- One-on-One Administrator/Educator
- Collegial/Team Meeting
- Student Group/Teacher
The One-On-One Administrator/Educator conversations at my school often take place in the Principal’s office, with him seated behind his desk and the educator seated in front of it. I don’t need a side-by-side interaction with my boss, and the physical barrier of a desk reinforces the power and where it lies. Face-to-face, these conversations are usually very formal, begin with some chit-chat and then get right to the point. They are brief and it is assumed that the principal will have a final say on the matter, a last word, and little follow-up unless the situation requires it. My administrator is efficient, professional and very diplomatic. There isn’t a whole lot of camaraderie at these meetings, but they are almost always productive.
The Team Meeting conversations among my colleagues on the Related Arts staff usually take place around a table, perhaps in a conference room or in the art room. The principal leads the meeting with an agenda that is prewritten; once we have gone through each line item he leaves the room while we stay behind and meet to discuss students, upcoming events, or general classroom issues. The tone after the principal leaves the room is noticeably more relaxed and informal. The meetings become discussions instead of information dissemination via a one-way channel.
I used to teach third grade, and we only had one computer in our classroom. Students were seated in groups of four and would collaborate on all subjects. Now I teach technology, and my computer lab today, due to stationary desktop computers, feels more isolated. The design is poor and implies power exists at the front of the classroom, where the teacher’s computer stands. The paradox that Sherry Turkle addresses in Chapter 8 comes to life here: technology facilitates separation, where students can work independently without meaningful eye contact or conversation, yet we tout ‘collaborative learning’ through the use of Google Docs or Cloud computing. (Turkle, p.169) Students sitting side by side, interacting virtually. Not only are the computers a physical barrier to collaboration, but a conversational one, as well.
Resources:
Turkle, Sherry. Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other. New York: Basic, 2012. Print.
"3D Warehouse." 3D Warehouse. Trimble, n.d. Web. 8 Oct. 2014.