Will Richardson included on one of yesterday’s blog postings, quotes from two students, who were blogging in a summer class being taught by beginning edublogger, Pat Aroune. I thought that both quotes were especially telling about education and the potential impact that blogging can have as a learning technology. It’s giving voice to learners.
Here is the first quote:
I’ve learned in a way that tailors to my interests, what with using the internet to its fullest extent and writing about things that I am interested in. I would write about things like snowboarding, soccer, filmaking, eating, sleeping… whatever I wished, as long as I related it to economics. After doing this for a while, I started to realize that I was learning much faster than I would have normally by reading a boring (sorry, they almost always are) textbook. Not only could I write about things that I like and post them, but others could view those posts, as could I theirs, and consequently learn from their experiences and interests as well.
Now, what does this say to you?
This second quote is a bit less enthusiastic about blogging. However, I think that there is an important message here as well. What do you think it is?
To be quiet honest, I’ve become so accustomed to the “old skool†way of learning through the textbook and lectures, taking tests, and writing essays, that it’s just how I learn the easiest. It’s all I’ve known. How is this blogging thing gonna really help me? How am I even gonna know what to do? What does my teacher expect from me and how will I be able to meet those expectations? That was the main question right there. I’ve found that I learn in a way that requires a lot of structure. Someone tells me what to do and how they want it done, and like the mindless little nerd-monkey that I am, I do it.
Please post a comment with your insights about either or both of these student quotes.
This is a blog assignment for administrators I am working with in Ontario. However, anyone can participate in this discussion.
I find it disappointing that the second student feels that s/he has no option but to accept the passive type of learning that is offered in the classroom. We ask ‘what can we change in our instructional practices that will encourage the student to challenge his or her thinking?’
The first student is excited about writing and communicating with others. They have more ownership over their learning.
The student finds the medium engaging and hence is motivated to read and write and learn to a greater extent. Many special education students simply benefit from the use of a keyboard and are able to participate with improved quality and quantity of writing.
The problem with surfing the internet is the lack of \’structure\’. Its like walking throiugh an enormous open marketplace. Incredibly interesting items to see and explore but impossible to quickly find what you started out looking for. And as with any complex new structure a real time dump to master. Never mind blogging.
It\’s really a slow process until we really get going. I\’d be reluctant to blog because I\’m not sure who wants to listen to what I have to say. At a local level, we might connect blogging to our own First class internet.
I can see the value in respecting the learning styles for both learners. Unfortunately, we are most likely only meeting the needs of the old school learner. It would be interesting to observe the change in classroom dynamics if both styles were addressed.
It all comes down to how we use differentiated learning in our classes. We need a number of approaches to learning, since students have their particular strengths and needs. Some students will benefit from being left alone to experiment with the blogs, while others will require more direction and supervision. Just like any other learning tool, teachers need to make decisions about how to best serve their students and their academic growth by best utilizing the tool in the manner that they would utilize any other classroom resource.
Blogging is an excellent way to discuss opinions and ideas with those beyond the borders of your country. It is an online living textbook, current and up to date debating and sharing of ideas. The opportunity for sharing and exploring new ideas as your own ideas are being responded to makes the format open-ended and allows immediate exploration/feedback/sharing.
We need to adapt our teaching to the lives of the students. They are living and working in a different environment than we have in the traditional, industrial model classroom. In order to address the needs of our students, we as educators need to find ways to enter into that new environment. The second student probably is more successful in our traditional classrooms, the first is moving in a totally different environment.
Okay…take two. This is the edited version because we lost our first one…
We had a good chat and came up with some good thoughts (trust me).
Our summary thought is wow…we know we need to teach our kids to be deep thinking multi-taskers. Most of our students can game, IM, listen to music and chew gum all at the same time. Most adults are still working on walking and chewing gum at the same time. One day we might catch up with our students.
This form of conversation allows students to interact with the text and with others in an environment that is safe and relevant to their lives. This form of communication fits in with students need for instant response that is increasing in the information age jam packed with multi-media stimuli. A class blog levels the playing field for students who have varying degrees of social skills. It is an example of an accomodation for students who need technology to support their written output, being used in the regular program for all students that will catch many students who might express themselves more easily this way.
Are we looking at two different learning styles here? Is the first student a risk taker who is willing to put it out there and launch a balloon and then re-evaluate and the second a perfectionist that needs to have everything correct before presenting? The second student seems to be the teacher pleaser we all love that unfortunately may miss learning how to think It is possible to employ both learning styles and have either rich learning or no learning. It underscores the important role of the teacher in creating opportunities for insightful discussion and learning regardless of the machinery.
I think the second student exemplifies what happens when satisfying teachers’ expectations is so narrow that there is only one right way, so wandering the web and having to determine the validity of information is intimidating. Sad for the student because this “issue” will affect all aspects of his/her life.
