When I first started teaching, there was a common phrase going around to teach students to rely on one another rather than the teacher. The phrase was, "Ask 3 Before Me," encouraging students to ask at least 3 others students in the class when they had a question rather than going to the teacher right away. 

While the spirit of this phrase aims to move away from didactic learning, it doesn't entirely remove the notion that the teacher is the holder of knowledge, is the Sage on the Stage. It suggests that, ultimately, if answers can't be found in classmates, they will still be found in the teacher. 

Now, with advancing and innovative technologies, students have access not only to one another, but to a world of knowledge. Using this technology in class (as well as other in-class structures that allow for greater inter-student discourse) may lead to a change in this phrase; perhaps it should say, "Ask everyone before me." Many teachers in my school utilize Edmodo and google docs to push students to ask one another for help. If answers can't be found among peers, students have the technology in class to search for answers online.

Edmodo is an educational website that operates similarly to social media, allowing students to post status updates, comments one one another's posts, and receive private or public messages from the instructor. The Edmodo discussion below among students allows for transformative learning.

Students responding to one another using Edmodo

I was recently having a conversation with our Computer Science teacher, who said he has almost completely eliminated closed-notes quizzes requiring rote memorization. He made a good point in saying that it just isn't realistic to continue to prepare students for a type of learning that doesn't reflect real life. In real life, if I don't know how to do something, I look it up or find someone to help me. I find a youtube video or a credible source. Rather than teaching students to memorize and recall, he said that students need to know which questions to ask and who/where to go for answers. 

It is difficult as a teacher to move away from didactic learning styles-whether it be for fear of losing control or losing respect, but it is necessary. It is necessary to prepare our students for the world they are already in. With that in mind, it requires that we as educators rethink our role--that we begin to see ourselves as facilitators of learning rather than distributers of knowledge, that we become comfortable with seeing our students grapple with questions, and that we redefine "talking in class" from being worthy of a consequence to being worthy of praise.