I’ve Just read a post called “Trapped Between Stories.” Doesn’t this thinking towards community learning remind anyone else of Vygotsky? I’m a little too far out from my undergrad work on the fundamentals of learning, but I seem to remember something about the social aspects of learning. Now, there is a movement for extended collaboration between teachers and students. Students will collaborate with students, this is not new, group work and cooperative learning has been in practice for some time. The new collaboration will be teacher to teacher and teacher to student. (or student to teacher, not to imply a directional relationship)
I have been part of collaborations with other teachers in the past and I can tell you how rewarding the experiences have been. There are examples of rewards that have resulted though. I don’t say this to honk my own horn, okay, maybe a little, but as a demonstration of the power of collaboration. Beowulf, a collaboration with a 7th Grade Language Arts teacher and myself resulted in winning best Buy grant for a PowerBook and video camera. Project: HOUSE was the brain child of Carole Colburn. Carole and I where invited to Microsoft’s first U.S. Innovative Teachers Forum. Fresh from my visit to Redmond, another colleague and I combined classes to make CAMP, which was recognized by our State Superintendent of Education. Now you got to be asking, “If Collaboration is so awesom, why not do it all the time?” That’s a great question! It is hard to maintain the kind of energy it takes to do something new in an old environment I think. I wish this kind of collaboration was logistically easy to manage, but it isn’t, yet. But I digress…
From Remote Access
The globe is filled with millions of teachers and students and yet, often, our students only have access to those in the immediate room, and to us, one single teacher.
This is correct, the view that technology and the internet is breaking down the barriers of the traditional classroom was part of Tom Carroll’s keynote to MITF. He also views the learning community as comprising of expert and novice learners, changing the relationship of teacher and student somewhat.
