Interstitial Learning and Individual Devices
Good news: You can sign out your district-issued Chromebooks this week. That opportunity opens up a number of other opportunities, especially in a class that embraces an Internet-driven, interstitial access to learning. We’ve always been fortunate enough to have a class set of Chromebooks, but now every student has access to a computer, which means we’ve leveled the playing field entirely. You all have access to a device. The choice of using a computer or other device is now yours.
This matters because we’re all creatures of habit, and one of our habits is to occupy the same space in the same way at the same time. When you arrive to Room 210, most of you pick up a Chromebook from the classroom set, say hello to me, and then settle into your usual seat. It doesn’t matter if you’re writing an in-class essay, having a class discussion, or reading a post on this website — you keep the Chromebook open next to you. It doesn’t matter if you have a smartphone (~100% of you do) or a tablet, either — you associate classroom work with a classroom-specific computer plucked from a cart.
Our classroom set will be gone by the end of this week. Those Chromebooks are being repurposed for individual use. Our method of instruction won’t change, though, which means that you must bring your own computer or device to do work. That subtle shift in responsibility will make a noticeable difference in how you allocate your time and other resources. You’ll have to think ahead.
Your first assignment from this post is to organize your personal device, which includes (but isn’t limited to) the following:
- District-issued Chromebook
- Personal laptop
- Smartphone
- Tablet
Make this device into a tool for learning. This is deeper than setting up Google Drive and Gmail, although you need your Google tech to be organized; the device itself should be organized, from what tabs open when you launch a browser to which sites you bookmark to how you arrange and access apps. You are leaning on all four kinds of organization outlined in this post:
Getting Things Done
The device you choose is a physical object, much like a folder or backpack. It will only work as well as your mental approach to it. And you will need to plan ahead in terms of schedule in order to maximize what you do in class, which remains the all-important 36th chamber of instruction.
Assignment: Organize your device for learning, and then take screenshots of that organization. You’ll want screenshots of your Internet browser, bookmarks, Google Drive folders, and Gmail setup, but there are certainly more possibilities, like a screenshot of your smartphone’s app arrangement. Embed these screenshots in a Google Doc, explaining your organizational approach for each one. Attach that document to the appropriate Google Classroom assignment.
Something More Kinesthetic
On Tuesday, February 28, you received a printed copy of this post:
Orwell Essay Writing: Approach
The four quotations embedded in that post offer insight into how we approach essay writing. You’ve had time now to engage with the assignment online and offline, with the freedom to annotate and take notes as you see fit. That lets us talk about some of what separates your offline learning from your online learning. You need a mix of both, and you need to make choices that consider the efficacy of both.
Assignment: Write briefly but insightfully about what you did with the printed copy of the post and what you learned from the printed copy. Did you annotate it? What insight did that bring to the reading? Were the ideas clearer in some discernible way when you read the printed copy? Do you feel the difference in terms of learning and engagement when you consider these quotations offline? Answer some of these questions, plus any other questions that arise, and attach a copy of that writing to the appropriate Google Classroom assignment.
