from Terry Hayek
Digital and social media have changed the education landscape. This is not a case of simple impact or transformation – everything is different now. Everything – the tools, the audience, the access to content, the data, the opportunity.
And it is a shift and replacement that will only accelerate as the craft of teaching grows reconceptualized in light of emerging technologies and global disparities. This is not to say that every classroom, school, and district is suddenly becoming forward-thinking, but rather that education—and most critically, its students—have already changed, forever changing the tone and context of that education.
Eventually, education systems will catch up with this change – they will realize that the world has already changed and that, however iconic “School” may be, nothing waits for change. It’s kind of like an old Looney Tunes episode where Wile E. Coyote runs off the cliff and keeps running until he looks down and realizes he’s running through the air and the ground is no longer under his feet. Full of enthusiasm, he is lighter than air; his realization causes him to fall.
Teachers as drivers of change
One of the main drivers in the new context for education is technology and the human element behind the technology behind the new context? Teachers.
When teachers connect, many things happen, subtle and overt. New pressure. New enthusiasm. New workflows. New challenges. In physics, one thing affects another. When one something connects to another something something is happening. In chemistry, it can be even more spectacular. Baking soda and vinegar. Phys.
When people connect, there are effects too, and while they aren’t always positive, they make the alternative—not connecting—seem like a ridiculous possibility.
What happens when teachers connect
They consider new ideas.
What does this teacher do? What do they use? Why do they believe this? Why do they use it? What can I learn from there? What can they learn from me? What do we share in common?
They need to understand.
When one teacher meets another, their brain can’t help but make sense of that person and their approach, their tools, and their way of thinking. Comparing and finding common ground and learning new things is almost automatic. These artifacts may or may not make their way into their own teaching, but observation and analysis are foregone conclusions.
Also, connecting with other teachers also keeps you honest. You might be able to fool a few teachers into thinking your students are practicing digital citizenship, or self-directing their own learning, or doing amazing community projects. But you can’t fool them. The connected teacher must understand – he must walk or be really good at pretending.
They are forced to confront the limits of their own knowledge.
A teacher may think they understand project-based learning, but a tweet or a 3-minute YouTube video can help them see that “doing projects” and learning through projects are two completely different things. When teachers practice in isolation, this kind of self-criticism is rarely necessary.
They can learn from people with specialized knowledge.
You may be a mobile technology expert or inquiry-based learning in your building, but then you meet Jamie Butcher or realize you know less than you thought you did. Which is good. Now you can grow.
They can choose the terms of the relationship.
Is it permanent? Online only? Friendly? Dialogic? Self service? Quirky? When teachers connect, it makes sense that they can control the terms of the nature of that connection.
They can practice empathy.
Connected teachers can benefit from empathy for the same reasons students do—making sense of another human being can only happen when you let go of your own agenda and feel with and through another person and their thinking.
They can give back.
Ideally, relationships go both ways; give and take. A connected teacher can give back – and the more powerful their connections and networks, the more powerful their ability to help other teachers.
They have less of an excuse not to change.
A connected teacher cannot say they “didn’t know” or “didn’t know” about a trend, tool, or idea. (If they do, they may need to reevaluate the quality of their connectivity.) They may or may not be more willing to rethink their own practice, but ignorance is harder to achieve.
They have new knowledge requirements.
When teachers are connected, their ability to research, evaluate, prepare and use this information is tested. Their ability to establish an online identity is centered. The tools and practices needed to establish and develop their professional training network are suddenly as important as phone calls to parents or parent evaluations.
They learn to socialize their thinking.
Or at least see and hear others doing it. Connected teachers have an immediate need to socialize their thinking for different audiences for different reasons. Interactions become less about pitching your department members to a new idea for improving digital literacy and more about joining an ongoing conversation that never ends.
Their thinking will be pushed.
They may experience peer pressure – to adapt their thinking to the ‘status quo’. This is neither good nor bad in itself (it depends on what they think and how the ‘status quo’ affects it). But this is a kind of ideological peer pressure that, if nothing else, requires teachers to think carefully about what they believe and why they believe it.
They adapt, assimilate, reject or absorb a constant stream of perceptions and possibilities.
Their classrooms can become learning laboratories.
Where else do all these new ideas go?
