Learning with the Fang

The final presentation I attended at the CEGSA conference got me thinking, really thinking - about a vision for a school of the future. Peter Simmonds leveraged his considerable experience and a couple of well chosen web videos to suggest that we should think beyond adding the latest equipment to the model of industrialised efficiency engines we call classrooms today. The 1950’s propaganda piece from the UK showcasing shiny new lathes (for boys to learn how to make weapons and other industrial components) and ovens (for girls to master the art of subservient cookery) would have been funny if it did not bear such a strong resemblance to the room full of shiny new computers downstairs. After showing us a couple more video clips (a UK prototype school featuring shiny unisex toilets, with visible washroom area behind glass) and the popular ‘Shift Happens‘ clip, Peter challenged us to think about our vision for a school of the future. Well here goes, thought in progress, messy, inarticulate:

• Equip kids to cope with the world they are heading for, not the one we messed up for them
• Emulate the best bits of the market’s return to (global) conversation because of the web
• Resist tendency to return to industrialised models of MASS (production, media, marketing)
• Nurture the OPEN approach to everthing from internet connectivity to pedagogy
• Strongly resist tendencies to CLOSE, LOCK, CONTROL the flow of OPEN connections, content and pratice

While thinking about these things, listening to some excellent podcasts (Stephen Downes CEGSA keynote, Wow2.0.#34-2007-10-07, and others) and reflecting on Gerry White’s CEGSA KeyNote, I took my daughter to see the new Harry Potter movie (the order of the phoenix). While watching the scene in which 28 self directed learners use the the ‘room of requirement’ to teach themselves defence against the dark arts - I had one of those ‘AHA’ moments. A picture of interconnections between all the thoughs swimming round my brain formed instantly - I wish I had a camera to show you - instead I will struggle to bang out some hopelessly inadequate TEXT. (If you are unfamiliar with this scene from Harry Potter, the order of the Phoenix - its on P343 of my hardback edition).

My school of the future would be a lot more like ‘the room of requirement’ than Hogwarts itself - but it would exist in the context of something like Hogwarts. That is to say, the radically new learning space and practice needs to exist in the context of something familiar that can evolve slowly from what we have now. We can’t (and shouldn’t try to) throw out everything old just because it isn’t new. Whenever I watch a Harry Potter movie, I feel ‘at home’ when I see scenes of HogWarts school - rather than shiny and new, the oldness brings feelings of warmth and safety, along with a strong sense of curiosity to explore its many interesting, messy, organically grown (and quite often risky) features. There is a good balace of bounded safety and seemingly limitless danger - a feeling that if I hurt myself I will be properly cared for (certainly no clinical stench of over-protective playgrounds designed to appeal to committees of risk averse middle managers).

As for the ‘room of requirement‘ - or the ‘come and go room’ as Dobby describes it to Harry & Co. - you can only enter the room when you really need it and you will find exactly what you need there. (Hermione points out that ‘Dobby’s plans arent always safe - remember when you lost all the bones in your arm, Harry …). So with that Harry takes the calculated risk of assembling a group of 25 kids from various ages, classes and cliques - to learn defence against the dark arts. On entering the room of requrement they find exactly what they need for Harry to Model/Demonstrate what he has learnt (both from classes at HogWarts and from fighting the dark lord himself and for the others to Practice/Reflect together. The ensuing scenes show some very engaged and motivated learning indeed.

The motiviation for this subversive act of spontaneous learning was interference by the controlling powers - the Ministry of Magic had appointed a career manager to take over the defence against the dark arts class (and eventually the school - nailing hundreds of proclamations and bans to the wall) - reducing this previously vibrant class to a perfunctory (but efficient) excercise in theoretical futility. Almost prophetic parallels to the nervous reaction of most education ministries to bold web experiments by some excellent teachers. One key ingredient in my school of the future would be mechanisms to provide ‘air cover’ for responsible teachers who take risks.

There is one more feature of my vision for a school of the future that is much more subtle and difficult to explain. While it is easy to see that unfettered internet access closely resembles the room of requirement, and that after some initial ups and downs the powers to be will eventually find ways to make it more accessible, there is a more sinister foe lurking in the background. This foe is quietly muddying the waters between OPEN and CLOSED saying things like ’sure we can open up a few Web2.0 sites thru the firewall’, ‘we must secure our wireless networks’, ‘relax - we will make sure every student can login’, ‘we must put DRM on files to protect Copyright’, ‘you can put those pictures on the web, but make sure they are secure’ … My school of the future will figure out how to flip the default from CLOSED to OPEN for everything in the learning chain - so I can use my brand new wireless tamagochi to connect my class with Mr. White and Prof. Kroto for a robust and engaging discussion on my student’s idea for using nanowidgets to cure cancer.

Fang - Mike Seyfang

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