By the time I post this blog entry, a lot of learners and educators in Asia will have been learning online for several weeks. As I write this blog entry, I am waiting at the reception of the virtual space that will host learning and collaboration for my colleagues and me. Likewise, by the time I post this entry, I will continue to recognize the value of my PLN, who welcomed me as a thinking partner through their progress and, sincerely, gave me the chance to be strategic in the collective learning experience I start today.
As the time for my team at my current school and I to make decisions approached, wise words of fellow educators in Asia were ever-present in my head:
“Small is beautiful”
“Organization, Responsibility, Expectations, Objective”
“Do not replicate ‘the classroom’ into this environment’”
“Remember the variables for the new context”
“Imagine every possible invisible unforeseen challenge”
However, when the time for us to take action arrived, the words of my former team of Montessorians helped me shape a purposeful and meaningful virtual learning environment. Montessorians (and many non-Montessorians) live by two basic tenets:
“The learning environment should be ready, inviting, and purposeful” and
“Follow the Child”
And these two beliefs made me wondered about the looks of ta virtual space that hosted a pathway that would allow the child not to get lost so that I could follow them and meet them at the stage of their learning in which they were. These two ideas also made me reflect on the design of the learning environment that would not inflict unnecessary stress and confusion for both teachers, students… and parents.
At my current school, we use Schoolbox as our learning platform, so we made decisions around the skills and knowledge our community already had in order to amplify them and agreed on 4 basic learning zones in the landing page for every subject: A blog, where we would write weekly entries; visuals about our learning culture; a communication forum; and additional resources.
Nonetheless, what I value about my team members is how each of us wholeheartedly volunteered to develop harmonized resources that we all could use to diminish the workload and to empower everyone to be ready for teaching and learning.
Below are two images that capture the layout of our platform, and a link to download the learning environment posters, for those who would like to use them.
- we wanted it to look like a classroom whose corners or sides reflected a purpose)
- we wanted students to learn to navigate only one virtual space
- we wanted to keep track of the assessment criterion-strands (standards) we were addressing because we would be in learning portfolio mode.
- Displays with our protocols and essential agreements that we go through at the beginning of each engagement
- A weekly blog entry in which the learning to take place is described and linked to the learning objectives and assessment strands.
- A week overview, so that students know what type of engagements they will have throughout the week and they have the opportunity to design their personal schedule
- A weekly poll in which students share feedback on what is working for them because we design learning considering what is best for them.
- Links to support-documents for the tasks they have to do on that week: webinars, podcasts, demonstrations (for science).
- A communication forum where they would ask questions. The principle behind this is that all students may benefit from questions and answers and like this, we reduce email notifications greatly.
Ser y Estar 