evolution of a homeroom class: encounter with a bat, and visiting nings

From last week, this event makes me laugh: the kids found a bat in the school hallway (an unprecedented and thrilling occurrence) that swooped into the science room, where they were headed. They had to move from the science room to homeroom so the bat could be caught. Well, the students RAN back down the hallway and upon arrival in our classroom, four or five of them instantly (I mean INSTANTLY) got up bat references on their computers. What made me laugh was that when the guy who caught the bat came into the room with it in a little cage, he was surrounded by kids looking into the cage while holding their computers. They began comparing identification theories, trading information. Kids looked at various screens, then at the bat: “See, look, Connie, he’s this one here.” A kid at another computer: “Here are his relatives.” Another: “Here’s his evolutionary line.” Another: “Bats use sonar; how could we get to hear him?” Finally: “Do you think he wants to see?” One child held up a picture of the bat for the bat itself to see! How funny and cute this was. I just loved how the bat-capturer was surrounded immediately by kids using technology in the most active way: standing around with computers open, investigating the here and now of their lives. Knowledge hunters, indeed. Their behavior made me think this is evidence in action of 21st-century learning. I was very pleased. (And note, I didn’t have to suggest this at all; it just happened through students’ initiative.)

Similar such evidence has come other ways: once Amin stopped me on my way across the classroom, saying, “Now I know exactly how continental drift went, and how scientists got evidence about the movement.” He had up a great PBS site, had found it on his own, and was learning about it simply because it sprang off from a topic we had studied that week in life history. He wanted to go further with the learning; this wasn’t required. How cool! I had him explain his newfound knowledge in detail. As a teacher I note that this learning was initiated by the student, and by a person who’s just coming along with serious reading; scientific information is his doorway, far more powerful as a “hook” into reading development than the novels his friends like so much.

Then there was the time some kids took on the study of Galapagos tortoises, specifically “Lonesome George” (the one who is purportedly the last of his “race”). They found all sorts of current information regarding this creature’s life and scientists’ hopes of finding him a mate. We had studied the tortoises as part of the life history course—I initiated that. What seems like 21st-century stuff is the carrying-on of the studies into high-quality and very current references, including Wikipedia, which is often an excellent springboard for scouting out the latest thinking on scientific investigations. Three or four kids used links from Wikipedia and Science News for Kids to find out more. They shared the news with class in Current Events.

Without doubt, the most important network-furthering learning of the week came from visiting EFL Classroom and ArtSnacks. We had a bit of trouble getting them unblocked, so the first part of the week was spent showing the sites on the smartboard and using my personal computer, both of which are on cable and miss the wireless filtering system. On David’s EFL Classroom the kids were awed at the number of possibilities there are for where to go and what to do. In fact, before they even started looking around on the site they went right into the coding to see how he set up so many options. David very cordially conferred with them, and as I was hoping, ideas for our network multiplied. After that learning-storm settled for a moment, kids started playing the learning games at EFL Classroom, like Fling the Teacher (which I am going to get David back for--so watch out, David! ;) The great benefit from seeing Fling the Teacher is that the students decided that making similar games for our class studies would be worthwhile, and I think some will pursue learning-game design, modeling after David.

At Kevin’s ArtSnacks the students spent all their time looking at the learn-to-draw videos that Kevin made. Kevin shows step by step how to draw swordfish, killer whales, ants, and more. Students watched the videos over and over, in fact, I couldn’t get them to stop to get to gym class on time—several ended up late which got me in a bit of trouble. (So Kevin, you’re going to get it, too; watch out!) The kids had just a little while to visit later—stepping away from the video section, they felt tantalized by amazing richness available elsewhere on the site, and wanted nothing more than to continue looking. But there was no more school time.

The sites, by the way, finally became unblocked at week’s end. Students began checking in at the two nings on their own, on our group ID. (I’m having them “travel in packs” across networks now—David’s idea, a very good one.) At the end of the day I saw a scramble of the kids checking with each other to be sure that they knew our class login and PW so that they could go back again to David’s and Kevin’s excellent nings over the weekend and over vacation. Now that’s a telltale mark of the appeal of these two fine examples of networked education—they’re not just for school, but for all-around “choice learning.” I’m very grateful to these colleagues for their pioneering and inspirational work. We’ll be regular visitors on their networks, and are happy that we’ve now broadened our learning associations. We’re going global.

There’s a whole lot more to say about classroom evolution, about the Shift in education, but it can wait. I’m excited for what’s ahead: connected learning while the kids are traveling all over during vacation. Students are eager to share photos and stories from afar (in real time, getting notes and feedback from friends). I’m excited for more writing in our Ask Elders posts. I always encourage kids to interview older relatives and family friends and then record the stories on our network. We’ll be amassing a lot more writing over the break; we’ll have a lot of good stuff for class discussions.

Ok, that’s it for now—thanks to everyone on Ning in Education and CR2.0 for hanging-in-there with me as I move into a new type of educational experience and think it though “out loud” here, on Steve Hargadon’s tolerant and reflective collegial learning spaces. I am grateful for encouragement, comments, and questions. I know this is just a small experimental foray into a new kind of learning; I’m hoping that sharing some of my experiences will encourage others to do the same.

(Cross-posted at Ning in Education as a forum)