Last Thursday the National College for School Leadership held the third of their national Developing Leaders events and I was invited to run a workshop titled Classroom Without Walls.
I approached the workshop with the idea of connections, how we as teachers can connect using Twitter and how we can connect children’s learning. You can see the presentation I used below and in the first few slides I shared my use of Tutpup and Voicethread – simple but hugely effective tools for the classroom, both of which connect children to each other’s learning.
“Classroom Without Walls” suggest looking at or beyond the horizon, however I raised the idea with the participants that we sometimes overlook the walls between our own pupils. I explained that using tools such as Voicethread we can perhaps first address how we can connect children within our own class. When was the last time your children looked at each other’s work? Peer assessment is important but often difficult to find time to do. When working with Voicethread, peer assessment is just part of the process not just an additional session you need to timetable.
I helped demonstrate the idea of a networked teacher by asking the participants to find teachers who had tweeted a clue about their location to me via Twitter. As usual my network provided some great responses and the workshop participants used Google Earth to try and find the schools and colleges that were shared. It was really engaging and rooted in a lesson that I taught last year to my year five class.
It was interesting to see that out of the two workshops around 90% of delegates had a Facebook account and only about 15% had a Twitter account. Some had both. But these young teachers, although very aware of social networking between friends, have not yet engaged with the idea to create a professional network. I hope I gave them a nudge in the right direction.
If you get a chance then also take a look at this Mastercard advert “Milton Avenue”– it resonated with me as I was thinking about how important a network is to me for information and advice. I don’t have all the answers but perhaps someone in my network does. This was underlined on Friday when a teacher at school asked my advice about domain names on behalf of the school she is a governor at. My experience of purchasing domain names is limited but a quick question on Twitter allowed me to provide her with great recommendations and advice.
It was agreat day at the NCSL and I was thrilled to get some time to catch up with Dan Sutch from Futurelab who opened the day with a thought provoking keynote on the future of schooling and leadership. John Davitt was there to wrap the day up in his unique and entertaining style, the first time I have seen him talk beyond the TeachMeet 7 minutes.
Interesting discussion Tom et al. Theory vs practice.
In my experience I would hyperthetically employ protagonists of both. Say you were to build a school and start employing folk. Wouldn’t you look for a mixture of great hands-on professionals blended with theorists who crossed ‘t’s and dotted ‘i’s with great attention to detail? It may be somewhere in this blend that wealth is found. Somewhere all parties at the table are challenged and celebrate good teaching. Isn’t this the best way to stop children from slipping through the net?
Sometimes the doers amongst us need reassurance, questions answered; equally, the intellectual interrogator surely desires practical application.
Hello team!
You are welcome Glenn, I am pleased you have perhaps found something useful to use at your school. Thanks for the comment.
Hi Jenny, I have to admit I echo much of your comment. You suggest that much of your motivation in immersing yourself in PLNs etc comes from “seeing the kids get excited”. I know that feeling well and can relate to it.
I have hardly mentioned a learning theory in writing this blog in over 2 years of posts – I set my stall out from the beginning to make a practical exposition of what I do in the classroom and that is the way it has stayed. As I replied to Tomaz “I leave the theory and debate to others.” And I remember vividly when I began writing there seemed to be more theory and debate then real practical advice in the edublogosphere.
After all these replies it sort of feels (and maybe reads) like I am being a bit defensive, and I find it curious that such a debate may begin on the least theoretical biased blog around IMHO.
As Michael states above people have different roles and I see mine as a practitioner.
Thanks Pete – it would be good to see those thoughts about “breaking those barriers down between the kids” expanded on. I look forward to your post.
Thankyou Michael for you comment – in my opinion when a presenter speaks of real experience, practical advice from work they have done with children it resonates far louder. (especially to fellow teachers)
I agree completely that we could wrap ourselves up for days in the theory – it is more important to put your energy into impacting on children’s learning.
There is clearly an important place for those that have a rich and deep understanding of theory etc but the activist, the doer, the classroom teacher has so little time to actually develop that depth of understanding. I have just managed to find 10 minutes after doing report writing all evening to comment here.
