The Classroom as the Learning Protagonist

“Virgil and the Muses,” Musée du Bardo, Tunis, Tunisia

Picture taken by Jonathan Acuña (2019)

 

The Classroom as the Learning Protagonist

Who are classrooms for?

After listening to Laura Lewin (2020), on the Laureate Languages Webinar “Arquitectura Escolar: El Aula como Protagonista,”her stream of thought made me wonder a lot about how the classroom space needs to be rethought. Though Lewin (2020) focused her presentation on brick-and-motar classrooms, this type of education has not changed much in the last 100 to 150 years. At that time, as explained by Lewin (2020), the only one source of knowledge and information in this distant past was the teacher. The fact is that today input to build one’s knowledge comes from a great gamut of sources. But when I continue to think of Lewin’s teachings, it makes me continue to wonder about the virtual classroom more and more and how similar both teaching/learning environments are.

Regardless of the type of classroom one is teaching in, think for a moment what the objective of the classroom is. Who benefits from the virtual classroom, the student or the teacher? “Among the many advantages of an online education, you’ll find virtual classroom are great for people who are advancing their education while working” (Drexel University School of Education, n.d.). Based on this statement, and following what Lewin (2020) explains, it is the learners who need to stake their claims in this virtual environment; the teacher becomes a mediator of knowledge and information that can come from a great amount of sources, from books to Webpages. For Lewin (2020), the classroom must awake student curiosity and collaboration. And there is no reason why a virtual classroom cannot huddle close to a curious mind and a collaborative individual willing to further his/her education.

When it comes to think about the place where a virtual classroom is held by the students and their teacher, what kind of message is being conveyed by the physical spaces these people use for a lesson? “A virtual classroom is a digital teaching and learning environment in which participants can interact with learning resources and with one another like they can in a traditional classroom” (Chin, 2017), but think for a moment: “Places do convey a silent but powerful message” (Lewin, 2020) for both teachers and students. A crappy, junky place where a teacher or student has a class is saying a lot about any of these two individuals. A camara off, e.g., on the side of the student is, says Lewin (2020), like if the learner is taking the class below his/her desk or working table. All class participants must be in places that look neat; Lewin (2020) also suggests that it has to be a noise-free, comfortable environment that will not generate stress on students and teachers. Isn’t all this applicable to vitual or F2F teaching and learning?

Bates (2015) stresses the idea of experiential learning in education because it “focuses on learners reflecting on their experience of doing something, so as to gain conceptual insight as well as practical expertise.” For Lewin (2020), we all learn more by doing than by watching and listening. Learning is an active process, and one’s ability to retain and then retrieve information that can be later on used in a different context is what needs to be developed in the classroom. When students are challenged, as part of the novelties in a classroom, as Lewin (2020) says, it invites to foster learning. The classroom environment, whether it is virutal or F2F, becomes more and more dynamic and enticing to generate the building of new knowledge.

To sum up, the seeds of good teaching and learning are not just found in a traditional street-side school where learners and teachers interacted F2F. Educating people in virtual environments also bring good learning and the building of new knowledge. Any of the two learning environments are an assemblage of well-calculated practices, people’s behavior, and the good use of a F2F activities leading to collaboration and higher order thinking skills. Let’s hope to guide our students to an active learning process; in an active classroom we must find learners working on different tasks at the same time plus an engaged and creative teacher supervising what is going on in the classroom (Lewin, 2020).

References

Bates, A. (2015). Experiential Learning: Learning by Doing. Retrieved August 31, 2020, from OpenTextBC.Ca: https://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/chapter/4-4-models-for-teaching-by-doing/

Chin, Y. (2017, May 27). Delivering Training with Virtual Classrooms. Retrieved August 31, 2020, from UncannyOwl.Com: https://www.uncannyowl.com/delivering-training-virtual-classrooms/

Drexel University School of Education. (n.d.). The Benefits of Online Education in a Virtual Classroom. Retrieved August 31, 2020, from Drexel University School of Education: https://drexel.edu/soe/resources/student-teaching/advice/benefits-of-online-and-virtual-learning/#:~:text=But%20online%20students%20have%20better,for%20both%20learning%20and%20networking.

Lewin, L. (2020, August 25). Arquitectura Escolar: El Aula como Protogonista. Escuela para Directivos. Buenos Aires, Argentina: ABS International. Retrieved August 25, 2020

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