Moving to Online Learning Be Like Building a House On Mars
My very first blog post ever was about 10 years ago (May 20, 2010). It was titled Textbooks: the Curriculum Security Blanket.
I've been thinking about this post the last 24 hours as I prepare to help educators in local districts across 3 counties in my state rethink how they teach. This is such a high-anxiety time - our routines have been disrupted, our health (or our loved one's health) is at risk, daily life is DIFFERENT. We don't know how long this "disruption" is going to last, and we don't know how we will come out changed on the other side.
On top of all that, educators are now having to contemplate how to be "teachers" with our students at home. And we are falling back to our "security blankets" for in the classroom. We are trying to bring the comfortable into this new situation, and it concerns me for our success.
Why? I'm talking to educators that want to know what tool to use, and what content to get - they are focused on "stuff." The stuff isn't what is going to make it successful...
Consider this analogy to building a house. (Which I first articulated on Twitter after a conversation with a three other ed techie folks)
Most builders start with blueprints that provide direction on how to build a house. And they use tools to put the building materials together to build the house. Yet to make that happen so a beautiful and sound house is created, they depend on their knowledge in how to use the tools and with which building materials to use them on. They also are flexible as there may be circumstances that develop while building that require a change to be made to ensure the soundness or completion of the house.
For teachers - the standards are our blueprint. They guide our work in the classroom. Our resources are our building materials - they are the physical and digital materials we have available to us. Our tools/apps are our building tools - they help us teach, they help us share materials but they are just tools.
Well, we've hit a BIG circumstance that is going to require us to be flexible. We are building our house on Mars instead of Earth. So now, instead of full steam ahead with building how we have always built as we have always built it, we need to evaluate - which tools work in this new environment? Which don't? Which resources will hold up? Which don't? What adaptations do we need to make to still build a beautiful house?
Some of these adaptations will include adopting a new tool or a new resource. More of it will be tweaking how we use what we already have in new or slightly different way. But two things are for sure: if I change everything I do, my knowledge is going to fail me and I won't be successful at building; if I change nothing, my ability to build is not likely to be successful in this new environment.
So please - take the step back and evaluate (even test!) what you know and how it works in this new environment before you decide on your next steps to building....
I've been thinking about this post the last 24 hours as I prepare to help educators in local districts across 3 counties in my state rethink how they teach. This is such a high-anxiety time - our routines have been disrupted, our health (or our loved one's health) is at risk, daily life is DIFFERENT. We don't know how long this "disruption" is going to last, and we don't know how we will come out changed on the other side.
On top of all that, educators are now having to contemplate how to be "teachers" with our students at home. And we are falling back to our "security blankets" for in the classroom. We are trying to bring the comfortable into this new situation, and it concerns me for our success.
Why? I'm talking to educators that want to know what tool to use, and what content to get - they are focused on "stuff." The stuff isn't what is going to make it successful...
Consider this analogy to building a house. (Which I first articulated on Twitter after a conversation with a three other ed techie folks)
Most builders start with blueprints that provide direction on how to build a house. And they use tools to put the building materials together to build the house. Yet to make that happen so a beautiful and sound house is created, they depend on their knowledge in how to use the tools and with which building materials to use them on. They also are flexible as there may be circumstances that develop while building that require a change to be made to ensure the soundness or completion of the house.
For teachers - the standards are our blueprint. They guide our work in the classroom. Our resources are our building materials - they are the physical and digital materials we have available to us. Our tools/apps are our building tools - they help us teach, they help us share materials but they are just tools.
Well, we've hit a BIG circumstance that is going to require us to be flexible. We are building our house on Mars instead of Earth. So now, instead of full steam ahead with building how we have always built as we have always built it, we need to evaluate - which tools work in this new environment? Which don't? Which resources will hold up? Which don't? What adaptations do we need to make to still build a beautiful house?
Some of these adaptations will include adopting a new tool or a new resource. More of it will be tweaking how we use what we already have in new or slightly different way. But two things are for sure: if I change everything I do, my knowledge is going to fail me and I won't be successful at building; if I change nothing, my ability to build is not likely to be successful in this new environment.
So please - take the step back and evaluate (even test!) what you know and how it works in this new environment before you decide on your next steps to building....
