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| Hard to explain this picture in terms of this posting. It showed up in a Flickr Creative Commons search for luggage. The photo is called, Lost Luggage Tango, and it made me think of people who are on the go, and will likely never be here again doing this. |
This is one that’s been rolling (ricocheting) around in my head for weeks now, and it’s one of those, “me being honest” blogs. Last week, I presented in Maine at a Maine Learning Technology Initiative (MLTI) event. So there were lots of laptops in a richly wireless environment. The event planners asked me to do a three-hour workshop on new literacy, and one on web 2.0 — the literacy session first. In planning, I kept asking myself this question, “How much can I teach them in three hours about contemporary literacy?” “What is the most that I could teach that they would actually internalize and take back with them?” My answer, after much planning and replanning, continued to be, “Not enough!”
I also continue to struggle with the itinerate trainer issue, that I come in, teach my stuff, and then I’m gone. It’s why I insist on having local instructional tech staff on-hand when I facilitate hands-on sessions, so that support can be identified with local people, not with me — who’ll be gone in a couple of hours.
So, with all this in play, I decided to hold my sessions as conversations, posing questions, entertaining responses and ideas, and provoking continued conversation. My strategy is to provoke learning out of these conversations, and, perhaps, awaking a much more casual professional development from communities of Maine educators. This is also, very much, in the spirit of Web 2.0, respecting the community for answers.
I’ll likely be doing the same thing today, in Irving, Texas, another established 1:1 learning environment. Do I go in and teach, or do I respect the community and provoke learning from them? Since my sessions have not been finely described (literacy and flat classrooms — very mushy), I will likely utilize my twittereque chat, wikis, and social networking to fashion out some resources based on the conversations that happen in my sessions.
As usual, I’ve spent way to much time setting the stage for the point that my title implies. The fact is that I feel guilty, and I suspect that I’m not the only one. I was taught in the 1950s and ’60s. I taught in the 1970s and ’80s. During those decades, teaching was a highly defined set of activities, involving expertise and the conveying of that expertise. Today, we are promoting a different kind of activity, one that involves the crafting of learning experiences that provoke new knowledge and new skills. There is still some teaching, but much of it is respecting the community, respecting the class to teach itself.
So, am I doing my job? On a professional level, I believe that I am. But, on a personal level, one that still gets its sense of the job from decades of experiences, I sometimes feel guilty.
I guess I’ll get over it!
Photo Citation:
DaKidd, Michael. “Lost Luggage Tango.” Michael DaKidd’s Photostream. 4 Apr 2007. 7 Aug 2007 <http://flickr.com/photos/commortis/445710159/>.
Totally understand that feeling! But rest assured, there are a whole bunch of us out here in the blogosphere who parasitically learn from you every day…
So spend some time introducing skype and encouraging all to join in to a back channeling discussion of the topic at hand. Set up a second projector and laptop so all can see the power of backchanneling, and then not only will the “conversations” guide your presentation, but so too will the back channeling. Then EVERY presentation willl be tailor-made to the participants’ needs. (You could even begin requesting that participants of future workshops have Skype as part of the suggested tools for the workshop to save time.) Just my 2 cents….
Did you ever feel Guilt 1.0 based upon using techniques that weren’t validated by the research and which completely disengaged students? Were you engaged when you were taught using traditional instructional methods – teacher at front, chalk in hand, neat rows of desks, mimeographed sheets, static filmstrips, static textbooks, you get the picture. Which method is more effective? Which method causes more angst if we put the kids first?
I think it is so refreshing to read your thoughts and concerns about teaching versus facilitating learning. It tells me that even the experts in our field are still learning and truly consciously experiencing the paradigm shift. That gives the rest of us the confidence to follow. Thank you!
I do so enjoy your struggles — because it reassures me that you are not in a “RUT” teaching the same material that you have been for years. You always seem to try to make things new — current — and helpful — and that is appreciated.
Why not have a WIKI page open — ask the early birds to start putting in their “what I would like to learn.” Also have another page “what I would like to share.” And perhaps a third page “where can I find examples of….”
Refer back to that often — have it open on your screen — as well as skype or twitter.
I like the idea of Participant Led Sessions — if you know your material, and you do, it should be a piece of cake. You are quite adaptable — I think it would be great.
Wish I could be there.
Jen
I know as a Professional Developer in my district too often I let things go with teachers after 14 hours of PD. One of my goals this year is to do follow-up with those who take my classes. Including going into their classrooms and modeling the things they learned if needed.
KD
Sometimes after a day in my classroom with little to no direct instruction, I feel that guilt. But this summer I realized two things: 1. Facilitating learning is harder than teaching, and 2. Not everyone can facilitate learning.
My principal called upon me to facilitate some PLC this summer because he realized that “he can’t do that yet.” He is a great leader and teacher, but his mental agenda gets in the way of letting learning happen.
Don’t feel guilty for having the rare talent of challenging and inspiring people to think and learn, and by all means don’t stop requiring more than a blank stare and an occasional question from your audience of learners….that is what makes you a ‘must see’ everywhere you go! But then, you knew all that already:) Just thought I would chime in anyway…
If I were at your workshop I’d want you to bring lots of real world examples tools being used by educators. I’d like you to run me through some great examples in all areas of the curriculum and representing all the tools you planned to discuss.
Then I’d like you to run me through some of the practical piece for the tools so that I have a sense and if I’ve taken good notes (or if your notes are on a wiki somewhere), going to your workshop will shortcut a process that can be quite complicated.
If there’s time, let me play with some of the tools a little, especially if I never have before.
After that, I’d like lunch. And when we come back, I want to talk about how we might use the tools and share information.
Do that and I’ll be all yours.
David, let the guilt go. It’s a bad southern habit anyway.
You are doing the kind of teaching that is required for Web/School 2.0 and beyond. As I teach more and more in School 2.0, I’m becoming more and more convinced that what I know is often the biggest impediment to what my students can come to know. As Shunryu Suzuki-roshi says, “In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, in the expert’s mind there are few.” It’s time to let our students have many possibilities, don’t you think?
David, I still like the old fashioned lecture halls. Give me a good speaker who knows the craft of speaking and his subject, and I’ll take notes like a fanatic, review them with a highlighter, write comments in the margins, and be mentally debating the subject with myself and make believe others for days. I learn by doing and creating, but I also learn from others. I like to hear from those who have thrown themselves into a field. I’m in my 13th online class, but I still miss the lecture hall. Q and A sessions are only as good as the participates… and that varies widely.
As a teacher who attended the MLTI Conference, I can easily say that you did do your job. Conversation was intertwined virtually and physically within the walls of that lecture hall. The method of weaving the chat with the conversation in the room, allowed me as a learner to practice, speak out and most importantly…feel like I was a part of the learning and not just being spoken at. The arts of listening, doing and processing were all taking place at once. I felt like I was “in” with my multitasking student body that I teach every year! Bravo and kudos!