Whip Blog

I was listening to CBC Radio this morning on the way to work. The host was talking about a daycare operator who was making some radical shifts (at least for our province) in operations (evening hours, Saturdays, etc.).

The facility operator was explaining that she was also looking to alleviate some of the concerns and trepidations of newer parents about their children’s daily activities by installing webcams in her facility – allowing parents to “tune in” to the goings-on in the daycare at any point during the day.

It brought me back to David Warlick‘s opening to his book Redefining Literacy for the 21st Century, where he provides us with a glimpse to one possible vision of a classroom several years from now. This classroom is very connected – students with students, students and teachers and, yes, even parents / others with students and teachers. He illustrates how students might be connected to “experts” in the community or elsewhere and how parents can be involved in the daily life of the school through connections via technology.

It left me wondering…just how far away can we be from really connecting our classrooms to the outside world? Until now they have been fairly insular places, but technology has changed the possibilities. Now the barriers are primarily issues of privacy, teacher reluctance and student safety.

I recently had a meeting with a teaching team and a parent who is taking her daughter to New Zealand after Christmas for three months. The intent is to use technology to maintain her connection with her current class. She will connect using the class wikis and blogs (standard daily tools), some asynchronous podcasting of classes and weekly webchat connections with her classmates. This will be done in a secure site.  The intent here is that she won’t enroll in a school there…but remain an active participant in her own class.

I asked the team how they felt about having their classes recorded…the group response was that they will likely be nervous at first, but it would just become a part of what they do quickly.

Shift is happening. Like the daycare, just how ready are we to knock down our classroom walls, open ourselves to the world, and flatten the terrain?

Is it just a matter of time?

tags: technology, education, learning, warlick, whipple