He is married to his favorite person, and loves his three children quite a little bit (aged 10, 15 and 17). He is passionate about authentic learning, technology with purpose, and creating at least one new thing every day. In short, he teaches, and learns. A lot.
I agree with the above comment, but more in the high school & college areas. Elementary school has too many foundational skills that are at the root level. There needs to be a morphed elementary teacher who can teach those building blocks while also laying the ground work for the online, self paced, self managed, reflective, collaborative digital student they’ll grown into. The wings are given more a chance to spread in 5th through 8th grade, but still not strong enough to fly alone.
I think Downes overestimates the rate of change in schools k12 and higher ed. Still, I agree that students will continue to have more and more online spaces of their own and teachers will want platforms and tools that help students connect, share and annotate their work in personal(ized) spaces. An LMS really isn’t the issue, though. An LMS can support student-centered work and also connect sites and spaces the kids own. Traditional, teacher-centered design is the issue. Will that type of design persist even when students can access supportive networks that suggest a range of possibilities? I hope that sites like DIY.org https://diy.org/skills/sort/alpha or figment.comhttp://figment.com/ help teachers move out of the center and support students in pursuing personalized, interest-driven paths.
I agree with the above comment, but more in the high school & college areas. Elementary school has too many foundational skills that are at the root level. There needs to be a morphed elementary teacher who can teach those building blocks while also laying the ground work for the online, self paced, self managed, reflective, collaborative digital student they’ll grown into. The wings are given more a chance to spread in 5th through 8th grade, but still not strong enough to fly alone.
The can and are. The foundational skills would be phonics and understanding of numbers.
I think Downes overestimates the rate of change in schools k12 and higher ed. Still, I agree that students will continue to have more and more online spaces of their own and teachers will want platforms and tools that help students connect, share and annotate their work in personal(ized) spaces. An LMS really isn’t the issue, though. An LMS can support student-centered work and also connect sites and spaces the kids own. Traditional, teacher-centered design is the issue. Will that type of design persist even when students can access supportive networks that suggest a range of possibilities? I hope that sites like DIY.org https://diy.org/skills/sort/alpha or figment.com http://figment.com/ help teachers move out of the center and support students in pursuing personalized, interest-driven paths.