Comments on: No Longer a Teacher

By: Pam

Pam — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 08:42:55 +0000

I very much appreciate your addition of designer in the redefinition of teacher– today heard someone speak to idea that teachers need learning studios where they work collaboratively to co-create learning opportunities. Is the next logical step is to redefine students as learners and designers?

By: lindatrader

lindatrader — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 03:28:25 +0000

I am reading this blog as a part of an online course I am taking where they have used your blog to help us learn about Wiki’s in the classroom. I totally agree that teachers must be learners first and yes designers also. I have a Master’s and have taught for 20 years but I am still taking courses (mostly online now) as that is the most efficient use of my time. I value my graduate programs that I have taken and plan on continuing in that area. Thank you for zeroing in on how we need to change to facilitate our students’ learning in the future. I am learning how to navigate Wiki’s to use with my students in order to allow collaboration and research that they will be comfortable using as they are using technology daily.

By: Gerald Aungst

Gerald Aungst — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 18:47:33 +0000

@Todd, I understand what you’re trying to say, but I strongly disagree. While the personal learning is important and cutting edge, there is still tremendous value in time-tested, thoroughly explored understanding that has made its way through the publication process. I would hardly call it redundant. That’s not to say that every graduate program is equally relevant, of course.

There’s also the structure and rigor that’s built into those programs. In your life, you are free to choose to learn (or not learn) whatever you like. In a graduate program, you are both constrained and stretched. In most of the graduate courses I took, I found that I was exposed to ideas and books that I would never have chosen on my own, and I thought about them more deeply because of the requirement to respond and discuss the ideas.

Formal education is by no means dead. It may need some updating in some cases, and it needs to take other ways of learning into account, but I think there will always be a place for it in our professional development.

By: Todd Wandio

Todd Wandio — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:43:58 +0000

I like your new definition of our profession. Actually, I have avoided graduate school, because I find my personal learning has exploded past the offerings at a graduate level. By the time any new idea is explored to a publishable point, it is nearly redundant. Thank you for the clarity of thought in this blog.

By: Tweets that mention No Longer a Teacher | Quisitivity -- Topsy.com

Tweets that mention No Longer a Teacher | Quisitivity -- Topsy.com — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 11:22:27 +0000

[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Mark Carls, Damian Bariexca, Tamas Lorincz, Gerald Aungst, GilMattos and others. GilMattos said: RT @geraldaungst: RT @geraldaungst: New blog post: No Longer a Teacher http://wp.me/pxKgl-4B (A MUST read, IMHO) […]

By: Kelly

Kelly — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 01:00:52 +0000

Teachers have to be designers. I so agree. With a diverse student body and classrooms, a one size fits all curriculum is not going to work. If teachers can’t design solutions to reach the various learners in the classroom there is a problem. Design requires creativity, innovation, and a solid grasp of the concepts being taught and the needs of the learner. It is a big job but one that we must be ready to tackle.

By: Gerald Aungst

Gerald Aungst — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 21:35:42 +0000

I appreciate the comments and the responses to my thoughts about teachers being designers, but I don’t want to lose sight of what I really feel comes first: being a learner. We can’t do either the design or the teaching well if we are not continuously on a path of learning and growing. Without that attitude, any design we come up with will, I believe, be superficial and hollow.

@Thomas, I do understand your perspective, but I think there are more caring, thoughtful teachers than that. I don’t think there are many people who could tolerate the realities of teaching today if it were truly just a job and a paycheck. I think people like that tend to weed themselves out fairly early in the process.

By: Thomas Boito

Thomas Boito — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 21:11:38 +0000

Far too many people who consider themselves teachers have a really limited conception of what that means. It’s a job and a paycheck, nothing more. To be really good at it you need to see it as so much more.

By: Ian Byrd

Ian Byrd — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 20:26:28 +0000

I love your idea of teacher as designer. We must design everything from seating to lessons to behavior management around our unique group of students.

By: alistair fitchett

alistair fitchett — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 09:50:20 +0000

Nice post. I posted an extract on my own here http://unpopular.typepad.com/transformation/2010/02/no-longer-just-a-teacher.html

I really like that idea about teachers engaging with the design process. I did a research project about ten years with the British Film Institute in which I started to explore the creative process. I found it really exciting, and it led into work in my school about unpacking the learning process. My argument was (and still is) that the learning process and the creative process (which you might want to call the design process) are essentially the same thing.

If teachers can unpack that process and understand how they can develop the learning opportunities they offer students such that those opportunities deliver on each of the stages of that process, then i think we produce more effective teachers and learners.

The BFI project page is here http://www.bfi.org.uk/education/research/teachlearn/digied/

My full paper is here http://www.bfi.org.uk/education/research/teachlearn/pdf/07_fitchett_alistair.pdf