Creating a Significant Learning Environment
What does your student's learning environment look like? Was it designed with intention or was it allowed to develop naturally over time?
Dr. Harapnuik states that educators should "become proactive and create significant learning environments."
I learned about Dr. Harapnuik and his thoughts about significant learning environments several years after creating De Beau Microschool. However, his thoughts regarding being proactive in creating the learning environment are important to me. I was (and am) intentional about the creation of every aspect of my school, from the name to the layout. Based upon Dr. Harapnuik's water graphic I have created an informal micro learning environment. I teach to small groups, no more than five students at a time. I tell the students and the parents that it is a no stress zone.
It is my goal to transition the junior high students into an informal, micro, blended learning environment. I am still in the developmental stages of this learning environment. Though still in the developmental stages, I have been intentional about my goals and desired outcomes. That intention will help me to create the significant learning environment that the students need to assist them along their academic journey.
In the book A New Culture of Learning: Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant Change, the authors, Thomas and Brown, set out to redefine learning in the current worldly environment. Learning has never been limited to a classroom, however, the bulk of learning took place in the traditional classroom. Today, learning in the classroom is primarily used to pass a standardized test and meet the graduation requirements. The students rarely, if ever, have a passion or desire to learn what is being presented. The authors posed this question:
What happens to learning when we move from the stable infrastructure of the twentieth century to the fluid infrastructure of the twenty-first century, where technology is constantly creating and responding to change?
That is the question that I am attempting to answer while developing creating a significant learning environment for my older students.
The blessing and the curse that lies before me is technology. My students have to some technology, primarily through the use of cell phones. However, most of my students live in very rural areas of the parish and have limited access to high speed internet aside from their cell phones. I'm developing a plan that will allow the students to use the cell phone as the primary means of communication in the informal, blended, micro learning environment.
Once the plan is fully developed, I will present the information to the parents. Presenting the broad view, the outcome goal, to the parents will be essential. Additionally, I will need to present the different steps and aspects needed to achieve the goal. And there in lies another challenge, I recently realized that I've been too focused on the steps and not the outcome goal. The steps are necessary, but the outcome goal should be the focus. I am now taking a step back from the development to once again take a broad view of my outcome goal. This step back and reflection will help me to better focus on the outcome goal and the presentation of the goal.
Stay tuned for more details on the development of the informal, blended, micro learning environment.
References:
Harapnuik.org. (2016). Why Create Significant Learning Environments. Retrieved from: http://www.harapnuik.org/?p=6691
Thomas, Douglas and Brown, John Seely. A New Culture of Learning: Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant Change.
