My Imagination Classroom

I brought the Node chair to Hawai'i. I am quite sure of this, and am very proud of the fact. During the 2012/2013 SY, while teaching history and doing EdTech work at 'Iolani School here in Honolulu, I discovered the Node chair. I think I was surfing the web, or reading an article sent to me, but the minute I saw it I knew it was a game-changing piece of technology.

As I have said in previous articles, our current way of teaching and learning started back in 1893 when the so-called Committee of Ted decided to implement a Prussian classroom model in America, meaning rows of desks anchored to the floor, a sage-on-the-stage, textbooks and frequent testing to see if students had "learned" the delivered content, be it chemistry, history or algebra (hack, spit, I hate algebra). Since 1893 this system of teaching served our industrial model of production quite well. It made learning systematic, fed the factories and professions with people who could uniformly do what needed to be done and "made America great," if by great we mean production and consumption. Innovation did not happen, by and large, because of this factory model. It happened in the between spaces where amazing teachers, faculty and students stepped outside the model and fashioned their own pathways, which led to remarkable leaps forward in technology and social justice. Anyway, back to the Node chair. Unhooking the student desk from the floor and making it mobile immediately changes a classroom's dynamic. This is what happened at 'Iolani. After discovering the Node chair, I went to my IT Director, the amazing Jim Crum, who immediately saw its change agent value. Jim went to 'Iolani's new Head of School, Tim Cottrell and asked him to purchase 20 of them for my classroom. Tim, to his credit, said yes (a tens of thousands of dollars decision). A few weeks later my Node chairs arrived. There are five basic innovations built into the Node chair. 1. It is mobile and can move around a room on three rolling canisters. 2. Its "desk"swivels in and out, making it possible to be a table or a side table. 3. Your backpack can be hung on the side wing, or be placed under the chair. 4. The entire chair swivels around in a circle, making it possible to connect with others around 360 degrees. 5. The chair back is flexible, meaning you can adjust your posture, making it super comfortable. When my 20 Node chairs arrived Jim Crum and I went back to Tim Cottrell and proposed that my traditional classroom would become 'Iolani's "Imagination Classroom," meaning a place where the only thing holding anyone back, teacher or student, was one's imagination. My room already had 40 feet of whiteboard space, but to that we added three mobile white boards.

We added a 70" interactive TV and...oh yes...I was part of a team that took 'Iolani School one-to-one with the iPad. (Meaning over 2000 iPads in the hands of students K-12.)

Then, I stated inviting 'Iolani teachers to use my classroom when it was free, which was at least 3-4 periods per day. What happened next will live long in my memory. Traditional to the max but very curious teachers started to sign up for the space; lo and behold I watched as their sage-on-the-stage styles began to change. Teachers wedded to lectures started to "arrange" kids into groups, into horseshoes, into Socratic circles, into pods and just about every other arrangement one could imagine. Why? Because the Node chair allows for classroom "rearrangement" in just seconds. Want rows of desks? Fine! Want those rows to be a circle? Just say so and the students will zoom to the desired position.

Want groups of three to work on an idea, then report to a larger circle? Just say so and with the Node, it will happen. Yes, I know good teaching is more than just a new piece of plastic, but in my Imagination Classroom I watched remarkable things take place using the Node chair, iPads, TVs, whiteboards and the individual and collective minds of imaginative, creative and innovative young people. Do you teach in a traditional school? Feeling like it's time to break out? Okay!, go to your principal or head of school and propose an imagination classroom. And, offer to write the grant that will pay for it. If your school leader is worth her/his salt, they will say yes and have your back. EdTech is more than apps, more than iPads, more than Chromebooks and Google Suites. It's about the physical makeup of a learning space, including the chairs.

Today there are Node chairs in schools all around the state. What does it take to start something innovative? GO ASK your school leader for permission to take a risk, find your campus allies, enroll the students in your game plan, document what you do and have tons and tons of fun.