Light bulb moment

Today was the first full day of the Central States Conference in Minneapolis. It's always a wonderful experience to see language teaching colleagues old and new, check out what's in the exhibit hall and roll the dice to see if I pick the best sessions of the many that are offered. It's interesting as I reflect on my teaching, not only in the classroom tools but in the content that I teach and how over the years that changes the face of my choices in sessions. This year I'm combining a look at technology tools in education and attending mostly elementary sessions. As I retool myself to meet the needs of my current audience, I recognize that what I'm doing today may be completely different from what I'm doing in five years. Through all of this the pedagogy and best practices aren't changing, its how we approach them.

So, what do I mean by that. Let's start with mobile learning. When asked most people seem to be thinking of cell phones, smart phones, any technology that they can carry with them so that you can learn anytime anywhere. While I don't disagree with that, I don't see it as a new idea either. People have been learning "mobilely" forever. As a language teacher we know that the best way to get to know a culture and learn a language is to be there. It doesn't happen within the walls of a classroom, it happens outside in the real world. Now we just have some additional tools that can be used to give us some more in depth information than what we perhaps used to have. Or maybe it isn't even the information that has changed so much as the way we access that information. The trick is making it a natural part of our learning. For many teachers it may still be hard to let go enough to recognize that learning can happen when the teacher isn't around and the teacher's role can be to ask the questions that help the students recognize what they have learned in the process of simply being out in the world as observers and explorers.

Another question that has come to mind as I think about the presentation we did today and the workshop I will present tomorrow is terminology. In language teaching we refer to the use of "backward design" of a lesson. The idea of starting with assessment so you know what it is that you want the students to be able to do when they are done. Then you build your learning such that students can reach that goal or demonstrate to what extent they have reached that goal. So why is that "backwards?" Seems to me it is forward design. We don't build a house without having the architects complete plan in place first and then take all the pieces and put them together to reach the final product. Is that design backwards also? I have no answers to that question right now and perhaps it doesn't matter. After all it's just the jargon we use. The most important part is focusing on the learner and being sure that they have the scaffolding in place to learn wherever they are whenever they want to and to have the skills to make sense of what they are experiencing. Those will be the skills that will help them to be creative, contributing members of a society that we can't yet imagine.