Bring on winter I say. Amid all this ‘covidiocy’ and corona crisis our first day of winter behaved exactly how it should. A breath of fresh air when you think about it. Good on many levels.
Apart from the virus gaining the moniker of ‘the Miley Sirus’, there have been some other outcomes from this ‘iso’ time. One of those outcomes is the idea that kids can chose what they learn and when they learn it. Who would have thought!
There are two things happening here. 1 Learners are making rules, and 2. Learners are allocating resources.
In the first instance, our learners have been given the power to determine when and what school directed learning they will participate in. Quite a new concept for many. But what is at heart, a resounding trait of progressive education.
Secondly is the allocation of resources. This happens when devices, time and location are selected by the learner to shape their learning. Collaborative learning practices need to be negotiated so that students can work together on their learning. Let’s face it though – as adults we do this anytime we are trying to make an entry into our diaries to meet with someone.
Mixed in with this is the idea of trying to see connections between Anthony Giddens’ theory of structuration and James Gibson’s affordance theory.
Affordances reside in the learning ecology and are the product of an agents attunement to the possibilities to act offered by an object in the ecology.
The necessary stuff includes, objects in the world, agents in the world (connected by a shared ‘place’) Action and attunement.
Goddess structuration on the other hand requires agents in the world and social structures.
Given the COVID-19 disruption to teaching and learning, I think there is a place to explore how these both connect.
And of course, the bit common to both theories is that of the agent, the person in the middle!