I am fascinated by
narrow views of technology in education and would like to pull back our lens to
the broader visioning school leaders should be practicing in the 21st
century. Ole Jensen (Discourse Analysis
and Sociospatial Transformation Processes. School of Architecture, Planning and
Landscape) argues any planning process as a consideration of the “relationship between the
material practices and the symbolic meaning that social agents attach to their
spatial environments…” For me, this means that the tension between
material practices (the day to day doings of a school) and the symbolism we
attach (the sacred cows) effects how we arrange our environments. Unfortunately,
most 1:1 planning and implementation only looks at the technology
infrastructure. What about all the other
material and symbolic meanings of “school”.
I’d like to discuss how considering the Physical, Virtual and Cultural
elements of our schools how this broader lens might make 1:1 implementations
more valuable for all learners.
The catch in bringing K-12 education into the 21st century can partially be attributed to how many of us still
attach our own experiences to “school” – sitting in rows, teacher at the front handing
out content, students sitting passively.
But do we adults let
our own symbolism influence how the space functions for a young
visitor? Do we realty embrace innovations that allow us to move
beyond our four walls? Will we be ready
for the changes 1:1 will bring to school culture and what might those be?
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| http://www.slideshare.net/lamastej/birds-of-a-feather-presentation-beyond-1-to-1 |
