-to-one with them to support them at their own level.  Otherwise, they are left off to the side during these lessons to work through some work at "their level" while this lesson is happening; allowing for distractions, isolation, and little instruction.  Do you think we are meeting the needs of our IEP students in the standard classroom?  What strategies do you use to support these students?  What new strategies should we be trying?

Khan's book has definitely caught my interest and I'm eager to hear all of it.  I hope that not only will I learn about the fascinating direction of the Khan Academy, but that I might walk away with some insights into how to evolve my own classroom practice within the walls of the current school structure that employs me.  I don't mean to write a post with so many questions, but having only begun the book I am left feeling curious.  I hope in the comments below that some of you will feel brave enough to address some of the may questions I have asked.  I will continue my read and share more of my thoughts as time goes on.

Share With Others and They Will Share With You

As my teaching partner and I continue to work together we are discovering new ways of sharing information each day.  We are now using technology to share ideas and thoughts.  By teaching partner, Chantelle Davies has written a reflection on how web 2.0 and sharing can support teachers.

"It is one of the most beautiful compensations in life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself."  - Ralph Waldo Emerson

As a leader or even as someone's equal in the education world, you would be doing a disservice to not only others, but to yourself if you did not choose to embrace the beauties of what we now call web 2.0.  As noted in an early post by my teaching partner, Ray Swinarchin, the web has evolved from being just a static resource with read only material (web 1.0) to being a tool that allows for reading, sharing, collaborating and interacting (web 2.0).  I have spoken before about the importance of embracing interactive social media tools as a leader in education.  To further elaborate on this, I think by using web 2.o tools such as twitter, blogging, instagram, etc. leaders are not only encouraging other educators to lead by example for their students, but they are also helping to open the door for those educators to a much greater wealth of knowledge and expertise.  In addition, as per the quote from Ralph Emerson above, leaders are also able to gain something for themselves.  By creating and using platforms that encourage sharing, leaders will naturally build networks that they too can rely on as a further source of knowledge.  In the age of information it is not possible to know everything about everything in education.  Building a network fostered by the sharing of information means leaders can manage this.  they can simply turn to their network to ask questions and seek information about the topic they are focusing on at any given moment.  they inevitable will benefit from the process.

In an effort to follow this message, we have created a wikispace.  It's a bit of a mash up of ideas that all pertain to where we are at in our teaching and learning.  Included are sections on split classrooms, blogging and other tech related ideas for the classroom.  Please consider sharing in this wiki and add anything you have created for your classroom.

https://21stcenturyclassroom-splits-blogs-tech.wikispaces.com/

HWDSB Virtual Library Resources

In a previous post I shared some interesting resources available in the HWDSB Virtual Library.  I recently revisited the site to see if any new resources grabbed my attention.  I have created an infographic to share some of these resources.

Click to view image

Did you know that HWDSB's Virtual Library allows teachers to request or suggest online resources.  A form with a request of the resource is available through the Virtual Library side bar menu.  There is also a tab on the side bar that allows teachers to evaluate the resources being offered through the Virtual Library.  The virtual library is a tool that is an underused tool as many people are not aware of all the resources available to them.  It is important to make peers and colleagues aware of tools available in the virtual library and to evaluate so that this is not an under used or overlooked resources.

I was wondering how often you share information or think about your virtual library with colleagues when planning?

As a side note, while I explored Venngage Infographic, I found it easy to use.  Adding images and text was as simple as clicking and dragging content into the infographic.  There is also a link that allows you to share your infographic using such social networking tools as twitter, facebook and google+.  However, as I have shared these links it has come to my attention that the link does not allow you to view the document.  This may be due to the fact that I may need to upgrade my membership to a premium page.  By upgrading, I will have the ability to turn my creations into pdf files so that I can share them with others.

