Course 1 Final Thoughts: Moving Towards “Thinkering”?
It’s the end of the line for Course 1 at ISB. Lots more to think about, but Course 2 is looming.
My last post (and the readings that led to it: the 2009 Horizon Report (in particular the “Smart Object” section and Dianne Oblinger’s “Learning Spaces” (and specifically, her take on the “Learning Commons” got me “thinkering” – with the idea of documenting different kinds of learning activities already taking place in our Main Library – to see if there’s any “thinkering” already taking place.
The results are, I think, interesting. Photos below were all taken between 9:00 am and 1:30 am on Friday, February 27th, 2008 in the Main Library. This covers one HS and two MS class periods along with HS Lunch.
Technical glitches have made this post a challenge, but a couple of items of note;
-
The images above show students working with at least5 kinds of technology, half of which have been provided by the school
-
Students above are working in at least four different languages. All, of course, conversed with me in English. One is browsing news in Mandarin. Two are developing a paper in Spanish. Several are browsing sites in either Thai or Korean. And one is sourcing a movie review in Thai which he will use as the basis for an assignment to write a movie review in Spanish.
I photographed all activities completely candidly (no setups or poses) and then asked individuals in all photos if I could use the shot in this post. I have tried to capture activities without readily identifiable individuals, although in some cases it was difficult to completely preserve facial anonymity.
I think the results strongly support the contention that we’re already on the road to a “Learning Commons” at ISB. The jury is still out on whethere we’re really “Thinkering”
Love the action shots in the ML! This is exactly what we want to be seeing all around the school! I’m excited to see students working together to solve problems and learn something new, to see them operating in the language of their choice and really testing different things out.