Distributed Learning Communities

Collective, Global, Knowledge, Collaboration, Creation, Sharing, Mastery, Active, Real, Understanding, Diversity. Community, Identity, Intellectual…
 Do I have your attention yet? Do you wish the above words could apply to your classroom on a daily basis? Does the above list get you excited about teaching and/or learning?

 The words above were all pulled from two articles describing “Distributed Learning Communities,” written by Chris Dede of Harvard University. Although the articles were published in 2004, the insight and suggestions he gives are fascinating regarding the concept of this sort of learning and teaching. 8 years later, we are perhaps making a bit of headway, but education still has a long ways to go in creating this type of learning and teaching environment.

 What is a Distributed Learning Community? To summarize some of the definitions given in the articles: -A Distributed Learning Community includes “educational experiences that are distributed across a wide variety of geographic settings, across time and across various interactive media.” -The teacher’s role consists of “organizing and facilitating student-directed activities.” -Students are not expected to all be on the same page at the same time. A student’s “centrality can change over time.” However, all members’ contributions are equally important, and those “working in peripheral roles are also valued for their contributions.” -In summary, a Distributed Learning Community (DLC) means “everyone is involved in a collective effort of understanding.”

 While I found many aspects of this article interesting, one point that really caught my attention was the differences between the DLC concept and that of a traditional classroom. I have always thought that I would not become one of those teachers that would become “stuck in a rut,” but after reading an article like this, I’m ashamed to say that in many ways I have let myself hang on to tightly to some traditional teaching methods and assessment that need to be kicked to the curb. Do I like photocopying the same worksheets and quizzes every year? Yep. Is this a best practice? Nope.

 Dede reminds us over and over in his writing of the need to find ways to foster 21st century skills in today’s learners. We need to prepare them to be global citizens with higher order thinking skills that are needed in a modern workplace. So how do we best do this? As teachers, we have to be willing to change our methods in order to keep up with an ever-changing world! As already mentioned, we need to learn to take on the role of a facilitator. For me, transferring the “power” to my students is hard! However, in letting them be responsible for their own learning AND that of a group, this can only lead to a stronger investment and interest in learning. The teacher needs to be the organizer, but let the students lead the learning.

While all of this makes sense and sounds good, can we really do this in our classrooms? Can we make this type of learning work in our schools? I appreciated the fact that the author repeated over and over that in order to make this work, teachers need to be given the tools, training, and professional development necessary to implement this. How many times have you sat in a meeting or inservice and wondered, “Why am I here?” Hmm, now that I think about it, is that what my students are thinking about my lessons sometimes? But back to our point about professional development – if schools are not willing to adapt their teacher training, this is not going to work. Dede reminds us that we have to stop focusing on the shallowness of prepping students for standardized tests, but learn to “assess and value the many dimensions of student success.” Also, “building teacher capacity to value diverse perspectives and contributions is vital.”

 Over the past two weeks I have appreciated joining a DLC through my online studies at the University of Northern Iowa. It has reminded me that while the role of a teacher is vital, we can learn so much by being connected with our classmates and having to depend on them and work as a team to teach each other and accomplish assigned tasks. As I finish a school year and look ahead to a new one, I feel re energized to revamp some of my lessons and assessments and start to make the changes necessary to foster this sort of learning in my own classroom.