The future of classrooms

This is Part 4 in my series on the future of learning and technology. What will be the future of school classrooms? It is unlikely that we will see the demise of the classroom in the next decade. Those who study the future of education often suggest that the demise of traditional classrooms is not only inevitable, but imminent. This is due to the rapid proliferation of mobile technology, the disintermediation of traditional teacher and student roles, new trends such as MOOCs and the upsurge of user generated content on social media sites -  all of which take learning away from previously familiar territory. The argument that these tools and trends are removing the need for classrooms and 'schools' in specific geographical locations is a strong one, but also has some flaws.

In a recent article, Larry Cuban attempts to gaze 10 years into the future, and makes the case that classrooms will stay very much the same during this period. Firstly, he argues, teachers tend to use new technology in much the same way they used old technology, and that as a result very little has changed in terms of pedagogy. Secondly, he suggests that technology is overhyped and is not future-proofed, especially against 'major unplanned events', although what these might be, he fails to elaborate. Anyone who is familiar with Cuban's work will think 'well he would say that, wouldn't he?', but is he right?

One of the future developments he is optimistic about, however, is the lightening of students' backpacks. Cuban believes that the digitisation of texts (books, encyclopedias and other paper based knowledge) will take hold and become an important trend. He predicts the obsolescence of the hard bound book, at least in the hands of school children. Automated assessment of learning through computer adaptive testing is another trend he predicts, where students are given grades based on their performance on multiple choice questions. Implicit within this scenario is learner analytics, where the data mining of all student scores, attendance levels, social media postings and discussion group contributions can be analysed to provide teachers with an overview of where the student is, and whether any intervention is required. Also implicit within this prediction is the need for teachers to adopt new roles, change their professional practice, and move from instructors to facilitators and moderators.  It also means that teachers would need to revisit their concepts of knowledge and learning, and begin to accept that often learning occurs without their direct input, both inside and outside the classroom. Many teachers would welcome such a shift in practice, whilst many others might feel very threatened by such a seismic shift in the profession.

Cuban is very sceptical of online courses, and presumably his sceptiscism also embraces MOOCs. He believes that online learning has repeatedly failed to deliver its promise. His argument here stems from the human need to socialise, to gather together face to face, and learn firsthand the cultural, moral and civic values we hold so important in today's society. Online course, he argues, fall very short of delivering this richness.

Cuban sees a place for technology in schools, but does not see it radically changing the face of the 'place for education', and says:

'...by 2023, uses of technologies will change some aspects of teaching and learning but schools and classrooms will be clearly recognizable to students’ parents and grandparents.'

Is he right? Will we see no radical change in schools in the next 10 years? Will it take longer for us to witness transformational changes in our education institutions, or are the changes above sufficient to revolutionise pedagogy? Are schools too conservative and resistant to change to be impacted by new technology? Is technology the only catalyst for change, or should we look elsewhere? As ever, your comments on this blog are welcome.

Photo by Paul Shreeve


The future of classrooms by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Scaffolding or no scaffolding?

Regular readers of this blog will know that one of my hats has 'Editor' written all on it. I'm co-editor of the Routledge journal Interactive Learning Environments, which this year went to 4 issues a year and in 2011 will extend its reach to 5 issues a year. We have a large amount of submissions each year and are kept very busy as a team managing, reviewing and editing the journal. This means that only the best papers are published, and periodically I give readers a glimpse of some of them. Here's the abstract of a stand-out paper from the current issue, written by Connie Siew Ling Ng, Wing Sum Cheung and Khe Foon Hew, from the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. It is thought provoking at a number of levels, not least because it takes a position on scaffolding using web tools, and challenges us to think about learning through Problem Based Learning in a new way:

Solving ill-structured problems in asynchronous online discussions: built-in scaffolds vs. no scaffolds

Solving ill-structured problems is regarded as an important learning outcome in education as it allows learners to apply theories learnt into real practice. An asynchronous online discussion, with extended time for reflection, is an appropriate learning environment to engage learners in solving ill-structured problems. However, scaffolds may be needed to support learners in the online discussions. This study explores the effect of online scaffolds in supporting a group of graduate students' ill-structured problem-solving processes in asynchronous online discussions. The results of this study showed that the use of the online scaffolds did not lead to a significant difference in the number of ill-structured problem-solving processes. Further analysis revealed that wrong selection of message labels and under-usage of sentence openers affected the results of this study. Improvements for online scaffolds include having more precise message labels and sentence openers based on a Socratic questioning approach.

Reference: Ng, C., Cheung, W. S. and Hew, K. F. (2010) Solving ill-structured problems in asynchronous online discussions: Built-in scaffolds vs. no scaffolds. Interactive Learning Environments, 18 (2), 115-134.

