What does it all REALLY mean?
An interesting post over atWeblogg-ed and sorta brings home a thought that has been nagging, and a thought that should, and must be considered.
Teachers as connectors. We’re no longer the best source of information for our students.
Teachers need not be information gateways.
Teachers need to help students connect to the live world of information, people, information that lives outside their classroom.
Teachers coach a student’s trajectory, and begin to leave behind the driver’s seat.
All of this in a digital classroom. The plugged-in.
I read this line somewhere else…and I’ll hunt it down soon, but someone has picked up on a very important point: If you are not plugged into the net, all of the above is basically meaningless.
What of the un-plugged classrooms? What role does the teacher play there?
A thought was posted yesterday by both cleve and J.M. that really is ringing true: BEWARE of lopsided ideals. SCL not as the ultimate tool, the killer app which downgrades all the rest. Instead, yet another tool in the trajectory coach’s tool kit.
sitting after a day at a teacher’s convention…
In regards to the plugged-in classroom…i sat in on a workshop by a TWU prof on using visual journals…hers was a paper approach, which i guess would be the answer to classrooms that are not ‘jacked in’ to the net.
but the whole time she was speaking i was writing in the margins of her handout —blogs—
she voiced several concerns over journaling such as it leads to isolated navel gazing and it leaves little to no room for feedback from teachers and peers…
blogs kept popping into my head as she voiced these concerns…both of those problems are remedied by ’social software’ which i found very encouraging. I wanted to jump up and proclaim the virtues of integrating tech into the classroom, but i witheld, keeping to a quiet inward revolution.
Part of the reason why i resisted speaking out is there seems to be anymosity by the educational institution at-large to use of social software in the classroom…whenever i mention blogs to teachers who are ‘in the know’ i hear them bemoan the troubles of them and how negative they are…
all this was running through my head as i sat in this lecture, and i couldn’t help looking at my botttled water. allow me this analogy, please…
if it is on the table with water in it, it is a tool. it is meeting a need and doing a good job of it by doing what it was made to do…but if i crumple it up and toss it on the ground, it becomes trash.
Is it trash, really?
No, it has been made trash, but at heart it is still good. it is still a tool that can be reclaimed and used again.
I am getting sick of the whole ‘head in the sand’ reaction on the part of many staff to emergent technologies! My friend MJM and I stayed up late last night discussing the importance of teaching ‘appropriate use’ in harnessing tech last night. How about modelling appropriate use of tech like blogging in the classroom instead of just outlawing it. Statistically, over 90 percent of the millions of blog users are under the age of 25. We now see Harvard and Stanford using blogs in their law schools….the White House Press Corps recently admitted a blog reporter into their midst….
But I digress….
what does happen when their is no access to the net in the classroom? I think the same thing that has happened in education for several thousand years before the net was born into existence…the teacher becomes the net (in a sense)
i still believe your idea of teacher as a ‘trajectory coach’ is valid in the unplugged classroom, but their technology that is accessed changes to text, books, magazines, dvd/video, inviting community professionals in to the classroom, etc. To be brief, they continue on in what educators have done for the last several thousand years…
Plato used the technology available to him by having conversations with his ’students’ and by putting pen to paper (or quill to parchment perhaps). If he were around today, he would probably enlist the use of social software to implement his platonic dialogues. To be honest, i sometimes wish we were ‘unplugged’ more often from tech in our educative circles….it is a great tool, but can sometimes get in the way.
my thoughts for now. a little divergent, but i hope it helps a little.
I am going to a workshop tomorrow on using technology for reflective enrichment in the classroom…i will post any findings .
Comment by J.M — October 6, 2005 @ 8:07 pm
conncetivism in action (without the net as interface…)
As posted above, my thoughts and reactions from the tech. workshop entitled: “Improving Learning with Communication, Reflection, and Research Using Web Tools” Presented by Daniel, Ribera (website: www.biblelog.net )…
First of all, I entered the workshop and there was a very poor attendance. Other workshops I attended (teaching Hamlet, Visual journalling…) were packed with probably 30+ teachers and all the seats filled. This workshop was less than half full, probably 12-15 teachers in attendance. This to me speaks volumes about integrating technology in MEANINGFUL and effective ways in the classroom. ie. not many teachers seem interested. I think this is in part due to lack of understanding or fear when it comes to ‘social software’. This idea was exemplified when a teacher in the audience raised the issue of the problems that their school is facing over IM and other forms of social software (problems with students burning each other, gossiping and excluding others as well as other content problems such as students linking to pornographic sites from their blogs or online profiles).
