Making all teachers online teachers

I whole-heartedly endorse subversion when it is defined as "going the right thing for the wrong reasons." And one of the most wonderfully subversive ideas I've heard for sometime was thrown out by Barrie Jo Price (emTech.net) at EARCOS Administrators' Conference I attended earlier this week.

She and the late Bob Sills, former director of EARCOS, came up with a "Business Continuity Model." And it goes something like this... Should a catastrophe occur (epidemic, tsunami, political revolt, etc.) that requires the evacuation of an EARCOS member international school, the Business Continuity Model would allow schooling to continue even if students and staff can't come to the physical buildings themselves. This can only happen online and only happen if the tools, resources, training and experiences are already in place. In other words, by creating online learning environments that supplement F2F teaching now, schools will be prepared for any eventuality when ALL teaching needs to go online.

This is brilliant.

I like the idea of hybrid learning environments simply because:

• students like them
• they lead to constructivist-based learning
  
• they encourage 24/7 learning

In other words, good teaching happens online. If it takes disaster planning to convince administrators that all teachers need to be operating in at least a partical online teaching/learning environment, so be it. Whatever the reason, the result is positive.

Every teacher should be using an online teaching environment. This is one way to actually get every teacher there.

Comments

[Jane Hyde]

I love it. Totally. And as an old 60s thinker I will do my part to promote it (online learning, independent learning, etc.). But there's a whole 'nother consideration that can't be ignored. It's the same thought that comes up when I think about the successes I know from the home-schooling world:that in order to allow adolescent or younger learners to do independent study via online learning requires that there be familial or social resources to provide care and supervision over their daily lives, whether they are at a school or at home -- because they are, by law, minors.
I've ambled from your field to a neighboring one, but it's because you stimulate my thinking. Once again, thanks -- and I'll mention your site to others who haven't visited yet. Today I put it in a message to the ISS (Independent Schools Section) of AASL, in ALA.

Oh, great thanks for the link to the Mitinet conference address (which I also told them about) by Stephen Abrams. I'm intermittently listening to it. Very inspiring.

[Pat Aroune]

There must be an urgency on the part of educators to recognize the importance of online learning environments. Students leaving today's high schools, will need to be armed with sophisticated information management skills. Social bookmarking and blogging provide today's educators with the perfect tools to introduce the online skills necessary for life-long learning, as well as individual marketability. I could not agree with you more that teachers must begin to introduce online teaching sooner than later. Whether this is done in small doses, or comprehensive methods, educators will be letting their students down it they do not. Great work!

[Graham Wegner]

So what you are saying is that without impending disaster, many teachers may never get themselves online and using that as part of their teaching environment? Unfortunately, we probably do need to go to those extremes to make it happen! Except down under, a disaster is something like a drought which might not have the desired effect.

[Doug Johnson]

Well, yes, Graham, I think it will take something like this to get all teachers online. As someone once said, "As long as technology is optional, some teachers will choose not to use it."

And I don't know of any country that would be exempt from pandemic planning. (As I understand it, Minnesota's planning is based on the acronym YOYO - Your On Your Own.) Should schools be closed, online would allow teaching and learning to continue.

Sorry for my cynicism - or realism.

[arvind s grover]

Doug, I don't mind if people stumble onto the right things for the wrong reasons, but we have had a great deal of success in changing the culture of tech adoption. While it is sometimes slow, I'll take it any way it comes.

As for the disaster planning, Alan November and Will Richardson led a session for us at the New York State independent schools tech conference where we planned how to educate our kids if the bird flu hit and we were unable to attend school. You can listen to the podcast and read the online chat discussion here:
http://nycist.net/d/node/19