Links to resources from Infographic:

Teaching Kids News -  With this site, teachers can access news articles written in kid friendly language.  The news articles are presented in a way so that kids can understand it, think critically about it and then apply their knowledge to the real world.  Along with a daily article, grammar and curriculum based questions are included with each article.
CGF Learning Free - GCF is a site that helps individuals learn skills needed to live and work in the 21st Century.  The resource offers 125 tutorial and over a thousand lessons on topics such as math, reading, and microsoft.  There are instructors who can support online classes.
The Red Book - The Red Book is a database of community, government, volunteer and health sector programs and services in and supporting the City of Hamilton.  By typing in key words users a lead to a list of support services available within the city.
Media Smarts - Media Smarts is a comprehensive collection of digital and media resources.  Media Smarts develops digital and media literacy programs and resources for schools.  The site offers information and tools to help children develop critical thinking skills they need to interact with the media they love.
Pop Culture Collection - Gale Cengage Learning offers content, tools and services to libraries in order to promote learning  and information discover.  One of the tools offered is Pop Culture Collection.  One interesting feature is Term Cluster.  When a subject is searched, related links and data is included.  For example, when I searched Harry Potter, linked data included J.K. Rowling, movies, books, London, New York.
Kids InfoBits - Kids InfoBits, also by Gale Cengage Learning, offers children age appropriate content covering a broad range of educational topics.  Content includes books, magazines, news and images.  InfoBits engages students with interesting facts along with connections to current events.

The Evolution of the Web

"...because your knowledge and my knowledge, based on what search results are served, (our knowledge) may be very different."  (Silva Vaidhayana)  This quote reminded me of an article I read a few years ago about the way people conduct searches.  The gist of the article stated  that people will search out information that supports their point of view and disregard other information.  In a sense we search for the information we want and discard other related material if it does not meet our needs.  The evolution of the web will change the trend of only looking for data that suites ones opinion.  To understand how this evolution is changing the trend we need to examine how the web was used and how it will be used in the future.

The Evolution of The Web

Click  for source.

Tim Berners-Lee, who launched the world wide web in 1989, wanted to change the way we used information and how we worked together.  Berners-Lee wanted a global resource that would allow people to access information.  In its beginning, the web, referred to as Web 1.0, was known as a read only web.  In other words, the consumer was limited to only reading information presented on a website.  Since these static websites do not permit interaction or communication, it is difficult to discuss the credibility of information or to present different points of views.  

To allow for communication and interaction new tools needed to be developed.  In 1999, a company called  Blogger  was started which helped usher in Web 2.0.  Over time more social networking tools were developed (i.e. facebook, youtube, twitter, etc.) which allowed the user to read, write and publish.  This allows the consumer to become active and share feedback with the creator of information.  As this interaction occurs communication, collaboration and creativity increases.  The problem that has users now face is that there is so much information available that it is difficult for consumers to sift through all the data in order to find appropriate content.

 Berners-Lee's new vision for the web is to have individuals put data onto the net.  His vision is that as more data is placed on the web it becomes linked to other data because machines will be able to read the data and link it to other sources.  In Web 3.0. the user will be able to do a search that will start in one data base and then move through other data bases which are connected or related to the search.  According to Berners-Lee, the information you get back is data with relationships to other data.  As a result, the linked data will come from diverse sources giving the consumer a better understanding of the content.

The following youtube video by Kate Ray, gives an overview of Web3.0.

Web 3.0 and Education

As Web 3.0 and linked data is created, students will be able to absorb more information and spend greater time analyzing this data.  While researching Web 3.0,I came across Gapminder, which shows the important world important trends.  It is a data bass, that has collected and organized data so that it can be understood by it's consumers.  Under the For Teachers page, there is an example of how data with relationships can be used in a classroom to discuss world trends.  The conversations are meaningful as students are able to analyze the data and share their thoughts on what the data tells them.  By linking to this, students are getting real world information and discuss real world issues.  

With the linked data of Web 3.0, teachers will be able to fully assess students according to Ontario Curriculum Achievement Charts.  Much of what is assessed is the student's knowledge and understanding.  As the content or data is made available, teachers can go deeper into the achievement chart and assess thinking, communication and application of skills.   Teachers will no longer be feeding information to students and asking for them to restate it.  Students will work with data to come to their own conclusions thus emergence of a 21st Century critical thinker.

As I was researching the evolution of the web, I became aware changes that have occurred overtime.  However, while we live day to day this changes are sometimes overlooked until we are made aware of these changes and reflect on how these changes ca affect our teaching.  I was wondering, as leaders, how often do we make other team members aware of the changing trends in education?