I had the wonderful fortune of co-directing a 3-day professional development workshop for science teachers participating in Education Connection’s Connecticut Academy for Science and Research. I was excited, because first and foremost teachers were getting involved with research with their students and I could share some of my important suggestions for improving the quality of those projects.

But as I reflect on the week, what amazed me most was the learning dynamic. This was a small group – 6. We all sat around a conference table, each with our laptop. The host and other co-presenter, provided an unsecured WiFi. We all worked from our laptops, accessing the Moodle system as necessary, looking up relevant information as necessary. I did a couple of PowerPoint presentations – short just to get the conversation going. We worked on creating poster-sized PowerPoints – each made our own product, mounted it, and it was ready to bring back to the classroom. We collaborated, but each created our own work.

This environment, to me, exemplifies what we want to see from a 21st-cy learning environment: small groups, technology facilitating learning (not directing it), collaboration, problem solving, creativity, learning new skills that can be applied to content, critical discussions.

How do we continue to refine this learning style to our classrooms?