Relational Technology

As I listened to Greg Bitgood's podcast I connected most with these three statements:

• What technology really does though is it extends ourselves into larger spaces much more efficiently and quickly... They extend our influence, experiences and ultimately our relationships.

•  Does your class move through virtual space as well as physical? Do you help your students nurture a virtual persona? Do they publish online? Do they tweet? Do they Skype? Does each have a profile page representing their current learning? Do they answer questions from other students in other schools, and ask their own questions in turn?

•  Let’s forever cast away the idea that technology hinders or prevents “real” relationships. 

Just this morning I have had the opportunity to   confront, in love, an online student who has all year avoided the work, ignored my invitations for relationship and defied her mother’s tears.  We worked through presumption (you owe me a pass), manipulation (my mother is crying), and got all the way to the student taking initiative (if I.. would you consider...?).That's relational technology!

Then I  read yet another Socials 5 assignment where students were asked to compare technology today and interview their grandparents about technology of their day. Without fail, the older generation sees technology as limiting relationship... despite the fact that many of  their grandchildren have relationship with them, with teachers, with other students around the globe through technology!  Talk about a myth that needs to be exposed! 

Every day I use technology to extend my teaching world to Brazil, China and Horsefly BC!  Everyday our students have the opportunity to use technology through our online library, through various resources to be taught by teachers (through videos, links, webinars. Let's enter that space with them and learn together!http://www.thechristianeducator.org/content/view/189/27/

I just read a great blog: Adolescents Crave Purpose.  We know it's true!  I am no adolescent but I haven't stopped craving purpose!  I can't help but think the church and Christian Education are missing out on the obvious. Christ offers the greatest purpose of all - purpose for life, purpose for learning, purpose for doing and being!  We must do our utmost to remove the obstacles we set in the path of today's learners (tomorrow's leaders).  

What obstacles?  

• thinking that meaningless regurgitation of facts indicates learning
• presenting uninspiring learning activities, outdated textbooks, assessment that doesn't measure for learning
• defaulting to the methods and materials of our generation
• accepting mediocre resources because it's got the Christian label denying our students the training and opportunity to think deeply, to ask and be asked in a variety of learning communities.  

Let's give our disciples-in-training meaningful learning experiences that involve their hearts, minds, hands and voices!

Getting Ready for Graduation

"Who are your students becoming?  What experiences do they need to become that?"

(thoughts from The Vancouver Symposium on 21st Century Christian Education) 

I have spent 3 intense days with many incredibly deep-thinking educators from various corners of God's Earth, wrestling with the notion of how we need to change education's paradigms so that our students are prepared for a world we cannot begin to conceive of.  

How clear is your idea of who God has created your child to be?  What might His purposes be?  How are you designing educational experiences to allow your child to 'apprentice life' in a real, safe, and developmentally appropriate environment with the freedom to risk, to fail, and to try again?  We have such an amazing opportunity to move boldly forward.  Let's not "default" to the educational experiences we endured in rows of desks with dated textbooks and teachers standing up front... especially in a home school world!  

Hands on experiences, field trips, interactive web site learning venues, talking with experts, building and creating, and using technology tools allows our students a more dynamic learning environment than reading textbooks, filling in workbooks, and raising hands to ask for permission to go to the washroom.  With educational tools such as Blooms Modified Taxonomy and Garner's Multiple Intelligences, we can be intentional in the way we vary and leverage the learning opportunities for our students.  With Scripture open, we can explore every topic and concept through the lens of Truth, to the glory of our God and King! 

Easter

With a few "Twitter word"... the Gospel comes alive!!

What's The Deal With "Worldview"?

In his recent podcast #140-21st Century Learning Part 3, Greg Bitgood (my boss!) says: "We want our students to see the world through a Biblical Worldview and thus reason from that perspective."

I would like to expand on that key, essential idea from my reading Living at the Crossroads. In Chapter 2, What is Worldview? Goheen quotes James Sire (Naming the Elephant: A worldview is a commitment, a fundamental orientation of the heart... that provides the foundation on which we live and move and have our being. Goheen goes on to say Everyone has a worldview, and this is given expression in their lives, but not everyone is able to articulate what that worldview is.

Now my "teacher" heart leaps! For it is developing that ability to articulate which fuels my passion for teaching. In the same vein, Greg says: "We cannot escape the fact the critical thinking must originate upon a platform or position to think from, to critique from. To think critically implies a bias, a perspective from which they criticize the content or idea or art, etc."

