Untapped potential

As educators we are always being called upon to be sharing good practice with our colleagues. It often doesn't happen and if the act of sharing is imposed on us, educators often become resentful, turning the task into an onerous one with negative feelings producing short-lived outcomes.

Imagine for a second that all educators could tap into the energy that already exists via the use of online collaborative tools and transform their own thinking by adding more depth and breadth to the processes that already happen within the four walls of a building. We would feel the sparks and be witness to an explosion of learning that perhaps has been unmatched since the invention of the Gutenberg press.

The age of collaborative learning is upon us - not created by formal institutions but by the people creating the technologies and the users demanding them. Stop to think of the untapped potential in education. Students are collaborating online anyway - researching, finding, sharing, collaborating and blogging. A generation of creators and creative users are out there working beyond the confines of a building. Sharing becomes a natiurally ocurring phenomenon. Sharing and exchanging evolves organically.

Holding a vision for sharing good practice between educators is necessary in order to widen teachers' perspectives on curriculum planning and delivery. Turning this into a reality has been difficult to implement in many institutions for a number of reasons a) teachers who deliver good or very good lessons might not necessarily deem the lesson to be extra-ordinary and worth sharing as they believe every other member of staff has a range of good and very good lessons b) many teachers focus on delivering and the learning that happens in their classroom as their core attributes rather than talking about what they are doing (they are 'doers' and not 'talkers') c) the process has to be an organic one (self-directed) and not ‘imposed’. So therefore, how could we better motivate and create the right conditions for this to happen?

Let's take a look at the virtues of online blogging, or social networking communities such as Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, DeviantArt, Etsy, Tumblr. One unifying aspect that stands out in my mind is that people use the sites to share experiences, findings, thoughts, activities and produce outcomes. These sites provide a platform for people to do their own thing which others observe. Individuals might not always share in the exchange but they do regularly observe to see what their colleagues are up to. I have also witnessed that the act of sharing has a positive impact on people’s activities. It is as if conscious observation is stored in the subconscious, the sources from which are later drawn upon in an individual’s work. It seems therefore, that the platform encourages an organic and self-directed kind of openness, transparency, communication, development and growth in a natural and fluid manner. People inspiring people.

To give an example Facebook is being used as a collaborative tool to motivate, inspire, recruit and maintain students' energy levels in a debating club. It has resulted in students performing very well in local and international competitions. Likewise in a yearbook club, its corresponding Facebook page is used by students working in a team to ensure every activity is being written about and photographed in a timely manner, as would be the case in any publishing facility.

Extending the concept of sharing, writing itself can be enhanced through collaboration. Isn't this how we work in a 'real' environment? We draft words, bounce ideas, redraft, send them off to someone for proofreading and get feedback before completing the final version? Wikis and forums all provide the necessary tools to enable writing to develop. Schools and universities could be doing so much more in helping their students extend their reading and writing skills. What better way to stretch students' abilities to read, analyse and discuss other than online, an environment native to many students? There is an awful lot of growth and development happening outside of the school which could be transferred into formal learning environments and it is this energy we need to be tapping into if we want to be moving forward.

Sadly, I feel that education in general is still very far behind the development and progress being made in the ‘virtual’ world. Management Information Systems would make a huge difference as this is a space where good practices could be observed. Despite the data-driven digital containers that we see and sometimes despise, communication between all parties would be greatly enhanced if the right package were to be chosen. A second place we need to be looking at is the web-site and the VLE. It is important that departments take ownership of their pages and keep the calendar and events pages regularly updated. VLEs such as Moodle are also relevant in helping to develop hubs of learning. If all departments were encouraged to use Moodle, all would observe how students are being engaged and how their close involvement in a subject’s activities online can spill over into the ‘real’ world. This would not come as a directive but via the Senior Management Team's efforts to become real users and share and cascade good practice. 

Fast internet connections are necessary pre-requisites to enable efficient and effective use of Management Information Systems, websites or VLEs and it is most definitely in these areas that I see much can be achieved in helping educators to exploit the potential for real learning to be taking place. But this too is dependent on implementing the right systems into place and for Senior Management to be using them. Vibrant online learning is hard to achieve without the involvement of all. But together, an organisaton can grow. Observing good practices and sharing them in a transparent environment leads to further development. As long as the institution knows what it wants to achieve, finds the systems that will match its vision and uses them at all levels of an organisation, huge progress can be made. The understanding, commitment, passion and drive, however, must come from a Senior Management Team willing to learn, speak and act in a single and united voice.

What then are we waiting for...