Dynamic vs Static Learning

 As more and more technology is brought in the schools, we need to change how we teach children in school.  For decades, static learning was the standard model used in classrooms.  Static learning has students filling out worksheets, even digitized ones.  In other words, they are not interactive and there is only one way to complete the activity.

In static learning, you only have to write the assignment once and you can use it again and again.  It never changes.

Dynamic learning is more interactive in that it requires collaboration, creation, and communication.  It can involve others beyond the school buildings or interaction with others.  Dynamic learning might involve watching annotated videos, explaining in a video or flip grid, write an interactive book and publish it online.

Dynamic learning are assignments that change and evolve as research and technology evolve.  In a sense it grows and changes to meet the needs of the students.  This form of learning also allows expects you to use data to change the assignment based on student work.

The static vs dynamic goes beyond the types of assignments used.  It can cover assessments too.  Most textbooks come with accompanying tests and quizzes you can download or copy which are static because they are always the same.  A step up is being able to create a quiz or test from a bank of questions.  Furthermore, most of these are designed to determine what students don't know rather than what they know.

What makes assessment more dynamic is if the mode helps students show what they have already learned.  One way of doing this is to listen to the student explain what they are doing.  Just by listening, you can tell so much and its very dynamic because what you hear will change as they learn.

Another way of dynamically assessing students is to come up to a group and just listen to their conversation to determine what they understand and to observe their interaction rather than interrupting to ask them to explain their thinking. Often times by just listening, you learn more about their thinking, not just what they share with you.

In addition by observing the interactions among the students it is possible to tell if one person is doing all the work while the others sit back or if everyone is involved.  It is possible to listen in on explanations between pairs of students.  Unfortunately, as teachers we learn to pair a strong student with a weaker student to encourage learning but it does not always work out that way.  Sometimes this model encourages a learned helplessness of the weaker student and the stronger student gets frustrated while other times it   By observing and listening, the teacher can determine if the pairing is the right one.

The biggest difference is that static has a much longer existence than dynamic because it doesn't change.  Unfortunately, people often think if you digitize an assignment, it makes it dynamic which is incorrect.  If however, you place a problem on a Google slide for each child and then have them do the problem and bring in a video to explain the problem, this is dynamic.

Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.