Today's Customer

Introduction: In this project, I was examining the progression of moving a teacher from a 20th century teacher to one is this current digital world of the 21st century. As a class, we were asked to examine the characteristics of the 20th century in a specific class while thinking of how it could look differently in today's world. While many people can envision what a 21st century classroom should look like, this project made me pause and think of the actual progression of moving someone from one position to another in terms of skill and comfort. Change and growth can take time and patience. Reinventing someone's teaching practice is like cleaning off a rusty hinge--done properly, it can be a wonderful, squeaky clean, easy moving door; done incorrectly, the hinge may break and not be salvageable.

What makes a classroom transform into a 21st Century Classroom?

Let's take a look at an example of how to move one lesson from 20th-21st Century.

So how to change a class? There are countless “Did you Know” videos found on YouTube comparing the “old” days to now. Facts splash across the screen about how many kids have access to cell phones, home devices etc. But perhaps the most inspiring I viewed was one put out by Iowa schools promoting this idea of change. Idaho was the pioneer of computing at one time, and they were working on a campaign to be the pioneer in what a classroom “should” look like in the 21st century.

In my same middle school, students in seventh grade are asked to learn about the European Union. A tech savvy teacher, often begins this lesson with a PowToon, standing in front of the class and talking about what it is that makes up the European Union. The PowToon has fun graphics and animations and is a nice change from Google Presentations. Students listen, then after hearing the history of the EU, they are broken down into pairs or left as individuals, and draw a country out of a hat to research. They use an online encyclopedia they are introduced to by the school librarian, understanding how to search, cite and find the information they need about their countries. Focusing on the 5 themes of culture, they generate questions, then spend time researching and inevitably make a postcard or a Google presentation of postcards of what it might be like if they lived in that country--being sure to reference if they are part of the EU or not. Students then are asked to upload this to a learning management program and comment on at least three of their peers postcard sets.

Throughout this lesson there is a substantial use of technology happening. Students are learning how to find information and synthesize it to decipher what is valuable to their final product. Additionally, they need to have the creativity to design postcards that convey a sense of the chosen country. They collaborate, helping one another learn the skills needed to make the postcards, embedding images and text into slides. Students are the “experts” on Google Slides and can consult one another with questions on how to use the software. While these are great skills, we are really augmenting the tools of paper, colored pencils and books for this while also initially relying on the teacher to provide the initial information about the EU.

When I think about learning, I think about when I independently became fascinated in a children’s book illustrator who passed away in 2003. I spent my weekends, vacations and after school hours visiting galleries, museums and interviewing her peers to learn more about her. All this culminated into a book that I then shopped around to publishers. I was interested. I had choice (it was, after all, my free time). I was able to dig in and see sketches of her early work, listen to people describe her over the phone, learn about her in ways that intrigued me. I was making connections. So, if I take this experience and think of the above experience, I’m left wanting. No choice, no spark, no cool museum visits or voices over the phone, and emails from famous authors. While it may be unrealistic to hope we could do instant field trips to the EU, there may be some ways to pull some of this excitement in.

To transform this experience, the teacher can shake up her idea of the classroom--break the tables/desks into sections. Start the class out by having students enter, drawing names of countries and have them go through “customs”. Dress the part! If they are not part of the EU then they go to one section of the room, while the other students go to the opposite side. Each section on day 1 could have three stations set up. Some of these stations have artifacts, ephemeral items such as ticket stubs, currency etc. Using their chromebooks they could scan QR codes that are pre-set up to different material. So for example, there might be a soccer match, a virtual field trip of the European Union Parliament, headphones set so students could listen to the EU podcasts. Students would be allowed to rotate freely through these stations, sampling different cultural experiences found in countries that are part of the EU. Students like to move, like to absorb information quickly. For those not a part of the EU, have similar experiences, yet set up to emphasize the disadvantages of not being a part of the larger organization and the few advantages. This might need two days depending on the length of class. By setting the introduction day(s) up in this way, one is changing the environment of learning to be more active but also interactive. Students can take their chromebooks and sit wherever, they can pick up currency from the EU, look at artifacts and begin to see what interests them. Then have students come back, pairing up with opposing sides and do a turn and talk about their experiences before sharing as a group what they learned in the class both as countries part of the EU and not. This would be the introduction to the European Union. Active, engaging and exploratory.

If the objective is for students to understand the benefits and costs of being a part of the European Union then I would encourage the teacher to give students the permission to get this information across in a way that sparked the student’s interest. Students have chromebooks, let them be mobile. Introduce them to some options such as the green screen, podcasting mics, webcams etc. Focusing on choice, ask students to pick three countries they’d be interested in learning more about, from there, join in small groups or teams to conduct research one one of those. This could be done through the online database, it could be done through podcasts and yet consider offering opportunities to engage with real students in the selected countries. Many European countries are not too far off our time zone and often classrooms are clamoring to connect. There are countless websites like Classroom Bridges, epals and software like Zoom and Skype designed to help connect students around the world. Allow time for students to make these connections, conduct research on an aspect of culture that interests him/her (and relates to the 5 themes of culture). Lastly, allow time to produce a product to share with the class the highlights their understanding both of the country and how being a member of the EU has pros/cons. Perhaps have a mini introduction to product options for the day by pairing with the Tech Integration Specialist. As a conclusion, students could “visit” these countries for a day, entering the room as they had in the beginning but this time understanding the difference of being an EU country and not.

As a teacher, having taught this unit for many years, she is very familiar with these countries and would be able to engage with the students through answering questions, encouraging and redirecting their attention to useful resources. I would encourage the teacher to put time into building the QR codes to show and reflect material she wants to reinforce ideas of the costs/benefits of being a part of the EU. I would suggest partnering with her school Technology Integration Specialist to maybe come in for a day and do a mini lesson on podcasting, green screens and video editing. Or make a day where the two teach mini lessons on these tools to those who are done with research--and the students become the experts to support one another. Students often know the tools quicker than the teacher so having mini presentations by them too would be an option.

Each summer, there is a Tech Conference where teachers get to learn new tools and have time to work on developing curriculum for their classes after using the tools--this too, might be a great opportunity to develop expertise in digital products. However, I would also encourage the teacher to remember for some students this freedom of choice might need a bit more scaffolding. Using the ideas from the tech conference, she could tighten the project to have more structure or pair students who might need a bit more support with peers who were also studying those countries, or have models of products they could view prior to creating their own.

There are similarities and differences in these examples. Mainly in the first example there is far less choice, far less active learning and far less “redefinition” happening with the end product. In the second example, students still explore countries, still have an end product but they have control over the end product and they have more control over selecting a country that hopefully interests them on a personal level. Secondly, students are relying more on one another to educate themselves about the EU. They have turn & talks to share pros and cons of the first day experience. They have partner opportunities and they have time to see the work of their peers to help them understand the diversity of countries involved in Europe. Students are left to use their digital suaveness to gather information and make an end product.

This idea takes the 20th century teacher to the 21st century by redesigning the space but also the idea of education. Yes, there is an objective that the students are asked to learn, however, there is a lot of freedom for the student to a. determine something within this objective that specifically interests him/her and b. determine how to showcase his/her understanding of the objective. Digital natives know how to collect information. A 21st century teacher allows that time to do so and to transform the understanding of that data collection into something he/she couldn’t do without the technology. Technology is involved, but so too is self-directed learning, collaboration and even the potential of global partnerships. As Ian Jukes noted, “Kids expect a lot of themselves in things that interest them.” Changing this unit allows students a chance to find something that interests them, get excited about it as I was with the illustrator, and yet stay within the construct of understanding the European Union.