21st Century Teaching & Learning Bubble
In German there is a saying when you feel alone in what you do. “Allein auf weiter Flur stehen” is similar to the idiom of “to plough a lonely furrow”.
Allein auf weiter Flur
Most teachers who have embraced 21st century teaching and learning are indeed alone or part of a small minority in their school or district. It sure can feel that one is walking a lonely hallway with no one around or even running away as they see you approach.
I know I am very fortunate to have someone in the same building as I work in, who understands my “crazy” connected blogging twittering social networked world. Someone who will have read some of the same blog posts, understands the excitement of collaborative work, or will already have checked out the newest tips or resources circulating in the twittersphere.
I am grateful to have someone like Andrea Hernandez (@edtechworkshop) work with me. It means a lot to be able to drop by between classes or meetings to chat, brainstorm, plan, collaborate, or run something by each other.
But…we are in the minority (only ones?) in our building, county or state. We are reminded that when talking to each other we are preaching to the choir. Only on the social networks we belong to, such as Twitter, Nings and our blogs, when we connect with others virtually, do we feel as part of something greater and are lulled into a sense of reassurance that there are many others on the same path with similar ideas.
Nevertheless, I sometimes feel that I live in my own “21st Century teaching and learning” bubble, floating in a different dimension or even on a completely different planet.
The above image was created collaboratively with my Twitter network.
Thank you edtechworkshop, whynot88, JosieHolford, tecnoteach, and annemarie80!
Once I had the idea of creating a visualization of that feeling, found several images on Stock.xchng, started playing in PhotoShop, I solicited responses on Twitter. As I am receiving new keywords to be placed inside and outside the bubble, I am adding them to the PhotoShop file and then replacing the image file on Flickr.
There are three ways to contribute to this image by adding keywords describing how the inside and outside of YOUR bubble looks like.
- Leave the keywords as a comment on this blog post
- Leave a comment on the image’s Flickr page
- Send a Tweet to @langwitches
What an honest and true post – and despite its inherent black-and-white thinking (try attaching ‘vision’ and ‘reality’ and you’ll really make some folks mad!-) may further our distance from “normal” teachers, I like the clarifying image, as well. How about some open channels? Associating cellular structures, osmosis and other ways of communication come to mind. While I generally share your bleek view of the chasm between “21st century teachers” (the term itself seems a little banal to me as we ALL are 21st century teachers… just with different attitudes), so rather: computer-networked etc. teachers and others, I’m convinced there are, or/and will be ways to bridge the gap…
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I do believe that, more and more, the bubble is “spreading.” It’s like the fable of the hundredth monkey….once something reaches critical mass, it suddenly becomes “the way.” I have always believed, though, and still believe that the change is not only about technology use. Technology is almost a metaphor for a certain openness to learning and change, to teachers who can guide students without having to have control of the learning.
I am so lucky to learn from you and work in an actual building with you, but let’s remember how our association started. It was through the virtual, online network. There are real people behind every twitter follow and every blog, and I think that these connections are what has continued to push me in my thinking and practice.
The very first blog post of yours I ever read was a reflection of yours on FETC (2 years ago? almost 3?) where you were exploring similar feelings to the ones on this post. You noticed how few of the teachers at FETC lived in the same online, connected blog and twitter world that you did. At the time I had just dipped a toe into those waters myself. I left a comment on that post that you were a leader and the world would eventually follow. I still believe that, now more than ever. We need visionaries to lead the way, the first 99 monkeys (so to speak), to pop the bubble and draw the rest of the world forward.
I am fascinated to watch the changes that you, and others like you, are facilitating.
I, too, am frustrated. I work in a school district that is loaded with technology tools. The teachers use them to present, organize themselves, and communicate with parents. We even have a progressive technology team that has implemented a film festival and a state wide technology conference that has had its second year. Unfortunately, very few of the teachers in my district are actively having the students produce with technology. The reasons that they give are in my opinion lame, not enough time to prepare, don’t understand the programs, discipline issues, student access at home, student ability to think, the need to stay inside of the textbook, and this can be done with paper and pencil so why use computers. I am constantly trying to mentor and persuade them to adapt their current lessons and add a technology twist and I do not mean just typing a document or making a power point. In my classes we research and produce collaborative and independent projects. Some are more successful than others but no matter what we all learn something that we did not know before and I still cover the state standards. I don’t know if I am a good teacher but I do know that I challenge the students to think and don’t just feed them information from the front of the room. I am desperate for a quality PLN so that I do not feel alone and like I am doing it all wrong. I enjoy your blog and it has inspired me to write a technology newsletter for my district. January will be the third edition. Very few of my fellow teachers have acknowledged it but the few that have like it. I am also going to be teaching at the university next term and I hope to inspire future educators on the value of using technology in the classroom not only by the teachers but by the students as well. Wish me luck.
Wow, so true! I had not been able to pinpoint that feeling of being out of the loop and frustrated that no one quite understands. Had not thought of it as a bubble.
I will definetly be sharing this post with some of teacher friends who are also tech-geeks.