Blogospheric

Educational Blogging by Downes was a much more concrete article than the Pew laundry list of blogger demographic statistics...though what I did glean from the Pew article was the evidence that with blogging, there are more people writing! (At least that is my impression.) Not only are people writing but they are connecting. In a world that seems jam-packed with stimuli and impersonal, people have the opportunity to connect with others and share meaning and experience. In this way, it differs greatly from personal journals that collect on the shelf. Blogging is a public act and begins the possibility of creating community.

In the Downes article, this sense of community is manifested in the grammar school educational environment. What some of the students learn is that points of view can be shared with an enormous network beyond their immediate world.

For me the most important use of blogging is that it gives students the opportunity to reflect upon their learning in an informal manner. Sitting in front of a screen and keyboard writing a blog can be less threatening than writing a formal paper to turn in. While it possesses these qualities. it does remain a public act, therefore most people will perform in a way that does not cast them in a bad light. I other words, while it may informal, we will still make sure our ideas are clear and our grammar properly expressed.

The points made in relation to the power of blogs in the aftermath of 9/11 were profound. Blogs allow for personal accounts of an historic events--the true reality of history is reflected in the impact upon the individual, not just the exchange of wealth or political boundaries. For this, blogs act to democratize information, so that we respond to the voice, the opinion, the idea or experience of an individual because we feel it has integrity, not only because it is CNN, slyFOX or whatever.

9.12.07 >> 21st Century Skills

OK, maybe because this article (report) is written in such a dry manner, or that it stays at a safe distance, but there was a cold feeling about it. I do agree, however, that it is critical to create a learning environment that has the best opportunity to prepare students for the outside, working world. A way to do that is to design learning that uses tools students will mostly likely encounter…as well as the other conceptual & soft skills: Information/communication skills, problem-solving skills, interpersonal skills—all of these can of course be embedded into the curriculum of other subjects: English, Science, History, Geography, Political Science—it doesn’t necessarily have to be a separate course or area of study. Implementing problem-centered learning, constructivism, and element of connectivism into other curricula can impart these skills.

“All students need highly-qualified, effective teachers and regular, reliable access to modern technology” (p 22) The report did not seem to address a lot of obvious gaps. For one, the teachers need to be re-taught to embrace this type of learning. How will they accept it? Will they be forced into teaching to the assessment, which plagues many schools now with the “No millionaire left behind” Act? Many teachers are so restricted by the mandate to teach to the assessments, they cannot be creative imparting subject matter. Also, I think teachers are not quite prepared to teach many 21^st century tools. I do think it is a good idea to figure out a good way to make this happen, though. Regular, reliable access to technology would be refreshing! There are huge gaps between school districts when it comes to technology, access, etc. Some schools barely have books or current resources.

While I don’t want to be too negative, because I do believe in the ‘idea’ of what this report advocates, I just think that few schools are ready to embrace this; few schools have the staff, the resources, and accessibility to pull it off.

Sidenote: on p16-17 of report there is mention of the need to reflect 21st century skills with 21st century assessments--this is very important. The example sites a written, open-ended question that is intended to be filled out by hand, when the students are likely to be accustomed to typing on a computer. I also found this funny because I read it right after sketched a navigational roadmap for my Flash project and using pencil and paper!

9.10.07 Connectivism (Siemens)

I see Connectivism as an outgrowth of Constructivism enabled by new technologies. Instead of learning being constructed by the individual, the network reshapes the construction, then the individual reshapes the new product based on the connections…externalizes the knowledge…the network is the individual. As soon as I type such statement I think: “We are Borg.” Or “Resistance is futile.” Another image that comes to mind is pixilation, the individual’s knowledge is patterned and reverberates into a larger form. But there can be no static description, by nature, of the form of learning…

If “the bulk of learning occurs as a desire to make sense, understand, develop personally,” (Siemens, 7) then the level of input and the amount of desire that the learner contributes to the community, the more value they are to likely achieve, right? Surely we all agree that we get the most out of the learning we that we put the most into, but isn’t there a certain type of ‘voyeur’ learner who scans the internet, reads the blogs, etc and rarely contributes, if at all? Will these learners get any less out of the learning community? I’m not sure—but certainly we need to look at what evidence there is that learning occurred. According to Siemens, we need to externalize our knowledge into order to cope with the plethora of information we take in.

I like the idea that “when knowledge is communicated through dialogue, the progressive growth of understanding is tied to the process, not the artifact.” (Siemens, 11) This seems to be what Connectivism is all about, that we don’t possess knowledge, but instead we share, participate in the evolution of ideas—we all progress together, transform together.

Connectivism (Siemens)

Connectivism (Siemens)

itec 830 blog--web 2.0

9.9.07 Web 2.0

It took me a while to realize that “Web 2.0” is not a new software release! It is the socialization of the internet, it seems. It is culturally and personally social, but it is also social in the sense of power and in a political way as well. We are all at the controls exchanging and editing content.