Teacher in Development

It’s weird and cool that many people are thinking about similar things as you RIGHT THIS MOMENT. 

Bedouin Related Memes: 

Becoming a Better EFL Teacher: Could Computers and the Internet REALLY Replace TESOL English Teachers?

There has been some really interesting posts coming from this blog lately, and today’s post was another example of that. I just have two things to say: 1. I don’t use blogger anymore, and therefore I can’t add my comments. I really don’t like that about blogger! 2. I think Lynch gives a really good opening: No matter how techie we become, the teacher will never be replaced. We will always need the human touch.

But what I really liked from his post was his call for reinvention. The Concept of School must change.

That four walls thing we have going now… it’s gotta become a thing of the past.

"Schools, at virtually any level, will need to be virtually and interactively linked to an extensive array of external resources. This means that the “traditional” board, markers and OHP will need to give way to additional, integrated resources that expand the classroom environment to an almost unlimited degree."(Could Computers and the Internet REALLY Replace TESOL English Teachers?, Lynch)

Noon further explores the importance of examining our assumptions, and wonders what happens when you decide that what you believe about education is no longer valid. How do you replace the old with the new? How do you translate success stories of others into your own practice? (Can you?)

These, I think, are vital questions. I’m finding myself very dissatisfied with the classroom environment I’ve been living in. I’m tired of how things have been "working." I’m ready to explore, envision, and rethink what I do. But I want to break away from just thinking about change and classroom/teacher/student reinvention. I want to be the change. I want to live it.

Doug’s post comes via Clarence Fisher’s idea: Thinking about Change.

"It frustrates me to see all of the transformative tools we have, the networks we can form, the powerful theories of learning and change that we can implement, and yet we plod along, tinkering with assignments and where we seat kids in the classroom thinking this will change the kind of learning that develops, making it more appropriate for the century we live in."(Thinking about Change, Fisher.)

Now that’s something to think about isn’t it? I really liked the matrix he works with in his class. Test your assumptions. Think about why you do what you do. Are there other solutions out there that make more sense? Should we just keep going with the way things are? (Could we keep going and expect better results…I think we all know the answer to that one.)

Then, just before turning in to sleep tonight, I found this post from Stephen Downes. I couldn’t resist posting it here: Everybody’s a Network.

He asks a question that should sting: "What if education isn’t a business anymore - people share what they know as part of their day-to-day routine or part of the job, everybody does a little, and nobody makes any money?"(Everybody’s a Network, Downes)

That’s a brilliant question. Afterall, there’s a lot of money to be made in education. Nothing wrong with that, but I wonder about the implications of "Going liquid" as Downes suggests. Profit creation will change as well - and that could be one of the reasons why our educational environments seem to be so resistant to change; there would be too much of a loss. Downes points to BuzzMachine’s post: Everybody’s a network. Looks like a great read.

Nuff said I think. To remix BuzzMachine’s opening line: "In the future of education, which is now, everybody is a network. In the past, networks were defined by control of content or distribution. But now, you can’t own all distribution and content is controlled where it’s created."

The future is going Bedouin don’t you think? 

I just read this post over at think:lab and immediatly thought to myself: oooooohhhhh, now this is cool!  

think:lab: When Business and Education Goes All Bedouin On Ya

My two second definition of "Going Bedouin" is about being completely mobile, yet connected via the net or cell phone. Say goodbye to having to have a classroom. Learning goes informal, and no, that does not mean it ceases to be "good learning."

Christian goes on to ask a few million dollar questions, well worth your thinking time:

"As more and more businesses tip over the edge of this "go lean" paradigm, what prevents learners from taking control of their educational portfolio in the same way? 

What prevents schools from becoming loose associations of learners who acts in a "bedouin" manner, working and learning and collaborating and questioning and researching and solving in a nomadic and virtual manner? "(When Business and Education Goes All Bedouin On Ya, Long)

I’ve blogged this before, and for some reason I simply cannot let go of the idea: a virtual classroom. Just a few nights ago, I heard a conference call on MSN messenger. It was between my wife and one of her uncles. He lives in a different part of Mexico, far to the north of us, but their conversation sounded like they were in the same room. No echoes. No distortion. Perfect quality.

As I sat there, I found myself thinking about the virtual classroom again. The technology is here for it to happen. All that is missing is for a daring soul to launch out, hunt down a few like-minded students,  and go bedouin.  

I think bedouin style just makes really good sense for the ESL classroom. If the student really decided to buy into the idea, their work on and exposure to English would not be done in a block of 1.5 hours in the morning or afternoon. It wouldn’t happen just once or twice a week either. It would be nomadic.

I wonder if bedouin style English classes would be more effective than the present way we do things? Would it foster more realistic engagement with English? Would there be a rise of passionate students and teachers, or would they, robbed of their four walls and regimented 1.5 window of English,  just disengage and aimlessly wander the wastelands? (And how often does this happen anyway, even with the four walls and blocks of "English time?")

It would mean a different kind of student and teacher. The walls are not there to contain and box in. The block of "English learning time" is also vaporized. In its place there is free flowing information. Networked connections. Instant communication. Classes where I am, when I want them - but "classes" no more. Instead, classes as we know them today become a conversation. Anywhere. Anytime, and maybe student and teacher are in the same location for that conversation, or maybe not. Maybe the conversation is among peers, and has no "teacher."

Regardless of how it happens, I think students will be different. Teachers will be to.

Students will need to learn how to function autonomously, and teachers will need to learn how to allow it. We’ll have to learn that it’s not what we know now that matters, but out ability to connect to relevant sources of information to learn more - when we need it, and what we need it about.  Teachers need to learn how to do this in front of their students, modeling what you should do and how you should do it.

Teachers will need to teach metacognition for facilitating learner autonomy, in other words: they’ll have to teach how to learn vocabulary instead of just feeding word lists to their classes. (The whole give a man a fish and he’ll come back hungry the next meal. Teach him how to fish and he’ll not go hungry again.)

Perhaps this is turning into a rant, but I find the whole bedouin idea to be very interesting, but it’s so far out there on the bleeding edge of education that I think it will take a while to get "bedouin style" teachers and students, not to mention institutions. What do you think?

Is it far off on the horizon, shimmering like a mirage? Or is it far off, but quickly coming closer? 

My guess is the latter. What do you think? And if it’s the latter, what are we doing today to break our four walled classrooms and teaching styles down into something far more portable? Someday, you might thank yourself for thinking about such things…