I almost jumped to my feet in response to proclaim that the problem is not the students or the software, but that the teachers had not taught appropriate use. Where else in education do you see a teacher hand out a technology and just turn kids loose? Whenever you do, mayhem ensues…I can pretty much guarantee that none of the teachers in the room would walk into a biology lab and hand out chemicals and let kids ‘have at it’. But why do we just allow anarchy when it comes to the internet and use of social software. It seems the attitude of some is to be isolationist or have a fort mentality when it comes to approaching these new forms of technology, but in doing so they do their students a huge disservice. Instead of teaching appropriate use, teachers are just cutting students loose with these tools without providing them with the skills necessary to use them in a positive way. Isolationist teachers are too quick to ban social software (which I would argue actually legitimises and promotes it to the student subculture — not only that, but it promotes it as a negative tool…no wonder then students use it in negative ways!),
I digress…
I withheld my diatribe knowing that this workshop’s purpose was not a forum for discussing issues (that have emerged out of a shortcoming on the teacher’s part, not on the student’s), but more for exploring uses. I did, however, list some of my findings, such as the acceptance of blogging software by Harvard, Stanford, the inclusion of a BLOG reporter in the US Press Corps. (i mentioned these in my previous post).
A few of my notes, with my comments in brackets:
Time Magazine–> 1.5 billion blog users,
Ribera is setting up a blog for his homepage, as opposed to a traditional ‘website’
(my idea: internet and blogs as postmodern representations of connectivism and ‘non-linear’ narratives- this is a big one. We see this trend to ‘reproduce’ the connectivist approach in new student textbooks, which are coming to resemble magazines in their visual appearance.)
anonymity –> does it free students to speak up when they would withhold….
(my idea: students have to take responsibility for their words. This is part of teaching appropriate use. Students must be able to give account for their words. If they are not able to put their name to it, and by doing so legitimise it, they shouldn’t be writing it. The strategy of initials or first initial and last name is a good one for preventing identity theft on the net)
Ribera found that the quiet students are often ones who speak up most….
He has started to get registration requests from outside of the school….
- has grads and students from other grades who are joining in on the conversation (how cool is that? talk about building community! Some teachers were actually concerned about this, which i think speaks to the isolationist approach as discussed above)
1/3 of his regular visitors have not even posted yet, but are sitting in on the conversation
some people don’t like to do this, but to some this is the best place in the world (this is a great encouragement to those of us using blogs, as sometimes people seem to not be participating…on a sidenote, in chatting with MJM he mentioned he only follows two blogs, and one of them is one that Aaron and myself are involved in. He commented that he has read every post, and that it is amazing and way deep, so deep, in fact, that he feels hard pressed to post comments. Sometimes it is those on the sidelines who are most affected by the conversation…we often see silence as a sign of disengagement, but perhaps it is a silence of awe and of deep contemplation)
(In showing his forum during the presentation via video projection, we could see that some posts had over 500 comments…amazing. truly something is happening here. a discussion about things that matter)
THIS IS A COMMUNITY
-moderating happens in community
____________________________________
A few of my thoughts and notes. I think it would be great to continue such workshops ( I feel the need to create one myself for future professional development conferences.) I actually found that in some ways, mostly due to my conversations with Aaron, reading this blog, and my own research, I am ahead in my understanding of social software. The difference is, this guy was implementing it, whereas I am rich in the research phase.
Despite the poor attendance — this was an encouraging session. I am definitely gearing up to dive into implementing social software as a key tool in my move for a reflective, paperless classroom that reflects our reality in a postmodern world. Bring on the revolution!
J.M.
Comment by J.M. — October 8, 2005 @ 3:19 pm
A recent article I read discusses what might be part of the cause of the whole ‘head in the sand’ approach to using tech. in the classroom. In his article, “Synching Up With The iKid:
Educators must work to understand and motivate a new kind of digital learner,” Josh McHugh states that the techno-savvy of today’s youth is a challenge to teachers:
“Teachers in every strata of education are increasingly dealing with a student population that is not only more wired than they are but also grew up in a techno-drenched atmosphere that has trained them to absorb and process information in fundamentally different ways”.
McHugh’s quote seems to suggest that current educators’ (especially those who are ’seasoned proffesionals’) fluency in technology is outdated. The ‘head in the sand’ approach seems an easy out in a sense, as it allows educators to shut the door on things that are outside of their realm of expertise.
McHughs also states that the act of introducing social software and technology in general into the classroom is also one of surrendering control over the classroom:
“For educators accustomed to making and enforcing absolute rules, letting the inmates take part in running the asylum (an inexact metaphor, of course) is going to take some getting used to. But in the end, the best way for students to learn about the world they live in is to have a hand in creating it”.
The encouragement here, however, is that there is a possible benefit in allowing students to shape the ‘world’ of the classroom. In doing so, we empower students and allow them to invest in the class instead of just tuning out. Active learning, anyone?
Comment by J.M. — October 19, 2005 @ 10:25 pm