16 responses to Breaking down the walls of the classroom

1. Dr. Nellie Deutsch says:

   January 20, 2011 at 12:50 pm

   I totally agree that there is a need to change the way technology is being used for instruction and learning in most cases. However, the K-12 and higher education school settings do not allow the kind of freedom needed for students to learn and teachers to teach. Parents and students need to take action and force schools to break down the walls. Talking about technology and changing roles as a way to make a difference in how students should learn has not been very effective.

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   • Nik Peachey says:

     January 20, 2011 at 1:07 pm

     Hi Nellie

     Yes I agree that talking isn’t really enough, but i don’t think it is fair to expect students and parents to initiate the change. It has to come about through the whole of the teaching institution and needs to start from the way we train and evaluate teachers all the way through to the design of course materials and how students interact with content and with each other.

     Best

     Nik

     Reply
2. Sheona says:

   January 20, 2011 at 5:22 pm

   Hi Nick,

   You are such an inspiration but to someone who still works in a classroom with a blackboard and chalk it seems virtually impossible to imagine the day when the kind of teaching you advocate actually takes place. There are so many things that can be done and a lot of very frustrated teachers out there who find themselves hindered in their development as teachers because educational institutions are dragging their heels and not willing to make the kind of investment needed in teacher training or equipment..

   However, I would like to say ‘where there’s a will, there’s a way’ so let’s be positive!!

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   • Nik Peachey says:

     January 24, 2011 at 2:38 pm

     Hi Sheona

     I think if you have the will, then there certainly are ways, and I don’t think you need to have any tech in your classroom to at least get started. There are plenty of free tools we can use to set up networks and communities for them to access outside of class and lots of websites we can use to develop motivating learning activities that they can access and do from any computer.

     But you are right, there does need to be training to help teachers do this and understand how to use it. Of course the second point is that really is this involves more of the teachers’ time by enabling greater engagement outside of the classroom time, then it isn’t realistic to expect it to happen if teachers don’t get paid for the work they put in.

     Of course one of the best ways around this is to try to use technology tools that make things like marking and supervising homework easier so that it saves time on the tasks we already do.

     Anyway, as you say Sheona I am positive and change is and will come. I’ve recently published a couple of postings on my own blog that have free tasks that teachers can download and use as guidance to create materials for their students. You can find them at:
     “5 Tasks to Teach Yourself to Teach with Technology
     ”
     http://nikpeachey.blogspot.com/2010/12/5-tasks-to-teach-yourself-to-teach-with.html

     and

     “3 More Tasks to Teach Yourself to Teach with Technology”
     http://nikpeachey.blogspot.com/2011/01/3-more-tasks-to-teach-yourself-to-teach.html

     I hope you find these useful.

     Best

     Nik

     Reply
     • Nudrat Rahman Sheikh says:

       February 11, 2012 at 8:12 pm

       I think it is not just lack of time and training. It is the pressure of completing the syllabus, the written work in workbooks and note books before the assessments that restricts the teachers. Also I have observed that even after the training only a few would take an initiative to incorporate the ideas and tools in their lessons simply because they do not want to come out of their comfort zone, they do not want to take a risk to try out any thing new. it is the fear, what if something goes wrong?

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3. Phil says:

   January 20, 2011 at 7:51 pm

   Thanks for the mention. The cheque is in the post.

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4. Nina Liakos says:

   January 24, 2011 at 1:03 am

   I’d like to address the second question. My first thought was that it may not be reasonable to expect all teachers to become digitally literate, and we should expect the next generation of teachers to be so, not this current generation. Then I remembered how librarians were expected to become digitally literate pretty much overnight: and do you know what? They did it. Suddenly paper card catalogs were a thing of the past. If librarians could do it, why not teachers? But adequate training must, of course, be provided. It is not fair to expect teachers to transform themselves, at their own expense. And we all know how online teaching is even more time-consuming than classroom teaching, and how difficult it is to draw the line between work and personal/family time.

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   • Nik Peachey says:

     January 24, 2011 at 2:44 pm

     Hi Nina

     Yes, a very good point about librarians. The other problem is that is we expect the next generation of teachers to be digitally literate and able to actually use technology effectively to enhance learning, then we need to have now a generation of teacher trainers who are already digitally literate and who are incorporating the appropriate use of technology into their courses, and I tend to feel that gnerally this isn’t the case.

     In many cases I think teacher trainers are even more reluctant than teachers to engage with technology and are more than happy to stay within their classroom comfort zone.

     Your last point is a really big one, “online teaching is even more time-consuming than classroom teaching”. That’s very true and what’s even worse the time you do spend is often paid at a lower hourly rate than a classroom contact hour would be, so no big insentive there for teachers to skill up.

