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- Ateliers and Atelieristas In The Virtual World
Preschool learning, research and pedagogy are in many ways, far more advanced than the education we provide in the later years. My question is… why?
In many Reggio Emilia preschools, an Atelier is a welcoming space that offers a wide variety of materials for artistic expression. It encourages experimentation, intuition and spontaneous creativity.
Ateliers are curated by an atelierista, a teacher who is a partner in the child’s artistic journey. The atelierista encourages the child to experiment and create, and collaborates with individual children and small groups to support their ongoing learning. As part of the Reggio Emilia educational approach, the atelierista documents each child’s process to further understand and celebrate their ideas.
Ateliers and atelieristas in the virtual world
As I read up more on Reggio Emilia, I realised how similar Doyobi's metaverse and facilitators are to ateliers and atelieristas.
Instead of clay, fabric and art projects, Doyobi’s facilitators use avatars, pixels and online quests to encourage kids to experiment, problem-solve, collaborate and be creative. Doyobi’s facilitators also help learners document their learning journey so they can reflect on how they have grown in their critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creative abilities.
Learner-Centric Exploration
Unlike in traditional-model schools where lessons are teacher-led, educators that follow the Reggio Emilia approach let the students lead the way and offer guidance, knowledge, and direction as needed.
“Teachers are closely observing children to help them in planning and offering learning opportunities that will connect to their interests or questions. This shows the children that their ideas, thoughts, passions, experiences, and preferences are valued.
Teachers are consistently documenting the learning and making it visible to children, parents, and the community. Documentation provides the opportunity for children to reflect and revisit learning experiences [and] reflecting with the children allows them to make meaning of the work and helps plan for future learning experiences.”
Reggio Emilia-inspired curriculum is emergent, hands-on, collaborative, and children learn through projects, exploration, and play. The classroom environment, or in our case, the Doyobi Metaverse, is set up as the ‘3rd teacher’ so children can independently engage and learn in a space that has been intentionally set up to be beautiful, engaging, encourage investigation, and promote relationship building.
Learning should spark joy at any age
Beyond the similarities between atelier and metaverse, atelieristas and facilitators, taking the Reggio Emilia approach beyond the preschool years strike me as a project that can have incredibly valuable outcomes. Reggio learners are curious, inquisitive, creative, expressive, confident and most importantly, hungry to learn. Wouldn't it be wonderful if our children can retain these qualities beyond early childhood all the way through to adult life?
Some of the benefits of the Reggio Emilia approach often cited by parents and educators include:
Relaxed learning environment that encourages exploration
Building social skills through a collaborative environment
Student-led approach that provides ample opportunities for problem-solving
Developing a strong sense of community
Emphasis on creativity and self-expression
Adaptive curriculum that give individual learners the time they need to master a skill
While it will need to be adapted to suit the cognitive ability and emotional development of elementary school children, the core tenets of exploration, collaboration, problem-solving, community, creativity, self-expression and mastery should remain.
Such an approach is at odds with the limited goals of traditional education where teachers are obliged to cover all the material of a standard curriculum and prepare students for standardised exams.
Learning at MIT Media Lab
Jim Gray wrote about how education at MIT Media Lab is centered on an apprenticeship model of learning-by-making in collaboration with others.
"The core idea is learning by constructing one’s own knowledge in an environment that supports making something shareable, which in turn affords conversation, reflection, and learning.
The MIT Media Lab model of interdisciplinary work is a model for the kind of lifelong lifewide holistic learning that is most needed moving forward."
MIT Media Lab works in higher ed rather than early childhood, but the similarity with the Reggio Emilia approach is striking. Learning is about agency, collaboration, reflection and motivation. When all of the above is taken away, what we are left with is the factory model of education we inherited over a hundred years ago.
"What children learn does not follow as an automatic result from what is taught, rather, it is in large part due to the children’s own doing, as a consequence of their activities and our resources."
Let's give children the agency, resources and environment to be inquisitive, curious and motivated life-long learners.
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