A theoretical understanding of what I am doing tomorrow in class is a small priority in the running of a busy class.
Hi Tomaz – thanks for taking the time for such a thoughtful comment. It is interesting how this has spun off from the blog post – the last thing I expected really, curious nonetheless.
I am unsure whether Gary is levelling the “lack of theory” comment at the presentation I embedded or the blog post itself? Perhaps he can explain some more.
I never meant the blog post to be some sort of paper on the subject. In fact my blog has never purported to be that in any shape or form. It is about ICT in my classroom, a practical snapshot of what I do. I leave the theory and debate to others.
I write and advise from my experience. I have a healthy respect and understanding for the place that theory has, however it is not something I think about everyday. As a consequence I don’t refer to it much in what I do.
If I am guilty of being over practical, writing about the warts and all realities of technology to support learning in my classroom and guilty of presenting to colleagues in that workshop in an “I did this yesterday with my class” sort of style – then I am comfortable with that. That’s just me.
Tom
Interesting debate going on here about theory and action. My take on all this is having a theory lets us slot the various pieces of the puzzle together then we can take reasoned and reflective action.
Mark
Thanks Tom.
Led here following @allanahk’s post referencing @garystager’s remark about historic perspective.
I think it’s vital that teachers ask themselves ‘why’ at just the right frequency to enhance development but not so much that they stop in thought. You seem to hit that balance.
I can’t describe in this short space how passionate I am about breaking those barriers down between the kids in our class before we talk about ‘networking’ and making connections beyond. I’m amazed that this is the first reference I’ve ever seen to that comparison in all my trawling the teacher-tech blogs.
I made a presentation on ‘teachers as social engineers’ at an unconference ( #may9 ) and it really helped me sort my ideas. I’ll blog on it sometime and when I do I’ll reference this post.
Cheers,
Pete Hall
The debate about theory and practice and ed revolutions is, IMHO, an example of paradigm change as illustrated by Kuhn’s work where he says the challenge to long help paradigms brings confusion and debate and charges of being wrong headed, non-theoretical, ideological, un-theoretical, not bounded by theory etc. The lack of theory here is a chimera as there is a confusion of research, theory and paradigms to sort through as Tomaz pointed out above – and a lack of time to sort it all out.
I wasn’t that surprised by the difference between the take up on Facebook and Twitter. I think it is about teachers understanding the value of having a working network to help with their work.
Dan from Futurelab (@dannno) explained that sometimes having people from museums and art galleries, for example, in your network can help to solve problems in different ways. Creative people who think differently.
Can you explain what you mean by “The only problem is that it becomes very hard to filter and distribute key information to those that need it.”?
Hi Tom,
Only recently stumbled upon your tweets and what a gold mine of ideas! A massive thanks.
Indeed, I kind of second Simon’s comments above. Mentioning twitter here in Saigon is met with equal measures of inquisitiveness and, “There’s Glenn with more tech guff!” We have several members who twitter but are (as was mentioned on BoingBoing today) Sheep. They signed up and left as they’re not sure how to use it.
As the slides show when you go beyond step 4 and really interact with other like-minded folk you are part of a flock with similar goals and interests.
The interactivity of links leading to any resource the internet has to offer is really the hook any classic author should envy.
as a side note – Tutpup and Moshi have been the answer to our community of international pupils where we were worried by the over use of Facebook outside school.
Thanks Tom.
Glenn Malcolm
Nice points you make Tomas and I appreciate what you have raised here. I just know that doing requires considerable effort and when you have kids (and I know you do too!) there are only so many hours in the day. I would love to verse myself in all of the theory but the pace of my life just doesn’t afford it. Seeing the kids I teach get excited making connections and learning from them is the basis of a large part of my reason for immersing myself in networks and learning what is possible. I certainly don’t think that I operate not seeing the forest for the trees. If what I was doing was not having any impact, rest assured I wouldn’t be banging any drums about it. I find myself getting a little impatient at conferences listening to people talk about the impact of Web 2.0 on teaching and learning, when they themselves haven’t operated in classrooms for some time and don’t face the hurdles many of us do when we are trying to initiate a change in practice. Tom has, as you acknowledge, done a great deal to inform practice and provide a model for others to follow. Theory in action.
