Comments on: Developing Leaders NCSL Conference: Classroom Without Walls

By: Dai Barnes

Dai Barnes — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 21:05:33 +0000

Interesting discussion Tom et al. Theory vs practice.

In my experience I would hyperthetically employ protagonists of both. Say you were to build a school and start employing folk. Wouldn’t you look for a mixture of great hands-on professionals blended with theorists who crossed ‘t’s and dotted ‘i’s with great attention to detail? It may be somewhere in this blend that wealth is found. Somewhere all parties at the table are challenged and celebrate good teaching. Isn’t this the best way to stop children from slipping through the net?

Sometimes the doers amongst us need reassurance, questions answered; equally, the intellectual interrogator surely desires practical application.

Hello team!

By: Tom

Tom — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 20:38:19 +0000

You are welcome Glenn, I am pleased you have perhaps found something useful to use at your school. Thanks for the comment.

By: Tom

Tom — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 20:37:08 +0000

Hi Jenny, I have to admit I echo much of your comment. You suggest that much of your motivation in immersing yourself in PLNs etc comes from “seeing the kids get excited”. I know that feeling well and can relate to it.

I have hardly mentioned a learning theory in writing this blog in over 2 years of posts – I set my stall out from the beginning to make a practical exposition of what I do in the classroom and that is the way it has stayed. As I replied to Tomaz “I leave the theory and debate to others.” And I remember vividly when I began writing there seemed to be more theory and debate then real practical advice in the edublogosphere.

After all these replies it sort of feels (and maybe reads) like I am being a bit defensive, and I find it curious that such a debate may begin on the least theoretical biased blog around IMHO.

As Michael states above people have different roles and I see mine as a practitioner.

By: Tom

Tom — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 20:27:25 +0000

Thanks Pete – it would be good to see those thoughts about “breaking those barriers down between the kids” expanded on. I look forward to your post.

By: Tom

Tom — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 20:25:50 +0000

Thankyou Michael for you comment – in my opinion when a presenter speaks of real experience, practical advice from work they have done with children it resonates far louder. (especially to fellow teachers)

I agree completely that we could wrap ourselves up for days in the theory – it is more important to put your energy into impacting on children’s learning.

There is clearly an important place for those that have a rich and deep understanding of theory etc but the activist, the doer, the classroom teacher has so little time to actually develop that depth of understanding. I have just managed to find 10 minutes after doing report writing all evening to comment here.

A theoretical understanding of what I am doing tomorrow in class is a small priority in the running of a busy class.

By: Tom

Tom — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 20:18:28 +0000

Hi Tomaz – thanks for taking the time for such a thoughtful comment. It is interesting how this has spun off from the blog post – the last thing I expected really, curious nonetheless.

I am unsure whether Gary is levelling the “lack of theory” comment at the presentation I embedded or the blog post itself? Perhaps he can explain some more.

I never meant the blog post to be some sort of paper on the subject. In fact my blog has never purported to be that in any shape or form. It is about ICT in my classroom, a practical snapshot of what I do. I leave the theory and debate to others.

I write and advise from my experience. I have a healthy respect and understanding for the place that theory has, however it is not something I think about everyday. As a consequence I don’t refer to it much in what I do.

If I am guilty of being over practical, writing about the warts and all realities of technology to support learning in my classroom and guilty of presenting to colleagues in that workshop in an “I did this yesterday with my class” sort of style – then I am comfortable with that. That’s just me.

By: Mark Walker

Mark Walker — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 13:09:11 +0000

Tom
Interesting debate going on here about theory and action. My take on all this is having a theory lets us slot the various pieces of the puzzle together then we can take reasoned and reflective action.
Mark

By: peterhall

peterhall — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 06:51:31 +0000

Thanks Tom.
Led here following @allanahk’s post referencing @garystager’s remark about historic perspective.
I think it’s vital that teachers ask themselves ‘why’ at just the right frequency to enhance development but not so much that they stop in thought. You seem to hit that balance.
I can’t describe in this short space how passionate I am about breaking those barriers down between the kids in our class before we talk about ‘networking’ and making connections beyond. I’m amazed that this is the first reference I’ve ever seen to that comparison in all my trawling the teacher-tech blogs.
I made a presentation on ‘teachers as social engineers’ at an unconference ( #may9 ) and it really helped me sort my ideas. I’ll blog on it sometime and when I do I’ll reference this post.
Cheers,

Pete Hall

By: roadster5555

roadster5555 — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 03:04:57 +0000

The debate about theory and practice and ed revolutions is, IMHO, an example of paradigm change as illustrated by Kuhn’s work where he says the challenge to long help paradigms brings confusion and debate and charges of being wrong headed, non-theoretical, ideological, un-theoretical, not bounded by theory etc. The lack of theory here is a chimera as there is a confusion of research, theory and paradigms to sort through as Tomaz pointed out above – and a lack of time to sort it all out.

By: Tom

Tom — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 15:25:37 +0000

I wasn’t that surprised by the difference between the take up on Facebook and Twitter. I think it is about teachers understanding the value of having a working network to help with their work.

Dan from Futurelab (@dannno) explained that sometimes having people from museums and art galleries, for example, in your network can help to solve problems in different ways. Creative people who think differently.

Can you explain what you mean by “The only problem is that it becomes very hard to filter and distribute key information to those that need it.”?