Identity in the Current vs. Future Classroom

According to Wenger's "Communities of Practice," identity in practice can be described using the following six characteristics:  1. lived  2. negotiated  3. social  4. a learning process  5. nexus and  6. local-global interplay (Wenger 1998).  In the following post, I will analyze each characteristic with respect to our current vs. (my idea of our) future classroom.  First, I will need to define current and future classrooms.  Current classrooms are classrooms that are in the current standards movement.  The classroom walls serve as the community space.  Social networks and instant messaging tools are prevalent among students but not used in the classroom or if they are, not to their full potential.  The internet allows for much research and knowledge but is not the first place to find knowledge.  Teachers are the leaders of the classroom and engage their students in activities.  Also, in the K-12 curriculum, many but not all classroom teachers teach to the (high-stake) test.  Future classrooms are classrooms that may still be in the standards movement, but allow for more authentic and alternative assessment.  Social networks and instant messaging tools are used to engage students in the classroom and beyond.  There are no classroom walls.  The classroom space exists as a meeting place.  The teachers are guides and motivators.  The internet is the main source of knowledge and thus, students are trained at a much earlier age to evaluate internet sources and information.   1. Lived = an experience that involves both participation and reification. In the current classroom, identity is formed through experience within the school walls.  In the future classroom, identity is now also formed through experience in class chat rooms, discussion boards, blogs, and other web 2.0. technologies outside the classroom walls.  Through the internet, students interact with and learn from other students and teachers around the world instead of just students in their local communities.   These other students and teachers can be considered periphery members of the class.  2. Negotiated = identity is ongoing and pervasive. Identity is ongoing within both the current classroom and future classroom.  The only difference here is that identity is negotiated among members of the classroom in the current system.  In the future system, identity is negotiated also among periphery members only accessible through the internet.  3. Social = identity a fundamentally social character. Identity is shaped by the familiar social experiences within the community.   Similar to 2, here the only difference is in the periphery members that also contribute to identity.  4. a Learning Process = incorporates both past and future into the meaning of the present. In our current classrooms, students are initially set on an inbound trajectory
(of identity) in order to attain full membership in the learning
community.  However, the overarching trajectory for a student is an
outbound trajectory.  Students are constantly set to move on to the
next stage of their schooling.  From Pre-K to grammar school to high
school to college to graduate school or professional work.  Throughout
this process, students are given paradigmatic trajectories or models to
follow.  For instance, a student that wants to be a college professor
will have a very different trajectory than one that wants to be an auto
mechanic.   In our future classrooms, students can more easily interact and follow actual college professors and auto mechanics.  There is no longer a sense of reading about trajectories in a book.  Students can actually talk to professionals and learn from their successes and failures on a personal level.  5. Nexus = combines multiple forms of membership through a process of reconciliation across boundaries of practice. The nexus in the current classroom system revolves around a student's many different classes, extracurricular activities, jobs, friendships, relationships, and family life.  In the future classroom, the nexus also revolves around a student's online identity.  6. Local-Global Interplay = neither narrowly local to activities nor abstractly global. The current classroom system enables a local-global interplay that is skewed to the local end.  Students learn how to exist in their local school and how their classroom fits into the broader scheme of things.  In the future classroom system, students will exist in their local school and also in their online system.  They will become brokers of knowledge between students half-way across the world.  The future classroom system will enable a local-global interplay that is more skewed to the global end.