Editor’s note: Each Friday we feature guest bloggers that are involved in rethinking what is possible with schooling and the education system.
Two professionals from the School of One sat down recently for a discussion with Education Innovating, about their about their experiences starting and working in an entirely new learning environment, merging newly-created software with unorthodox learning model and classroom design. Lauren Slough is a third-year teacher in New York City, who has spent the past month teaching in the School of One. Chris Rush is executive director of consulting services at Wireless Generation, and one of the founders of the school.
Find notes of the conversation here.
We wanted to learn a teacher’s perspectives about how the character of her teaching job changes when it moves to a technology-mediated environment from the traditional model, and to understand the essential role that partnerships with private companies—to create software, design a technology-infrastructure for the school, providing technicians to launch and improve it in cooperation with teachers—played in creating and running the school.
The conversation illuminated three fascinating points. First, the behavior of students and teachers can be changed by changing the design of the learning environment, in this case a classroom. Second, it is possible to use technology to get more learning in the same amount of time. And third, schools can tap into a wealth of expertise if they form partnerships with private parties, on their terms.