“People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.” – Simon Sinek

On April 20th, the Thames Valley Director, Bill Tucker, addressed a staff of 8,000 via videocast as he asked each of us to consider “Why?” – why do we do what we do. Mr. Tucker articulated that we need to reach ‘each student, every day’ to prepare them for tomorrow. This will require that teachers be willing to take risks and step outside of their comfort zones. It will require innovative, relevant learning opportunities in a technologically-rich environment that fosters creativity, problem solving, and interdependence. This is the skill set that we must impart on our students to prepare them for tomorrow. However, even for the best-intentioned teacher, technological barriers exist that may obstruct this vision from becoming a reality.

Like Mr. Tucker though, I believe that it is not only imperative, but possible to dismantle barriers and empower each student, every day, to reach their full potential and prepare them for tomorrow. From my experience, once some of these barriers have been removed, and the potential of free, cloud-based applications has been tapped, the rest happens almost organically. Here is my example:

Web-based programs and cloud computing are not new to the classroom. However, with the exception of a tweet here and there, or a quick blog post, I’ve never felt the need to use them extensively in my classroom. Over the past few months though, I have experienced several moments where I’ve had to stand back and take notice of what was beginning to transpire in my “cloud-based” classroom.

It’s no secret that cloud-based tools such Google Docs are quintessential to my programming. A keyboard and screen is like a pencil and paper – but this is where the analogy ends. Little by little, and under their own volition, it is becoming increasing clear to me that my students are taking the collaborative aspects of these tools to new levels. I now have students informing me that they will be absent from school, but requesting to be part of the classroom discussion via Skype. Or, they are actively seeking opportunities to collaborate in real time with a peer despite geographical location. On several occasions, I am amazed when it is brought to my attention that a student is collaborating with an absent peer. I don’t ask them to connect, they just do.

Earlier this year, two students, one of which who was 2000 km away in Florida, decided to use the collaborative tools embedded in the cloud-based application Prezi to work on a history project . My students didn’t have these skills in September. It took time for them to reach this level of competence. Beyond channelling new collaborative opportunities for my students, cloud computing has provided my students with opportunities for growth in areas that are prerequisites for future employment. As one of my students states, cloud computing can help “develop collaboration and teamwork which can be more important than an ‘A’ on your report card”.

By harnessing the anytime, anywhere, any platform nature of cloud-based applications, barriers are being overcome and each student, every day is gradually developing the skill set that will prepare them for tomorrow. That is why I do what I do.

Students in my classroom recently completed a history project using a variety of cloud-based tools and this is what they had to say…

“…I loved this project. It helped me order my thoughts, and the web sites worked perfectly. It was very easy to collaborate.”

“What I liked most was the collaboration because working with partners, and having equal amounts of work to do, made everything easier.”

“This project helps develop collaboration and team work which can be more important than an ”A” on your report card”

“I would say that we should try it out on the computer because many kids get bored while writing things out on paper, but by using the computer and using web-based tools, students can be engaged and actually want to work on the project.”

“I think this project helped improve our responsibility because if people were fooling around instead of staying on task they would fall behind so you could tell who stayed on task and who didn’t.” 

“I think getting to work on the computers was the most engaging part because in our generation we use technology everywhere but in the traditional classroom.”

“I think collaboration was the learning skill that was most targeted because my partner and I work together a lot even when we weren’t together. I even Skyped my partner when I was in Florida!”

“When students are working on a piece of paper with another student they might not be able to work together as well as on the computer because if you have internet connection you can work anywhere at any time on separate devices.”

“What engaged me while I was doing my project was being able to customize our own project they way we wanted to.”

Teachers have been using Skype and web-based programs for quite some time, these tools are not particularly new, and I’ve never felt the need to blog about their use in my classroom (with the exception of our interview last year with astronaut Chris Hadfield). However, over the past few months, I have experienced several moments where I’ve had to stand back and take notice of what was happening. It’s no secret that web-based tools are quintessential to my classroom, a keyboard and screen is like a pencil and paper, but this is where the analogy ends. Little by little, and under their own volition, it is becoming increasing clear to me that my students are taking the collaborative aspects of these web-based tools to new levels. I now have students informing me that they will be absent from school, but requesting to be part of the classroom discussion via Skype. On several occasions, I am amazed when it is brought to my attention that a student is collaborating with a peer outside of our physical space. I didn’t ask them to connect, they just did. Last week, many of my students couldn’t get to school because buses were cancelled, but two students were able to collaborate, and this week, I experienced collaboration taking place 2000km beyond the walls of my classroom while a student vacationed in Florida. Again, I am not asking my students do so, they want to, and actively seek these opportunities. Clearly, this level of collaboration and engagement could not have happened if traditional instructional methods took precedence. To hook our students, the tools we use need to be relevant; the classroom needs to mirror the lives of our students. This is not the future of education, it’s happening right now.