     Best

     Nik

     Reply
5. efl-resource.com » ELT news feed » Let the technology in says:

   January 24, 2011 at 2:45 pm

   [...] the DELTA Publishing blog, Nik Peachey argues that traditional fixed-time, classroom-based teaching is becoming a thing of the past and teachers need to change their ways to fully embrace the computerised world in which we live. [...]

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6. Evan says:

   February 3, 2011 at 9:22 am

   Isn’t this a matter of politics as much as of education? At the end of the day it is the politicians who lay the ground rules for what happens in the classroom and how much people get paid. And they will only change things if they come under pressure from voters. So it’s not the teachers we need to convince, it’s the voters.

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   • Nik Peachey says:

     February 3, 2011 at 9:44 am

     Hi Evan

     I guess that depends on where you live and where you teach. In private language schools it would be the decission of the director / owner and whether they see the potential of a market edge on the competition. That seems to be what has driven the acquisition of a lot of interactive whiteboards (They look great in the promotional materials).

     In the case of state schools, I guess it would depend on how much autonomy each school has and how much say they have over how they use their teachers time and spend their budget.

     Really, I think most voters and most governments do want the best education system they can afford, so I dont think that’s the problem, though there might be a problem in how well informed they are about what ‘the best’ actually looks like.

     Personally, I think the greatest barrier to change is just lack of imagination to visualise the benefits of an approach that doesn’t yet exist and a lack of courage to try something new and try to make it work. Much safer to do things the way we always have.

     Best

     Nik Peachey

     Reply
7. Evan says:

   February 3, 2011 at 10:18 am

   Yes, you’re right – it’s all about what is the “best”. and what you can get for your money.

   Very little consensus there. For example, you might fight for technology, and someone else might fight for small classes. And someone else would say it’s all about making teachers more accountable. And someone else might argue that standardized tests are the biggest problem. When I worked in a private language school the biggest issue was probably the lack of properly trained teachers. And so on.

   So I don’t think it’s only about lack of imagination. It may be about too much imagination. We don’t really know what is “best”. And certainly not in technology, where the speed of change is incredible.

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8. Brad Patterson says:

   February 4, 2011 at 11:42 pm

   Hey Nik. Thanks for this post.

   I’m kind of torn on whether a teacher needs to be more available outside the classroom, so I’m going to play with your second question, instead: Is it reasonable to expect all teachers to be digitally literate?

   And in your reply to Sheona you made a great point: “I don’t think you need to have any tech in your classroom to at least get started”

   In the same vein, just like we don’t need individual computers in the classroom at the start, I don’t think we need especially computer saavy teachers either. These “old school” teachers can have computer saavy friends on twitter for example, who’ll guide them towards the zones where their students will benefit the most.

   That’s what’s amazing about twitter and PLNs… we don’t need to be experts anymore or even anywhere near expertdom. We just need to be connected and listening, and it seems like that’s getting easier and easier, isn’t it?

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   • Nik Peachey says:

     February 8, 2011 at 9:52 pm

     Hi Brad

     Yes I agree. I think Twitter has provided an excellent platform for the development of PLNs and the circulation of information and support, but that does presuppose a certain level of tech and a willingness to engage, which isn’t always there.

     Really, in terms of skills, technology has never been easier to use and continues to become more intuitive.

     But what about teachers who are unwilling and or refuse to engage with digital literacies? Would we employ teachers who weren’t able to read and write?

     Best

     Nik

     Reply
9. Tracey says:

   March 4, 2011 at 11:26 am

   Nik,
   Very interesting topic. I’m in my second year of my PGCE. I will be attending a subject specialist conference in April and presenting a paper as part of my course requirements. I chose to do my paper about the use of a blog to extend the teaching and learning beyond the weekly class session. I have to upload my final paper this weekend and was feeling quite down as the overall result hasn’t been as positive as I would have hoped. Barriers have been my lack of knowledge due to being a ‘newbie’ to this platform, lack of resources/time etc.I am now much more aware in many different ways of how I could have done and will do things better.
   This morning I started looking for more references to finish off my paper and I received an email notification of a new posting to my blog. A learner who had missed my class this week had posted ‘I would like to practise my English be cause it is going to worst ‘. This made my day as the learner is obvioulsy enthusiastic to learn outside of the class session and is communicating to me in English outside of the weekly session.
   I need to develop my knowledge and strive to do better this time and next time for both my learners and my own sense of achievement.
   Thanks for eveyone’s comments in this thread. Very interesting.
   I will also point other ESOL tutors to your site during the presentation of my paper. I’m sure they will be as inspired as I am.

   Tracey

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   • Nik Peachey says:

     March 5, 2011 at 8:45 pm

     Hi Tracy

     That’s great. If you want some more practical help and support, check out my blogs: http://nikpeachey.blogspot.com/

     Hope these are useful to.

     Good luck with it.

     Best

     Nik

     Reply