Accessibilty is a 'Culture Design' Issue

Been intrigued by the backdoor conversation going on over at that dy/dan joint.  Meyer sparked it via a recent discussion re: kids having access to his cell phone # and the positive evolution of the text messages he's been receiving as of late.

Here's what crossed my mind as I read his post and followed the conversational thread in his comment funnel:

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As tempted as I am to leap into the r/w web debate or the "wow, my kids texted me" wunderlust trend here, I can't help but believe that all that Dan is speaking about hinges on a (re)formation of the "culture" of schooling. 

At the scale of one teacher

-- i.e. Dan's choice at the beginning of the year to define a relationship with his students that allow for kids to shift from pseudo low-level prank messages to a genuine desire to have Q's from class answered on the fly via their 'cellie' --

or at the scale of an entire school model

-- i.e. independent schools have historically allowed their students/families to have access to their teacher's home telephone #'s with an extra caveat that they be used appropriately from Sept-summer --

this is a 'culture design' issue.

As Dan's post reminds me, our ability to teach(and lead schools) in meaningful/engaging ways in the decades to come does not hinge inherently on 'expertise' or 'technology'.  Both good stuff, to be sure.  But ultimately, they are merely tools.

Culture (based on respect and legit relationships), on the other hand, gives us a fighting shot of remaining relevant.  And doing the right thing on behalf of our kids and communities in the process.

Comments

[tracy]

I like how you frame this. It is about culture.

Traditionally school culture has been quite separate from the rest of society, indeed from the cultures of the learning domains that schools 'teach' (math, history, etc...).

In a traditional school culture that has very distinct lines between teaching and learning and that has specific acceptable behaviours, any kind of outside of classroom communication, besides teacher calling home to talk about Johanne or Johnny's behaviour in class (academic or otherwise), would be poo-pooed.

But to a culture that emphasizes authentic learning and communication for that end, well, this would look like a natural act of communication given current technologies.

Unfortunately, there are few school cultures that do emphasize those traits.

"The way to change the culture is to change the conversation."- Joel Henning

More instances of real conversations - via texting or other modes - between students and teachers may just bring us closer, though.

[Christian]

Tracy:

Like how you're playing around with these ideas beyond my initial set-up.

I'm going to piggy-back on the Henning quotation by echoing it. During my time as a school design/planning consultant, we often talked about the 'language of school design' needing to become shared language, not just privy to those who are professional designers.

Once the 'code' of language is cracked and used in similar ways on both sides of the table, then innovative solutions are possible...and the community can truly embrace what is built in the years to come.

One more thing.

I sense that we have to a have a new vision of the culture we crave before language can make a substantive change. Our greatest weakness, I feel, is that we use the past to define our future; even worse, we really do not grasp the underlying cultural norms of today that were simply meant to be short-term solutions years before.