I had the opportunity this fall to participate in the 3MP competition hosted by Oklahoma State University. Below is a transcript of my presentation. The topic I chose to explore was how learning in the digital age facilitates student experience of The Four Cs. I’d like you to imagine the early 1900s Missouri classroom in which my grandmother taught. You would see many children, sitting at desks, facing front, in tidy rows. Tidy rows facing front, and one passionate teacher ringing the schoolyard bell to assemble their learning community. I have the bell from that school house in my backyard. I ring it sometimes, just for fun.
Then, just as now, teachers empower student ownership of the 4 C’s-Connecting, Creating, Collaborating, and Critical Thinking. We have the delightfully alliterative catch phrase, courtesy of the United States-based Partnership for 21st Century Skills, but understanding their importance is not new. As always, meaningful learning occurs when students are willingly engaged in active, collaborative enterprises reflective of authentic real-life experiences. My grandma facilitated learning in a one room schoolhouse with the desks facing front and a bell in the yard. I facilitate Learning in the Digital Age. The world is our classroom, and we are called to learning by bells ringing from innumerable yards. Learning in the digital age affords opportunity for enhanced communication and feedback, allows restructuring of teacher time, provides extended purpose and audience for student work, and facilitates connection with others allowing us to grow stronger and smarter together (Siemens). Digital resources whose use is intentional, purposeful, and driven by effective pedagogy have the power to transform learning. Learning in the Digital Age affords opportunity for enhanced communication and feedback. I am able to provide almost instantaneous feedback for my elementary music students on their creative progress through the Chatterpix App. Their improvised melodies are recorded and performed for playback by an animated version of stick figures they have drawn. I immediately cast the animation onto a large screen, and as we experience their creation together, I affirm their creativity while assessing their level of understanding. Learning in the Digital Age means I, as the teacher, am able to restructure the use of my time during class. I embedded myself into my student population, enjoying their stick figure’s performance along with them, moving through the room and interacting personally with each of my students as they celebrated their collaboration. Learning in the Digital Age provides extended purpose and audience for student work. I am able (with appropriate permissions) to upload videos and the accompanying audio tracks my older elementary music students have collaborated to create of school faculty and staff. The online publishing platform allows students to easily share their work with friends and family. School connections have been strengthened, students have collaborated to create and communicate understanding, and they have exercised critical thinking progressing through several necessary decisions. Learning in the Digital Age facilitates connection. Digital resources allow me to document and (with appropriate permissions) share my students’ performance with a music classroom in Zimbabwe working on the same song. This communication can lead to collaboration, all of us growing through connection (as Siemens posits) smarter and stronger with our friends from far away. Digital resources whose use is intentional, purposeful, and driven by effective pedagogy have the power to transform learning. Learning in the digital age affords opportunity for enhanced communication and feedback, allows restructuring of teacher time, provides extended purpose and audience for student work, and facilitates connection with others. Teachers have always sought to promote learning communities in which connecting, creating, collaborating, and critical thinking are empowered. My grandma did it in a one room schoolhouse. I get to do it in the world. I love ringing that bell.
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