evolution of a homeroom class--what a ride!

Moving on with the experiment of Shift, of using a qualitatively new design for learning in the classroom, I've seen big changes.



The biggest change might be in student initiative: kids are carving their own paths to a much greater degree, carrying their studies outwards on high-quality learning paths, seeking out information constantly, and sharing what they learn with classmates. It's a "charged" learning environment.



Kids are moving a lot--or rather, each kid isn't moving a lot, but there's quite a flux and flow of children moving around. You'll see students working at their desks, then on the floor with a small group, then out of room into the computer lab, then to the hallway where some kids are making a podcast. They're working on both individual and group projects. Besides having a class ning network as a central spring-off for what's going on, most other projects in class have a technological component. Students are doing research, using interactive websites that strengthen knowledge and skills, and are involved in some artistic/creative endeavor of their own creation. (Whether the project starts as a technological endeavor or not, it usually becomes one, as students want to post and share their work.)



Computer accessibility is good: more than half of my kids bring personal laptops to school, and the ones who have them are generous about sharing with others. Computers are viewed as learning tools; they're pretty much constantly in use. Besides the personal computers, we have a laptop cart available for an hour and a half each week, and two 20-seater computer labs for the school's use. There's almost always a free computer for an individual or small group with a project. We live in luxury.



Students' initiative is what is making this work. Every person in class knows that conceiving of him or herself as a problem-solver and do-er is a primary goal of learning this year. They take this responsibility on eagerly and proudly. In an active technological setting the fact that there's always so much more to learn becomes vividly apparent; add the catalysts of focusing on self-discipline and personal involvement in work and things are golden. Every student wants to be a fully active participant in the learning community. It's fun! It's satisfying. It seems to me that this is what learning is all about.



I'm glad I kept going with the experiment. Glad I had the patience (tolerance of what looked like chaos), the stamina (it's exhausting--), and the support (from a few colleagues who know what I'm doing, and also from collegial exchanges on both CR2.0 and Ning in Education). I feel we're at a new level now, in which the system (the new design for learning) is "evolving by itself." Things are calmer now, more focused and settled, yet still every bit as charged and exciting.



Some of the latest developments:
At the end of the week with free time to define, the students decided that they wanted quiet time. (Can you imagine?) Some read, some formed sculpy-creatures of clay, some went to the lab to script a podcast, one wrote another chapter in a book he's writing, many explored their recent website discoveries. Two girls huddled together on the rug, working intently away on something. At the end of the period I had the kids tell what they had chosen to do.



Well, amongst the responses those two girls told about their latest activity: using ScreenShare, they collaborated on game design using Alice, moving each of their own projects ahead by being able to have the same page up on each of the computers. (More evidence of how spoiled I am: the kids have Macs, and Leopard.) I loved seeing classmates' eyes bug out in reaction to what the girls showed them--suddenly the idea of collaboration took a leap and there was a flurry of information exchange so that people could work together at home over the weekend, on things that are unassigned and markedly fun. It'll be great to check in on Monday with the students who moved forth with this. They're geeked.



Also from last week: A student who got into blogging decided he'd become a food critic and restaurant-reviewer. We made a new ning for "Connie's Class and Friends," a more open environment that we'll design over the next several weeks. We tried creation of a Haiku website but will probably shelve it because we're thinking the nings are doing everything we want. We figured out yet more about how to deal with "shifting access" because of the filtering systems that sometimes run against us. We added five more high-quality RSS feeds of science news.



Coming up: we're going to do some forums that are based on controversy, so that people will get experience with passionate back-and-forth debates. (The students want to debate two things that came up from current events presentations: Japanese whale hunts, and American civil-rights issues pertaining to immigration.) We're going to keep moving forth with earth-history, paleontology, and evolution sites for enriching our studies. We're going to try collaboration in writing on Google Docs or some other document-sharing tool. We'll be investigating birdsong.



I can't resist putting up some Tim Conway/Carol Burnett YouTube clips...just have to have the kids seeing this humor; it'll enrich their skits.



We're going to do some projects inspired by the movie Ratatouille--so many creative spring-offs are possible, it'll be hard to choose where to begin!



Onwards. What a ride! I have to say I absolutely LOVE coming to school each day.


(Cross-posted at Ning in Education)