The Yawning Chasm

There is a wide gulf that we are in danger of creating in learning at the moment. Young people are using technology to communicate and participate in social practices. Research even suggests that as educators we need to understand those uses of social media to build on what is currently being learnt in classrooms – that we need to partner those in our class in the learning process. But while learners have been found to be going beyond what is being done in class – taking charge of their own learning process by continuing with project based work outside school (yes, this has been shown by the research!)– they often describe school computers as slow, frequently crashing and restrictive because filters that are designed (and necessary) for appropriate protection can hinder appropriate information finding and collaborations (depending very much on where the students are). Teacher skills are still variable and “playing it safe” might mean familiarity with tools but, to quote the learners, “it makes it easier but it gets boring after a while”.

The points I’m making aren’t new – for two consecutive years, I have been seeing questions raised on twitter about filtering and blocking. Check out @tombarrett and @wjputt’s work.  It’s a postcode lottery for learning – not the school, but the tools we have access to! We can’t always change that as classroom teachers – at least immediately –  and we may even be unable to use social media within our classrooms.

But I believe we CAN learn from how social media is being used – for social purposes, for professional learning networks, from those who are able to use some tools.  It isn’t, after all, the tools that “maketh the learning”.  It’s how we use the tools that matters. It’s how we use them that makes opportunities for co-construction, for collaboration. It’s how we use them for creating a learning dialogue, for peer feedback, for “expert” feedback.

So what tools do you have access to in class that COULD support collaboration? That could help learners to share? That could help them to communicate with others? That provide alternative ways of working to achieve similar effects as the tools that are blocked? Because if we don’t think this way, the yawning chasm between those who have access to equipment, sites, skilled facilitators – either in or out of school – and those who don’t, will become even wider and increasingly difficult to overcome.

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