Lazyteacher

So, I indulged in a tripartite sin of multitasking yesterday morning. I was listening to Will Richardson interview Clay Shirky on uStream while paying attention to the accompanying chat while helping my daughter figure out what she wanted to do outside.  Of course, I did all three badly. Shirky said something something about people learning stuff differently. My daughter was not encouraged by my absent-minded suggestions that she “bike it off.” And I engaged in a short uChat back and foth with Clay Burrell about face to face communication. I think at one point I used the word Burgermeister.

I always like reading Beyond School–not because I agree with his ideas (I usually don’t) but his ideas are ones I want to believe in. He is of the semi-anarchist anti-coercicion school of teaching which I find very appealing. I’ve always had dreams of an utopia wherin all grades were banished, students were there because they wanted to be, and we learned what we wanted based on what interested us. Kindof like I learn now. Although I thihnk my Utopia had me traveling with my students across Europe as well.

Burrell suggested that we don’t need buildings and when I asked him about face to face communication, he responded that “We get together f2f when we want, where we want. “flash ed-mobs.” And again, logically, that’s crazy talk. We’ll have 100s of thousands of students wandering around with their iPhones looking for an eduMob to drop into. Can you imagine anything else more designed to strike terror in the hearts of adults (although that may be a vote in the positive column for the idea).

Still, doesn’t it sound fun? You could just go to the library and text out “All y’all up for a little creative writing come on down” and then scores of hirsute teens would or wouldn’t show up. Kids would get points for every mob they attended (or not! too much like grades…maybe any certification we’d be interested in would be solely attached to actual work they created. A portfolio).  The teacher might get paid according to his/her draw and the evaluation of his customers.

Sometimes drawing lines outside of the box creates ideas that are more helpful than being logical. What if I had 2 weeks in my essay fundamentals class where we didn’t meet at all.  We all wrote wherever, whenever and met up or didn’t by checking in on a chat or other social network.  Still impossible…but closer. Would the absence of coercion make up drive more learning or would it allow more slacking?  That’s always the question, no?