I can only say that this article, "Future Schools", http://educationnext.org/future-schools/ made my head spin, for good and bad reason. A rather in depth, lengthy article, the authors, Jonathon Schorr and Deborah McGriff, described what they believe could be the classroom of the future. It is a hybrid classroom. Much like a blended classroom, where instruction is a combination of online and classroom instruction in the classroom, blended classroom provides online instruction in the computer lab.
This type of instruction is not a "dream", it is a reality in schools all over the country. The article provided a handful of examples of how this instruction is meeting the individual needs of students as well as providing data for teachers that can be used to assess progress for students.
The example from a charter school in California was impressive, describing a scene of 43 students working efficiently in a lab monitored by one uncertified teacher. Yes the red flag went up with that one! My mind started spinning with questions: Can that person help students understand questions about the material, or a students "on their own"? Does this person have the training to trouble shoot the technology issues that arise, always? Yes, it saved money, but did it really help students? The authors did not have data for that...
In another example from Brooklyn, NY, students seemed to receive math instruction in this blended setting. In this case, teachers had access to data on a daily basis and could adjust lessons and instruction. Instruction for students involved a combination of small groups, individual face-to-face and computer instruction. This one made me think that this idea could work for schools. The initial investment of computers and more importantly data gathering software and teacher preparation must be addressed.
But it was intriguing to think that education is starting to evolve to meet the needs of students and the educators that are trying so hard to teach them in new and innovative ways.
This is not surprising to me as I feel that this is the way that education is going. This does not mean that I am not concerned about having uncertified personnel in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that data is being used to assess student growth and help educators determine how to best help the student is very important. However, it should not be the "here-all, be-all, end-all" answer to everything. Teacher intuition as well should be taken into consideration of how to help the student. It seems that we are getting more and more into a numbers game in education where everything is a simple statistic instead of a human.
I feel that in the future, classes in the high school level may all be online. I don't believe that that would work for all teenagers. Some would procrasinate, others would cheat, and others wouldn't do the work. Of course, the counterargument to that would be, "Isn't that already happening in today's schools?"
As a teacher, we have to make sure that the above scenario isn't happening. By using data -- both numbers and intuition -- we can combine teaching lessons using various instructional methods (including the integration of technology) to best help our students soar.