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Scaffolding or no scaffolding? by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 3.0 International License.
Based on a work at steve-wheeler.blogspot.com.

You can't give an apple to a computer

Can teachers be replaced by computers? Professor Ron Oliver (pictured left speaking earlier today) thought not and quoted Arthur C. Clarke: "Any teacher who can be replaced by a computer .... should be!" (I thought at the time that giving an apple to a computer is not quite the done thing). Ron, who is Pro-Vice Chancellor at Edith Cowan University in Western Australia, provided us with a very entertaining and incisive keynote at the LYICT Conference entitled: 'Engaging Learners in Open Learning'. He came from a traditional classroom perspective, arguing that good teaching is always required, whatever the learning context.

I have heard Ron speak before. Several times. And he is always fresh, amusing and thought provoking. If he can't produce furrowed brows, says Ron, he is doing something wrong. To engage students, we must produce task-oriented learning he argued. This can come in the form of complex tasks, ill-structured problems and a whole host of other online based exercises designed to keep the learner engaged at a high level of information processing - not just information access, which he considers to be quite passive, or even information organisation, which is getting there, but information processing, which involves critical enquiry and reflection as well as problem solving. He showed several learning models he is currently working on with colleagues, all of which resonated with real teaching and learning.

Ron suggested that good learning must take diversity into account, which may produce arguments (if we are lucky) and dissonance for individual learners. Ultimately, the end result must be diversity of outcome - where every students takes away new skills and knowledge which they can use within their own personal contexts. His talk completed, Ron sat down next to me on the front row. The audience applauded. He had to get back up again and walk out once more, though. They wanted to give him a gift (souvenir) for his speech. Not quite giving the teacher an apple. But well deserved none the less.

Wiki activities 5 stage model

Tomorrow I'm in Bristol on the invitation of the JISC to present two papers reporting on recent research we have been doing on social software at their regional support centre conference.

One of my papers will detail my wiki activities 5 stage model. I have tried to develop a model which describes how students are gradually drawn into deeper cognitive engagement with learning whilst at the same time they are gradually developing their collaborative strengths. There has already been some interest in my model (see for example WebSphere Geek) and I anticipate and welcome discussion about its merits and limitations. See the wiki activities page of one online group for an example here.

The model starts with Exploration (where students are finding out about their new learning environment, discovering the do's and dont's and generally orientating themselves on the wiki). Next comes Exhibition - where they are encouraged to talk about themselves, to show and tell best practice and to reflect on their experiences. They are also asked to perform tasks such as 'Mining for Gold' - finding useful websites, online resources etc, that they can share with the group as 'gold dust resources'. Third comes Explanation - here they describe in deeper terms their ideas and provide other group members with more detail. They may for example, elaborate on why their 'gold dust resources' are so useful. Fourth, there is Elaboration - here students start to edit each other's postings and append arguments or discussions with counter arguments. They may expand upon their resources, or annotate each other's postings. Finally, Evaluation is where students place a value on the validity, reliability and relevance of their work. They judge the significance of their collaborative fruits and decide where they will go next in their learning journey.

It's no co-incidence that all the stages begin with an 'E' - not only is it easier to remember, but the more we can exploit the 'e' in e-learning, the better, in my opinion....

The Boggs e-Learning Chronicle

Check out the Boggs e-Learning Chronicle which provides neat commentary on a number of recent and relevant issues impacting upon the use of technology in education and training (I may be wrong, but from what I've seen, I think this 'blog leans more toward corporate training). Included in recent posts is a link to a very useful paper on combating online learner isolation by Susan Nash Smith. Includes a good dose of social learning theory.

Text Mex

A recently published article in Interactive Learning Environments entitled 'Use of Instant Messaging in Online Learning Environments' [14 (3), 205-218] suggests that Instant Messaging is even better for students than face to face communication. The authors, Juan Contreras-Castrillo et al, give a Mexican perspective on the use of this technology, and eulogise about how good it is, at least for their sample of 43 students and 4 teachers.

It seems that remote students gave the teacher a 'virtual apple' in the form of welcoming messages, which the authors claim helped to establish a 'better social presence'. Students tended to use IM for low level stuff like superfluous chatting rather than about the course. It's a kind of passing paper messages around type of use by the sounds of it. The authors conclude by claiming that the use of IM 'increases students's satisfaction by providing continuous opportunities for interaction with the teacher and classmates'.

Not on weekends it doesn't (I hope). Sounds like a flaming nightmare for teachers who enjoy a little time off from the trials and tribs of the classroom, virtual or otherwise....