Image: Trey Ratcliff
Once upon a time (and I hear it does still happen from time to time in some households), families used to have to negotiate over what to watch on a single television set, based on what was offered on a limited number of channels at predetermined times.
Today, like never else before, in so many places there are more channels than anyone could have dreamed possible only 10-15 years ago, and so many ways (and times) to access them. Learners all have their preferred channels (and I'm sure you appreciate I'm no longer strictly referring to television stations), and most of them quite like to flick between channels at will.
I've been thinking about my own teaching a lot lately, and fumbling about looking for new simple terms to describe it. One that has popped up consistently in relation to the way I do things in my current teaching role is 'decentralised.'
I very rarely teach from the front of the classroom anymore, unless it is to point out a resource or answer a question that has manifested itself in a way than makes it clear more than a couple of students in the room are interested in hearing the/an answer.
The family forced to watch the same program at a particular time on a single device no longer applies...
Most of the time, I'm at the back of the class where I can get a good vantage point and see the screens of all my learners, as well as how and why they are interacting with other classmates. That or sitting down next to this student or that, amongst the learners, and not necessarily in order to monitor or mentor. And, just as often, off to the side at my own monitor dealing with the endless tracking and administration side of things, letting the learners come to me when they're ready to present finished work and get feedback and direction for what to tackle next.
Likewise, it is reasonably rare for my learners to all be working on the same task (or on the same stage of a task) at the one time. Very often, what started as one general task for all the learners will have been negotiated and adapted and sculpted in a dozen different ways to match the tracks of a dozen different train systems.
I think this decentralising process is crucial when it comes to harnessing the momentum of so many individualised channels. I can't exactly put my finger on why, but the word 'harness' feels much more important than 'cater to.'
I'll admit: it can be hard work. Hard work making the transition to the multi-channel classroom, that is. There are times where you feel like you're trying to manage a traffic crossing in peak hour when the traffic lights have gone on the blink.
And let's be honest: it has taken both two decades of teaching experience and the advent of various teaching/learning technologies and paradigms to facilitate such a transition (or evolution?) on my part.
Once you're there, however, things become (surprisingly?) much easier and smoother. A lot of it depends on preparation (width over depth -- they can learn how and where to dive for themselves when the preparation has been effective), how well you 'know your stuff' (and therefore how much closer to the ends of your fingertips it is on demand), the relationships and rapport you've developed with learners, the independent confidence you've managed to foster in them, and a feel for classroom and learner rhythm.
I've gone back to the teacher-at-the-front thing a few times recently, just to recall what it was like and what I (and my students) might be missing. On the positive side, it was sort of nice to be the centre of attention and knowledge again. It was nice, in some ways, to see certain students shine and allow less able members of the group to ride on the single central current of the whole-class approach.
Most of the time, however, I bored (or else 'irrelevanced') myself to death or became vaguely disgusted at the notion of making myself--or a limited number of other students--the fun, funny, charismatic, 'go-to' central performer. No matter how good the performance was, or how well I managed to elicit and draw the students into the process, I saw at least a couple of learners effectively tuning out.
After these occasional sorties into what is (quite frankly) starting to feel like antiquated teaching methodology, I quickly get back to individualised channels again. Learners tuning out then becomes more of a matter of helping someone here or there readjust a set--not necessarily the physical tangible sort--and/or look more laterally across the program offerings.
And before you jump to the conclusion that the multi-channel decentralised approach results in a room full of learners all cut off from each other and engrossed in their own silent individualised worlds, let me just say this...
The shared conversation is still there, and it is a whole lot richer and more democratic than it ever was before. There is more peer sharing and helping. There is more learning.
It's also infinitely more enjoyable, once you can retrain yourself (if necessary) to embrace the spontaneous and unpredictable (but increasingly--for me--predictably relevant and motivating).
;-D
