NorthStarUK Blog » Online learning

Snow and virtual reality in Derbyshire

Steve Richards — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 10:53:09 +0000

Dronfield in Derbyshire, like much of the UK, has experienced some pretty severe weather over the last week or so. Getting into the office this morning was interesting, to say the least, with most roads still reduced to single tracks and many cars parked in places that would suggest that the owners did not really want to keep them!

Unlike many face to face schools in the area, last week it was business as usual for us at NorthStarUK. One of the joys of online learning is that, whether one is a tutor or a student, we can all work wherever we are even without an internet connection (at least for a while) whatever the weather. The Head of our local secondary school said that while school was closed last week, students could access lesson material on the school’s recently developed Moodle server, since teachers would be uploading lessons during the week. As school was closed, she declared, they would be running as a ‘virtual school’ where students could work as normal.

I must confess to having a pet hate for the term ‘virtual’ when used to describe any online activities – whether it is schooling or ‘reality’. The term suggests that the activity is somehow ‘not real’. It is most popularly used to describe immersive activities like games or scenarios where ‘virtual reality’ is used to differentiate it from ‘real’ reality. The danger is, of course, that one somehow thinks that what one does in ‘virtual reality’ has no consequences in the real world – one can play violent games or engage in questionable behaviour in ‘virtual reality’ and because it is not ‘real’ it does not have moral consequences. As a Christian however, I would suggest that all behaviour is ‘real’ whatever the context and all behaviour has moral consequences.

My objection to the term ‘virtual school’ boils down to my dislike of modern schooling as a ‘construct’ and also the notion that what the Head was suggesting last week was somehow ‘unreal’. In one sense at least, what she was suggesting was ‘unreal’. Having spoken to a small number of students at the school over the weekend it seems that none of them did any work last week – online or otherwise – the worse snow for a generation in Dronfield led them to go out and play! Who says that children do not have an intrinsic understanding of what is important in life!

Students as owners of their own learning

Steve Richards — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 20:14:06 +0000

A few days ago I spent an hour chatting with a friend about her 17 year old son who is struggling with A levels. She wanted my advice, although if truth be told, I think she needed to tell her story to somebody much more than hear what I had to say. I have known her son for many years; he is a great lad with many gifts, notably as an artist. He scrambled through his GCSEs, with mostly middling sorts of grades. His mum wanted to speak with me because he struggled to organise his work and submit work to deadlines during his GCSE years; apparently the problem is persisting now that he is studying A levels. Except in art, where he works with enthusiasm, the young man either submits only scraps of paper as homework or does not submit any at all. How is it that a young man studying subjects that he has chosen to do can appear so disinterested and can so struggle with managing his academic affairs?

Whilst it is true that one cannot diagnose a general malaise on the basis of a single case, my years of teaching in face to face schools have convinced me that there is one thing in particular that schools do very badly; they struggle to empower children to take ownership of their own learning. Fundamentally, school structures remove real power from children and young people to such an extent that large numbers of children come to see school learning as something that is done to them or for them but not necessarily (in an empowering sense) by them. With this mindset, teachers are there – so the student thinks – to ensure that they get through exams, and work is submitted because the teacher wants it. Learning is not a process owned by the student ultimately leading to maturity and self-awareness.

Fundamental to the way that NorthStarUK works is a firm commitment to establish structures and patterns that provide children with opportunities to take ownership of their own learning – what subjects one studies, when in the week each lesson’s work is undertaken, even when to take holidays; these are all aspects of NSUK life that enable a student (with enormous support from parents) to learn skills that will enable them to move into further study with maturity and understanding.

Within a family setting, these radical approaches to learning can relatively easily be assimilated. The challenge for those of us working within a school context is to find ways to increasingly empower students so that they too, acquire these skills.

Some thoughts on pedagogy from Switzerland

ross — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 12:48:48 +0000

I recently returned from the EurECA Conference in Vevey, Switzerland. Apart from the memorable setting, overlooking Lake Geneva and looking at the peaks of the Dents du Midi in the distance, and the practical theme – How should Christians teach? – I will remember it for the insights of David Smith, now teaching at Calvin College, Grand Rapids USA, as he spoke primarily on pedagogy. He suggested we stop using the word methodology and re establish the word pedagogy. Briefly, his argument was that methodology is rooted in a scientific method, that if we teach in a specific way then there would be certain predictable results, whereas pedagogy stems from a community of learners living close to and learning from the ‘master’.

As I sat listening and making notes I found myself really thinking about how to start my teaching at the beginning of the year and how to start units of work in a more interesting way. David’s assertion was that how we start has a big impact on pupils and it really impacts on how they will react to our course over the year. As I reflected on how to apply this at Trinity School I also began to think – but how can this be applied to on-line teaching?

I know that my present lessons are better than when I started with NorthStarUK but the speed of change in schools classrooms brought about by constantly improving IT facilities, interactive white boards, You Tube clips etc mean that we can’t sit back either.

We clearly do a good job in teaching our NorthStarUK students from the results over the years, but as a Christian teacher I still want to do better. My personal challenge from the conference is focussed on improving the start of courses, but that is only the beginning, I can’t let the rest of the course become predictable and in the eyes of the students ‘boring’. So it looks as if there is yet more work to do in the next few months.