Week 27 The Broader Professional Context - Contemporary Trends
Week 27 The Broader Professional Context - Contemporary Trends
What trend captured my attention?
The NMC/CoSN Horizon Report (2016) key long term trend identifying the redesigning of learning spaces and rethinking how schools work. While the conventional physical structures of classrooms is changing with the building/remodelling of innovation learning environments the whole school experience is being extended beyond the four walls. The use of digital technology is changing the way we teach and therefore physical spaces are becoming less important when accessing subjects and teacher expertise.
The integrated learning and 'project, discovery' type learning that students are involved in takes away the need for bell times and things such as 'reading, writing, maths' limited by interval and lunch times.
NMC Horizon report states;
'As learning becomes more fluid and student-centered, K-12 leaders believe that schedules should be more flexible, allowing opportunities for authentic learning and ample room for independent study. Also driving this trend is the notion that public, private, and charter schools are no longer the sole options; unconventional models including open, virtual, and project-based learning schools are expanding possibilities for formal education.'
We are already beginning to see a shift towards this trend in some areas of schooling with such things as the removal of the bell times to the integration of flipped learning. The recent Ministry of Education move to make changes to the Education Act (1989) to allow Communities of Online Learning and accredited providers other than the Te Aho O Te Kura Pounamu (Correspondence School).
The new models being developed outside of NZ are exploring ways of bringing about change. NMC Horizon Report notes that students have been communicating with each other all over the world now for a long time but now the opportunities to network with experts, facilitators and others outside of the school facilities is easy. The traditional model of sitting in a classroom with the teacher directing and supporting the learning is not going to equip students for the future. The increasing expectations on schools to provide the learner centred design demands a flexibility that many of our schools do not have.
Challenges
As educators we are faced with the challenges of preparing our students to be equipped with the competencies to be global thinkers, entrepreneurial and aware of the world yet we are sitting students in rows of desks, giving them homework, locking them into six hour schedules and grading them.
This poses a huge challenge to educators today as we consider our schooling systems. I think the challenges posed at my primary school to think about these changes are enormous. NZ parents would also struggle to get their thinking around the possibilities of flexible school hours, less time spent in a classroom, online learning. If we struggle currently to get parents to understand the digital learning and students being able to bring their own devices for learning other such changes will be very confronting for them.
It raises the question of what a 'teacher' will look like beyond the five year or more years? Will the people working alongside students be teachers or will there be 'proctors', people acting as supervisors assistants for students either in a space or online? An interesting time to be an educator.
References:
Adams Becker, S., Freeman, A., Giesinger Hall, C., Cummins, M.,and Yuhnke, B. (2016). NMC/CoSN Horizon Report: 2016 K-12Edition. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium. Retrieved from http://cdn.nmc.org/media/2016-nmc-cosn-horizon-report-k12-EN.pdf
CORE Education's Ten Trends 2013
http://core-ed.org/legacy/thought-leadership/ten-trends/ten-trends-2013/virtual-learning
Regulatory Impact Statement: Establishing a regulatory framework for online learning
https://education.govt.nz/assets/Documents/Ministry/Regulatory-Impact-Statements/Ed-Update-Amendment-Bill/RIS-Establishing-a-regulatory-framework-for-online-learning.pdf
What trend captured my attention?
The NMC/CoSN Horizon Report (2016) key long term trend identifying the redesigning of learning spaces and rethinking how schools work. While the conventional physical structures of classrooms is changing with the building/remodelling of innovation learning environments the whole school experience is being extended beyond the four walls. The use of digital technology is changing the way we teach and therefore physical spaces are becoming less important when accessing subjects and teacher expertise.
The integrated learning and 'project, discovery' type learning that students are involved in takes away the need for bell times and things such as 'reading, writing, maths' limited by interval and lunch times.
NMC Horizon report states;
'As learning becomes more fluid and student-centered, K-12 leaders believe that schedules should be more flexible, allowing opportunities for authentic learning and ample room for independent study. Also driving this trend is the notion that public, private, and charter schools are no longer the sole options; unconventional models including open, virtual, and project-based learning schools are expanding possibilities for formal education.'
We are already beginning to see a shift towards this trend in some areas of schooling with such things as the removal of the bell times to the integration of flipped learning. The recent Ministry of Education move to make changes to the Education Act (1989) to allow Communities of Online Learning and accredited providers other than the Te Aho O Te Kura Pounamu (Correspondence School).
The new models being developed outside of NZ are exploring ways of bringing about change. NMC Horizon Report notes that students have been communicating with each other all over the world now for a long time but now the opportunities to network with experts, facilitators and others outside of the school facilities is easy. The traditional model of sitting in a classroom with the teacher directing and supporting the learning is not going to equip students for the future. The increasing expectations on schools to provide the learner centred design demands a flexibility that many of our schools do not have.
Challenges
As educators we are faced with the challenges of preparing our students to be equipped with the competencies to be global thinkers, entrepreneurial and aware of the world yet we are sitting students in rows of desks, giving them homework, locking them into six hour schedules and grading them.
This poses a huge challenge to educators today as we consider our schooling systems. I think the challenges posed at my primary school to think about these changes are enormous. NZ parents would also struggle to get their thinking around the possibilities of flexible school hours, less time spent in a classroom, online learning. If we struggle currently to get parents to understand the digital learning and students being able to bring their own devices for learning other such changes will be very confronting for them.
It raises the question of what a 'teacher' will look like beyond the five year or more years? Will the people working alongside students be teachers or will there be 'proctors', people acting as supervisors assistants for students either in a space or online? An interesting time to be an educator.
References:
Adams Becker, S., Freeman, A., Giesinger Hall, C., Cummins, M.,and Yuhnke, B. (2016). NMC/CoSN Horizon Report: 2016 K-12Edition. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium. Retrieved from http://cdn.nmc.org/media/2016-nmc-cosn-horizon-report-k12-EN.pdf
CORE Education's Ten Trends 2013
http://core-ed.org/legacy/thought-leadership/ten-trends/ten-trends-2013/virtual-learning
Regulatory Impact Statement: Establishing a regulatory framework for online learning
https://education.govt.nz/assets/Documents/Ministry/Regulatory-Impact-Statements/Ed-Update-Amendment-Bill/RIS-Establishing-a-regulatory-framework-for-online-learning.pdf
I agree with the challenges that you have identifies, many classrooms are still set up as if they are still in the industrial times, with rows of desks and the teacher at the top of the class. Another challenge is bringing our parents on line with 21st century learning and flexible spaces. Some still want a more traditional class for their children, and want us to hand them a photocopied worksheet for their homework rather than have work that is a continuation of their learning in class.
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