[R]ather than assuming that education is primarily about preparing for jobs and careers, what would it mean to think of education as a process of guiding kids’ participation in public life more generally, a public life that includes social, recreational, and civic engagement?
― Mizuko Ito
I was recently scrolling through my smartphone’s photos when I came across an interesting file. My 14-year-old son and his friend had made a short video with augmented reality. They used the iPhone app FX Master to create a brief clip of throwing a virtual bomb at an animated Godzilla (played by my son). When the bomb hit Godzilla, he blew up with an accompanying roar. My son’s friend timed it perfectly, covering his head and backing away at the moment of impact.
A few things to note here. First, I had nothing to do with this production. It apparently happened while I was away or ambivalent about one of their projects. Two, as raw as the footage was, clearly some planning had occurred. The timing of the throw of the weapon and subsequent reaction to the explosion must have been rehearsed beforehand. Finally, they came upon this app on their own.
I find it interesting that my son, like a lot of kids, will put more time and effort into a production like this than into a lot of what he engages in at school. So, what do we do? Some would argue that we should let them be the natural learners that they are.
Natural Learners
Ito and Hearst conducted a study in which they observed youth interacting with peers around digital media and ways of communicating, such as YouTube, messaging, and remixing music. They found that kids tend to follow a common progression for self-directed learning:
- Hanging Out: maintaining social connections with friends in online and/or in-person spaces
- Messing Around: taking an interest in and focusing on the workings and content of the technology and media themselves, tinkering, exploring, and extending their understanding
- Geeking Out: learning that is peer-driven but focused on gaining deep knowledge and expertise in specific areas of interest
This process can be challenging, especially for educators and parents who are used to a more traditional form of learning. Ito and Hearst document that adults will often describe kids interacting with friends online as “a waste of time.” This is my own experience. I have observed my own children watching someone playing Minecraft on YouTube. I’ve asked, “Why don’t you just play Minecraft?”
I’ve gotten a side look along with a “Daaad . . . ,” before they’ve returned to the video.
And yet I remember the self-directed learning I engaged in at their age. I loved playing baseball, and I wanted to be a pitcher. I would watch copious amounts of major-league games on television with friends (the Brewers and the Cubs). I would take special notice of the unique motions of each pitcher, the types of pitches they threw, the specific batting counts, and so on. Then I would go outside and pitch against the garage door with a tennis ball. To simulate a strike zone, I laid out an appropriately sized square with duct tape. This practice was combined with playing actual games with my peers. Yes, I got better at baseball, and I also improved socially and emotionally with all this time interacting in a group.
If we believe that social and emotional learning is just as important as academics, then we might consider setting up our classrooms and schools to support this type of environment. Next are some guiding questions and ideas for organizing resources, space, and time that are most conducive for self-directed learning in these areas.
Resources
- Bring in board games that students can play together, the less competitive the better. For example, The Initiative is like Clue except all players must work together to break the codes.
- Prepare inclusion activities at the beginning of the day or before lessons that help students get to know one another on a personal level. Chat Packs offer fun questions for morning meetings.
- Mobile technology is helpful, but you do not have to ensure one device per student. Consider making available a limited number of tablets or laptops so students are forced to collaborate on a digital project. (Dr. Sugata Mitra recommends a student-to-device ratio of 4:1 based on his research.)
Space
- Consider arranging your classroom into “zones” instead of typical pods or rows. Veronica Lopez suggests seven learning zones, such as a quiet zone for kids who prefer solitude when reading or writing.
- Bring in flexible chairs, tables, and other furniture that support our more “spirited” students and kids who need movement. Flexible furniture should allow a class to transition quickly between whole-group, small-group, and individual study. Heidi Hayes Jacobs offers a lot of ideas for more modern classroom spaces in this article for the School Superintendents Association.
- Teach students how to positively interact with peers in safe online communities. Favorites include Scratch (a coding community) and Fanschool (formally Kidblog, a blogging platform). Catlin Tucker provides a helpful short guide for teachers in this Educational Leadership column.
Time
- Co-organize the classroom library with your students. This process incorporates resources, space, and time, and it is a great first-week activity for building community. Support students in making decisions about how the books should be grouped and later maintained during independent reading. (I shared about how this process works in classrooms in my school in this article, images included.)
- Schedule at least 30 minutes per week in which students have almost total control over their learning. This includes pursuing the questions they are interested in researching and how they will represent their learning. The Genius Hour Guidebook is one resource to support this work.
- Devote time to giving older kids the option of writing fan fiction during the literacy block. This article by Ki Sung for Mindshift highlights the benefits of allowing students to “build upon or take liberties with existing stories.”
We can take small steps toward hanging out, messing around, and geeking out that may turn into a giant step of engagement.
