Well, I've not had a chance to post much this week but I was looking for articles about teacher roles and found this one on the OLDAILY blog. http://drapestakes.blogspot.com/2008/10/hacking-curriculum.html
It seems to reference much of the same ideas as the Hacking Diploma blog posted by the Doc. I know the blog link is about how curriculum might change due to online delivery. Yes, there is a good possibility that a standardized curriculum for courses could be created to use for states, countries, or even the world. What is interesting is how Steven on the OLDaily blog comments about this link. He says about teachers that no longer create the class curriculum :"So what would they do? Coach students. Conduct assessments. Create community." Imagine what would teachers do. No more lesson plans or thinking what will work best now. It is all done for you. You just follow the plan and make it happen. I thought it sounded terrifying at first. Why even have teachers? Just create an online delivery system that has a FAQ and maybe an online Q&A session once a week. No need to do much teaching!
Then I backed off and thought about it. Well, what does a teacher that has taught algebra for 8 years do? They do what they did the year before. Same worksheets, same lessons, same tests, same projects. This doesn't seem that different. It is just about do you make your own lesson and reuse it, or does someone else make one that you reuse? I realize not all teacher just keep rehashing their old lessons, but most teachers only change small pieces of the lessons. perhaps they add a new tool or adjust some minor part of the lesson. This began to worry me. I hope others can give me some hope on the topic.
"Well, what does a teacher that has taught algebra for 8 years do?"
ReplyDeleteI think this class is a good example of what happens as courses evolve. The first year I taught this course, I did a LOT of new posts. Explanations. Clarifications. Diagrams. This version is actually the third complete rebuild and this Fall 2008 course is the third time I've used it.
This year, I'm spending less time posting new material because I'm still happy with the article I did before. I've re-written a couple of them and I've added new stuff as it comes in. I believe that this is exactly what any other teacher does -- builds on the foundations of the past to incorporate the new. Because it's digital and online, making those changes and enhancements is pretty easy.