The second quote is similar to the view held by some very gifted middle school students that I encountered as a G/T English teacher in a charter school. The school stressed textbook-driven, teacher-directed curriculum for all of their students. These gifted students were very uncomfortable with any assignment or activity that required them to think. Socratic seminars made them crazy. The concept of blogging would have sent them over the edge. I believe these students will be crippled when they enter a world that doean\\\\\\\’t always have right answers. I tried to change the thinking of the governing board of parents with no success. I decided that I needed to find another school. I am now working at a K-8 charter school with an emphasis on math, science and technology. These students are learning to construct their learning. I love going to work again!
The first student will never be allowed to use these learning tools to pursue their own learning goals in school as long as the purpose of school is to deliver the curriculum-defined information to students. So unfortunate.
The second student has had her innate ability to seek out and pursue personally meaningful learning dulled and atrophied by years of having someone else decide what should be taught and learned. So unfortunate.
Yes, I occasionally teach Honors students at the college level, and they have gotten so good at playing the “education game” that they are sometimes reluctant to give it up to become fully engaged. Here’s the problem: once they graduate, their success will depend not on doing what they’re told (that’s the price of admission), but of exceeding expectations, and that means initiative, creative thought, and independent thinking. We’re not doing them any favor if we allow them to stay in the “education game” “learning style.”
The second quote reflects the thinking that has driven my inquiry into classroom blogging, while the first one represents the direction that my thinking has taken since I’ve undertaken my inquiry.
I think my own students would lean more towards the sentiment of the first quote since they are of a generation that has become accustomed to the use of technology in activities that us “older people” did the “traditional” way. This traditional way is quaint for many of our students and for them, web 2.0 is the tradition. I am willing to adapt to this new tradition because it is the direction of society in general.
A quick response to Table 3
Teachers are multi-taskers. They can lecture, watch students for signs of understanding and without hardly pausing, shoot a student a warning look to stop an unwanted behavior (while knowing a look is enough for the student in question, where another would need a verbal reprimand). Not being able to IM, game and listen to music at the same time is not a surprise. How many of us IM or game at all? It’s no wonder we can’t do both at the same time.
I’m not at all surprised at the very different responses. I teach high school students and many have gotten very good at the traditional approach and find it easy. When we ask them to change they don’t want to any more than most teachers want to. It’s been working for the last x number of years, so why change now?
Student #2 obviously can learn. Afterall he/she has obviously learned what is required to get a good grade in most classes. It is our job as teachers to get #2 to realize there are other ways to learn and sometimes your teacher (and life in general) will ask you do something different and not simply be a “nerd-monkey”
It is my experience that some people are really good at learning the traditional way. Why do we think there are so many high achievers at every school? So many people going on to Harvard, Yale, UPENN, etc.? But I’ve also seen many who become extremely successful without ever being these high achievers in school. We all learn things differently. It’s exciting to when there’s a variety of learning at schools. There are some schools that are very hands-on, some that spend the whole day in front of computers, some that are strictly lectures, reading and tests, and others that include almost primarily discussion. I think we ought to continue this idea and expand giving students more and more options on how schools are run, curriculum covered and discipline style.
That being said, I believe blogging is a great way to learn how to work in an unstructured environment, express oneself, and get feedback as the first learner has stated. It is also helping students to gain skills that will be desired more as the culture of the workforce changes to reflect the popular culture. Perhaps we’ll see more companies requiring less formal reports on work status in a similar form as blogging. It’s possible that more people will use platforms on computers similar to the one these students have learned through using blogs. Plus how many times has the first student been taught things the ways that didn’t work for her/him? I bet this student has gain a lot from learning things the more traditional way just as the second student gain a lot from learning through blogging.
Dear David,
I’ve been writing quite a few posts recently about blogging particularly involving projects from Scottish schools. Here are some links:
http://joedale.typepad.com/integrating_ict_into_the_/blogging/index.html
Best wishes
Joe
Integrating ICT into the MFL classroom – http://www.joedale.typepad.com
This parable would appear to pretty well sum up the arguments of the didactic/constructivist groups in education.
The contructivists (represented by student #1) would argue that student is acquiring more depth, is more engaged in his learning, and is more responsible for his own learning. And the student’s own writing does seem to reflect this. The inherent danger is that the student never has to select subjects that are not of interest, or may contradict the world that they have built for themselves. They may have depth, but a narrow point of view would seem to ensue as well.
The didactics (represented by student #2) seem to have momentum (or at least a long lived climate, i.e. I was taught that way, I will teach that way, you will learn that way) on their side. The student seems to be saying “this is the way it has always been done – and I’m good enough at it.”
In a curriculum/standard environment that is as wide as ours (pundits tell us that students would be 23 years old if we were to do it “right”), depth isn’t required – the ability to recall is paramount.
I might also venture the thought that this story is equally representing of a chasm that is growing more and more obvious at various NECC-like get togethers. The two groups might be described as the Web2.0 crowd (the ones claiming that they “get it”) and those that are just entering the arena to get their feet wet in technology/education.
Two bits of hard knocks learning that I keep returning to – 1) this always takes a lot longer that I think it should, and 2) until we find better ways to implement and support teachers in new methods of teaching, we aren’t going to get very far. We will continue to read stories of the few, and ignore the many.
I was in that class.
Andi’s quote was taken out of context.