I used to be one of those educators. There was a time when I wanted singular focus — an unadulterated fixation on my scintillating sermon — from every set of eyeballs when I was on stage in the classroom. I was raised to believe the educator was the ‘sage on the stage’. Maybe you were too? Maybe you still are? If I were a high school teacher or a higher education professor today though, I’d be thinking twice about that philosophy. If I were a corporate trainer (I really do hate that term) or a Chief Learning Officer (wait a minute) I’d also be thinking if my approach might need to be altered. Do educators of any stripe really believe learning solely happens through the
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Best Buy, a renown electronics retailer perhaps better known for its khaki pants and blue shirt dress code, could be viewed analagously with that of an evolved corporate learning structure. Imagine that you’re at one of their corporate stores. What do you see when you enter the store? There she/he is, the greeter: “Hello sir, how are you today?” As you pass the greeter in this vivid, brightly lit and humming environment there are a number of learning sherpas … the guides on the side not pestering you to buy something, rather, able and available when you require assistance. There are no commissions at Best Buy to make a sale. Employees are there, quite literally, to help you as necessary. Sure, it’s a formal environment with walls, electricity and so on, but it is
Am I worried about the proliferation of digital devices in our homes and schools? Not really. I’m more concerned that parents, when with their children at home, are simply using tablets, laptops, iPod Touch’s, Xbox consoles, etc. as a distraction device. An easy opportunity to abdicate parenting to the device itself. This is clearly wrong. Those parents have got it entirely wrong. My worry revolves around the disappearance of proper face-to-face social and behavioural skills that our children will require in an effort to engage and to ultimately prosper in this world of ours. I believe Peter Rawsthorne is taking his parental philosophy to a whole other level as well. (see comment) But there is something happening in our homes and schools that could be construed as positive. I think it is the Recalibration of Parallel
One of the problems that I see occurring in both offices and schools is we’re often stuck with 19th century collaboration infrastructure with 21st century technology and wishes. For example, many libraries (be it K-12 or public) have setups like the following: In the corporate world, all too often the office looks like the following: Perhaps more thought should be given to the physical layout of the library or the office. Depending on the situation, it could take a lot of effort but in many cases the lift may not be all that heavy. People are people. (Depeche Mode said that once) And if so, we are creatures of socialization. If we want online collaboration to happen, if we want adoption and participation