State of Grace (Taylor's Version)

 Michael Fullans "The Strategy" video got me thinking when he said "there's lots of good things going out but they're in pockets." This was in regards to the inability to truly share best practices with others around the state, country, and world. So many different areas have different views of education and approach it in entirely different ways. This is not a bad thing because what is consistently shown to me in my theory classes, is that there is no one approach to anything. 

 

(photo credit: Ricarda Mölck)

Take for example students with disabilities. A student who needs mobility assistance would benefit from a ramp, whereas that might be contradicted by a visually impaired students needs. These two students need different approaches in terms of accessibility. Then there are also the able bodied students who can use a ramp or stairs. So the goal is to serve the students whose individual needs need to be meet because more often than not, meeting the need of one student will also meet the needs of others. Everyone needs to get into the building, it doesn't matter how the able bodied students can get in, what matters is that the student with mobility issues can get in.

Even with just this example there are so many different approaches and solutions that people would come up with and context, region, and interpersonal connections all play a part in that. A person from CA might have a different solution for this example than someone from Englands solution.  What matters is that there is a solution - a lot fo good things in a lot of pockets. 

I think that a way in which technology could help influence these changes in getting pockets together is things such as discussion boards, Facebook groups and even Wakelet where people can share these solutions. That way, when one solution might fail, there are other examples that you can see working in other places that might work in your school. There is so much to be learned through each other and technology has made it so that we are able to connect and share our individual
learning and solutions.

(photo credit: Gordon Johnson)