And? Where do I go from here? The reason I am so enjoying Goheen's book is because he is absolutely clear in his call that we MUST be solidly Bible-based thinkers. "If our worldview should, by our neglect, lose its roots in Scripture, it becomes vulnerable to be taken over by some story other than that of the biblical drama."

My challenge: How solid is your Bible program? How intentional is your teaching focus on Bible as a curricular subject? Are you relying on Sunday School time to teach "the true story of the world"? Does time in your day for Bible get shelved for other more pressing agendas like hockey practice or finishing the Math chapter? Do you assume your children already know their Bibles? Are you intimidated by words like "theology"? When faced with enormous stories like the earthquake in New Zealand and the unspeakable suffering and outcry in Libya, do you have a "coherent framework" to deal with LIFE and see God's story unfolding? Is our Gospel big enough, wide enough, long enough? What's the deal with worldview in your home school today?

Living At The Crossroads

As my husband listens to broadcasts direct from Al Jazeera, I am struck with the importance of the book I am currently reading: Living at the Crossroads by Michael Goheen and Craig Bartholomew.  Surely we are living at the Crossroads!   

This book does not address the crossroads of history, but the crossroads of Western Culture and the Christian world view.  The first chapter asks some interesting questions about our understanding of Gospel, Story, Worldview and the Church's Mission.  It requires us to step back and examine our assumptions.  I am looking forward to some challenging ideas and opportunities to refine my own thinking on Christian worldview and how we MUST be clear in our teaching today's children who most certainly need a clear, Gospel-centered view of the world God is bringing about!

Challenges from chapter 1:

Do we understand that we live at the crossroads of two stories: the Biblical story and the Western story? Do we know how very different these two stories are?  Have you ever considered that the Western story claims to be the true story of the world?  Consider how vastly different the Eastern story being played out today is from our story!  

Have you ever thought about how radically opposed to the Biblical story the Western story is?  How do we live, work, educate, celebrate all that God's story declares while totally immersed in the Western culture of progress, consumerism and humanism?  

What does that look like as we teach children to read, write, think and believe?

What About 21st Century Learning? Part 1

I have just listened to an inspiring, challenging, question-raising podcast:

Greg Bitgood, Superintendent, Heritage Christian Schools, my boss, visionary leader, and supporter is beginning a series of podcasts on the BC Premier's Technology Council report on "A Vision for 21st Century Education” which was released in December.  I am not often excited about reports from the BC Premier's office, but I AM very excited about this report and about hearing Greg's reflections.

The Report considers four topics and Greg reflects on these as they pertain to distinctive Christian education.  In this blog, I would like to consider:

1. Needs of the Knowledge-Based Society.  Numeracy and Literacy skills will always be important, but the context and the scope of those skills are going to be applied by our students in a world vastly different from the one we as adults grew up expecting to operate our lives in. iPads and Kindles are only just the beginning!

Last evening my 18 month old granddaughter looked at her Mummy's computer and asked, "Where Lala?" (she can say "apple juice" but not "Granny"! go figure!).  How do we even begin to imagine what her literacy and numeracy skill set will need to encompass?  Consider how out-of-touch the teaching methods I began with in the classroom of the early '70's would be in her classroom!  

Sitting here today at my computer, I wonder, "How do I encourage and challenge Mums who bring to their kitchen tables a particular mind-set of education that is the product of such teaching methods?  Do we understand that a knowledge-based society has quite different numeracy and literacy skills than a product-based society required a generation ago?  CRITICAL THINKING becomes ... well... critical! 

I love what Greg says: "As Christian educators in this 21st Century we have to build the foundations, the platforms, so to speak, that we can reason and think from. It is more than just helping them choose the right web pages to use from their Google search. Good critical thinking only happens from the objective position of a well thought worldview. Never before has our meta-narrative been more important in the minds of our young learners."

How will you ensure that your children gain foundational mastery of numeracy and literacy skills so that they excel in FSAs (as if that was important!) AND gain critical thinking because they have developed a well thought out world view?  I would like to recommend reading Mike Goheen's excellent book Living at the Crossroads: An Introduction to Christian Worldview  if you are seeking a way to think about these things, to understand more deeply and critically just what a Christian worldview might need to consider.