The learning 2.0 movement could be responsible for sculpting a generation of young leaders. Web 2.0 tools empower students to seek out expert advice, so that they can direct their own learning according to their personal interests. For example, a friend of mine with an interest in fitness recently created a profile in the Crossfit Games 2014 community, where he can review stats of other people in his age group, learn exercises from the “fittest” people, post his own performance stats and measure his progress against the rest of the community. His motivation to progress is fueled by a desire to establish his credibility among others in the community. In my mind, this validates John Seely Brown’s claim in the video, Rethinking Learning, that students “want to be measured, because they want to see how much they are improving.” But, my friend also expresses doubts that he can be a leader, aka the “Best”, in any aspect of that community. A facilitator would help my friend understand that the “Best” is determined by hard work towards a particular goal and not just natural ability. Web 2.0 learners will need facilitators to not only introduce them to their fields of interest, but also to help develop goals that are both challenging and possible that help students work toward leadership of their particular abilities.
While the “networked learning” model sounds promising to build social, economic, technological and cultural LEADERS in our society, it also poses some implementation challenges. For example, if it is left in the informal setting, only elite students with connections and resources will be able to benefit from networked learning communities. Going back to my friend, if he was a student in an under-privileged household, he could be interested in fitness all he wanted, but without access to weight-lifting equipment, or advice from trainers, he would never become a weight-lifting champion. Leaving networked learning in the informal setting poses the threat of increasing the knowledge gap between the elite and the under-privileged further than it already is. However, if it is introduced into the formal setting, even more questions arise. Would one facilitator need to have connections to every student’s field of interest? Would the model of measurement (grading) have to change so that it can accurately capture a student’s progress towards his or her eventual leadership? Would students lose motivation knowing their work was being done for school, aka someone else, and not on their own terms?
To me, formalized networked learning still has too many unknown variables, so it will take time to integrate. A more immediate and actionable solution may be to keep the networked learning happening informally, perhaps drawing aspects of it into the classroom little by little. Communities have already begun working towards establishing safe spaces for equal access to learning networks, such as the examples on page 8 of Connected Learning. Do I go too far by saying “We would be losing future leaders if that progress stopped”?
Jessie, I like the way you focused on the notion of students as leaders to demonstrate their expertise in this new connected learning ecology. I think that another thing to pay attention to is that connected learning spans across contexts, so whatever students do in a formal context should also be connected to their informal learning contexts, such that it will not reduce their motivation. Does that make sense?
I like your example of your friend utilizing different resources to be part of a “networked” learning center in which he learns from other interested individuals and uses their support to help him self reach a higher goal. With regards to the access of equipment if one truly had this aspiration or any other aspiration and the resources such as yours of not having gym access to reach their goal then it would show that the networking in itself is truly not working in my belief thus making it a true obstacle. To the likewise of this example if your friend could not get gym access but had the desire and the ability to get online then it would be possible for someone that he is communicating with to help him in the matter of obtaining gym access. This idea of the student not being able to gain access to a gym is a possible step where the facilitator gets involved in by ensuring the student properly communicates with experts in a the field which based on the networked student video which showed this as one of the methods of support the facilitator brings. In your example the facilitator could help the student in this area by helping him get in contact with a local gym which would be helping him communicate properly to experts in the desired field. I do agree with your idea of this concept having to many variables as a main variable that I have been thinking about is the level of understanding the student can present to the facilitator. In this style of learning it seems to me that all lot of information from several different students is being presented to them and it would be difficult for the facilitator to grade all the projects due to the level of understanding that the facilitator would need and some degree of knowledge on the subject to honestly understand and grade the project. I like your idea of keeping this type of learning informal such an example could be an after school club where students of a like desire meet and then branch off through web 2.0 technologies then meet periodically to learn from each other thus all learning about a desired idea that would promote that learning outside the classroom environment in which it is not graded but utilized to help each of the involved students grow.
I think that you made a valid point when thinking about the changes that would need to take place in order to measure student progress. Web 2.0 learning can take place in small ways or in very big ways. It seems to me that grading a student’s progress will become very objective. The facilitator may need to rely on rubrics, which happens to be my least favorite way to grade. Personally, I prefer when my assessments are data driven. I can walk away from an assessment knowing whether each and every student mastered a concept.
You also brought up the point regarding the level of student motivation if they know it is for school rather than to fuel their own interest. I personally believe that my students would be happy to share their interests within the formal setting.