I like your point about out PLNs being able to guide us if we need to source the theory; they certainly do that very well. Can’t tell you how many PDFs I have downloaded in the hope that one day I’ll find the time to read them!
Now, back to report writing. Yet another time consuming part of the job we do!
Great original post, Tom, and well thought out response, Tomaz.
There seems to be a divide lately between theorists and activists, each of us valuing a different set of paths to reach the same destinations. Being more on the activist’s side, I feel that there is no better teacher than experience. I’ve written and talked quite a bit lately about how universities are underpreparing teachers because of their bases in theoretical knowledge. I do believe it’s important to know where things are coming from, but I also think it’s unfair to “throw someone to the wolves” so to speak, by basing an entire program on antiquated methodologies. (i.e. the teaching tracks at many universities, which I know do include practical experiences–just not nearly enough in my mind…) And like you said, when you have a richly layered PLN like many of us do lately, any lackings we may have in theoretical knowledge are quickly abated with a simple question or blog post! I don’t think it’s “amenisiatic” to ignore the historical perspective. I think it’s enlightening. To know that people are coming to common conclusions that may have resonated with decades old theorists is pretty exciting. Whether we understand it or even know it is moot–the doing, the practice, the making a difference is what it’s all about!
Hi Tom
Fan of your work, have quoted & credited you & was one of those who ‘called in’ during the session you describe.
I was intrigued by the quick Twitter exchange between you & Gary Stager (& Jenny Luca chipped in as well) about (the lack of) theory.
To briefly summarise to for the unsuspecting reader – Gary asked ‘where is the theory behind this? historical perspective?’ and your & Jenny’s point was ‘we do rather than theorise’.
IMHO, you all had a point – but missed it too. Some of the ideas you are talking about in your post are decades (eg Dewey) if not centuries old (eg Rousseau), not to mention some of the work of Foucault (eg relationship between power and knowledge). 2.0 & ed-tech really has very little to do with them yet they underpin so much of it. There is some fascinating depth of learning, research, insight and scholarship in those and quite often I wish I had more time to wrestle with them.
To ignore the historical perspective is akin to amnesia. To glorify it is akin to intellectual sloth. Most of us are in-between and most of us (at the proverbial chalkface) enact it and live it everyday.
Do we need theory? Oh yes, we do. A healthy dose of it sometimes may be better and wiser than rushing into the shiny new bells and whistles and sometimes not seeing forrest for trees (Jenny’s comment “too busy doing to do theory”) – I say learn from the people who had the time and wits to do theory. Be wise to pull yourself to a big picture sometimes and then critically go shopping for theory that either stretches you, makes you think or sometimes simply confirms what you have been doing on the ground all these years.
Having said that, it was unfair from Gary to expect an academic article, quotes, references and all in a blog post. He assumed that you do not have the ‘theory’ under your belt. That is often the danger of elitism and exclusion of ‘those who know’.
But you know what – these days if you ‘don’t have theory or references’ just ask your PLN. THAT’s the beauty of it. They/we will chip in, expand horizons so to speak, challenge you, inform you etc and all (well, most of us at least) with one thing in common: how to best influence & educate that child sitting in front us.
Keep up your brilliant work mate, you are a passionate and clever educator with the best interest of kids in mind. And keep DOING it too!
Cheers
Tomaz
A great post Tom. I totally agree, many people have jumped on the Facebook / MySpace bus for social networking but have not discovered the wonders of Twitter.
In fact almost everytime I bring twitter up in the school environment I get laughed at – but times are changing – two members of our executive (well three – but one doesn’t tweet) are on twitter and rapidly expanding our networks. The only problem is that it becomes very hard to filter and distribute key information to those that need it.
I also have students that follow me now, seeking information re coursework, and also sharing in the journey that ensues from a PLN!