This was one of those moments where everything that I strive to elicit from my students seems to come together. It’s not just about the near one-to-one ratio of computers to students, it’s so much more. It’s about creating, evaluating, and collaborating. Each student is not working in isolation; but rather in larger groups, connected and spread throughout the classroom and corridor.

The results of this art activity are pretty stunning. Please check out my students’ blogs to see more examples of this art activity.

 “If we teach today the way we were taught yesterday, no one will ever be prepared for tomorrow.” -d_martin05- (Twitter Handle)

This quote resonated with me so much that I made it my desktop. Seriously, I pasted the quote into Notebook, adjusted the background colours, and used a screen capture tool to create a desktop background. The quote from this Twitter user didn’t resonate with me because it helped me realize that schools need to be providing students with learning experiences that will help prepare them for the future; I have been attune to this notion for quite some time, and I have no problem reusing proven instructional tools/strategies from one year to the next, but an element of reflective practise has to be in place. We need to be constantly asking ourselves if the tools we are using from one year to the next are meeting the needs of our students and preparing them for a future even just a few years from now will look drastically different from the present. I’ve always felt that my role as a teacher is to prepare my students for the future, and I am doing a huge disservice if I do not take frequent opportunities to pause, reflect, and reinvent. Do we not ask the same from our students?

Recently, I completed my first attempt at Project-Based, or Inquiry-Based Learning. I am eager to begin a new project(s) in the coming weeks, this time focusing on The War of 1812. Although I am somewhat pleased with the results from my first attempt, I will be making some fundamental changes to how I structure this new inquiry. I feel that these changes are necessary to raise the bar in regards to my students’ content knowledge, as well as their ability to self-regulate.

• An open-ended driving question that clearly, and explicitly articulates what needs to be communicated by the end of the inquiry.
• Even greater differentiation offered to individual students who would benefit from an approach suited to their interests and abilities.
• More scaffolding throughout the collaboration, information gathering phase of the inquiry to encourage equitable work share and more time spent on task.
• Communicating coverage of curriculum expectations using child-friendly language. In other words, don’t just copy the expectations directly from the curriculum into the project outline.
• Numerous “check points” to ensure content understanding, i.e., brief quizzes, essay questions, etc… The higher-order skills, i.e., application, synthesis, and evaluation will come through as students work towards answering the driving question.
• Opportunities to set goals, both individually, and as a group, prior to the start of a new inquiry, as well as opportunities to reflect on achievement of goals throughout.

What a day! Prior to the arrival of the crew from The Director’s Cut, students had to create their claymation characters, write a script, design a storyboard, and create all backgrounds. This engaging day of film making provided my students with opportunities to hone their skills in the areas of media literacy, writing, drama, and visual arts. Check out the video of my young film makers in action!

Sometimes I am a little hard on myself when I see students in other classrooms steadily moving  through a unit in their textbook, seemingly absorbing all pertinent information in preparation for the irrevocable unit test. Inclined to subscribe to new learning paradigms, I find myself frequently questioning how my students would fare against their peers in other classrooms on similar summative tasks. My feeling is that they wouldn’t do any better than their peers, but I made a discovery this week that may put an end to my questioning and strengthen my resolve. My discovery came as students began to embark upon their projects and I roamed around the classroom making observations and providing feedback: students learning from more traditional methods may get the content, have lots of notes to study, and do well on a test, but there is a huge gap that is not being filled. Few opportunities are provided for building skills that arguably go over and above memorization of subject content. Endeavouring to fill this gap through explicit teaching will create opportunities for our students to learn to work efficiently, collaboratively, and think deeply and critically about issues. When we think about it–aren’t these the skills that our employers require from us each and every day? Some things a summative test can’t measure.