Many of our principles and practices predate laptops, the Internet, and smartphones. One-room schoolhouses were, in many ways, quintessential self-paced learning environments, and Helen Parkhurst's Dalton Plan laid out the theories of personalized and mastery-based learning nearly 100 years before the Modern Classrooms Project was founded.
As our name suggests, what we do at the Modern Classrooms Project is bring these ideas into the 21st century, in a way that respects and enhances teacher autonomy and authenticity. We don't actually care whether teachers use technology - we aren't selling any of it - we've just found that instructional videos and Internet-connected devices are powerful tools to facilitate the development of authentic mastery.
If you're in a school setting where access to technology is limited, here are a few things you can do:
Set up a video-watching station. If you have a few computers, let students rotate through a computer station. Students can spend a portion of each class watching videos, and the rest working independently or in small groups.
Purchase headphone splitters. These let students watch videos together, on either computers or cell phones. For a few dollars, you effectively double the number of connected devices in your room -- and promote collaboration at the same time!
Use textbooks in place of videos. Not every student will learn well from a textbook... but many can! Break textbook reading into small chunks, give students a clear path through them, and ensure that students are mastering skills as they progress.
This isn't easy -- but where there's a will, there's a way. See even more ideas by clicking the button below:
If you have other ideas, please let us know!