Sitting still and being quiet

They were a bunch of kids from a school on the outskirts of London. They were "disruptive", "difficult", "disengaged", "problem" children. Some were on the verge of being expelled.

This was their last chance. And it was my first and last chance too. The big test was to see whether a collaborative, interactive, conversational approach to learning would make any difference.

The electronic meeting room was set-up in a large hall. Down one end. The teachers observed from a respectable distance so the students would not feel intimidated. A dozen keyboards were connected to a laptop. The image was projected on a large screen. The tables and chairs were arranged in clumps, so people could talk/discuss/argue/think together in groups of 5-6. Nothing like the traditional classroom where students sit alone and in rows, facing the front, so they can't talk to each other

I explained what we were about to do and asked for a volunteer facilitator, to take over my role half way through the session. But only if they thought they could do it AND it was worth doing.

The session began with some fun questions to establish the Talk-Type-Read-Review etiquette, which helps quickly orchestrate/organize a group. This was followed by a seven question workshop about personal goals, and a similar length workshop about how to deal with bullying, and finally a feedback session. In just one hour.

Two students volunteered to facilitate. One was chosen and conducted the remainder of the session with minimal assistance.

It soon became clear why this group was in trouble. When asked "what's the nicest thing that's ever happened to you?" it was a chorus of kinesthetic learners whose voices I clearly heard. "When I signed my first contract at [name deleted] athletic", "I scored the winning goal", "won the really good cup for the football team", "scored a hat-trick", "I scored the winning penalty....and broke my shoulder", "when I scored the winning goal in netball" and "riding a scrambler bike".

School for these kids was like a prison sentence. Twelve years of sitting perfectly and silently still in class. Unable to converse with each other or do stuff. This brief experience with an interactive technology was probably their first and last. It was for them, a glimmer of hope that the mind-numbing and body-numbing experience we call school could perhaps one day be different.

At the end of the session this was what the students had to say about our collective performance, warts and all:

Pluses

* I think that positive things have come out of this whole trial. We can see other peoples feelings without maybe embarrassing them if they had to speak their feelings.
* It was all good because it is an interesting way of learning, it was very modern and would help keep interest and also gelp people from getting distracted.
* The + were we got to use great technology this is fantastic all the equiipment we ggot to use. _ were missing English my favourite subject.
* I have learnt about other peoples feelings and emotions
* It is a different way of learning so keeps us more occupied.
* It is good to see everyones point of views.
* People who are quiet could also have a chance to be heard if they didn't have the confidence to speak in front of everyone.
* You don't have to write and you show and say your ideas without having to acually put your hand up and say infront of everybody
* The pluses of this session was we learnt how to use some new technology and we can see what other people feel when they are being bullied or if someone else is being bullied.

Minuses

* None
* Some people didn't take it seriously and think that its funny to display immature messages.
* I think that it was all good.
* It would be very confusing at first but you soon get the hang of it. It takes a long time to do very few questions,
* Some people might of been silly about their answers
* Ermmm...nothin was wrong with this apart from we missed a valuable english lesson
* Its brilliant nothing wrong with this
* It was all fine not to hard or easy just rite a good class

Points of interest

* The whole thing the program was great and I think it is great that the oldest person you have working for you is 21.
* I learnt how to use this package which I thought was very fascinating and glad that I have come here this afternoon, its been great thank you very much.
* I learned that learning could be enjoyable!
* I thought that this was was a really good experience trying something different
* I thought the whole idea was very interesting and a fun way of learning. i learnt other people point of veiws instead of just my own or [another student's name deleted], that was interesting to see what other people think.
* It was really interestin the way you could type somethin from over here and endin up on a screen over there. this use of technology would be brilliant in our school. would be interesting to see if it boosts up teachers and students grades
* Finding out what other people think about points an ideas '
* A new way how to talk without looking or feeing embarassed of your opinion

So what would school be like if we all asked our students what they like or don't like about their lessons? What if we listened to what students have to say and changed some of the ways we teach?

Here's a workshop for students to give us feedback:

1. What do you think hinders your learning?
2. What do you think helps your learning?
3. How do you learn best? What kinds of activities/experiences excite and interest you?
4. What bores you the most?
5. What could teachers do to make learning more interesting for you?
6. If you could learn about anything you wanted to what would that be?
7. If you had more responsibility for your own learning what would you do?