Learning and Web 2.0

This week we read two articles, Brown & Adler’s Minds on Fire: Open education, the Long Tail, and Learning 2.0 and Brown’s Learning, working and playing in the digital age. We also read tips on Blog writing and encouraging comments. Bellinson’s Advice on giving and receiving comments and Garrett’s 10 tips for attracting more comments. At first glance the latter two seemed to support the activity we are doing, blogging and commenting on each others blogs, but after reading through the articles, I see the importance of learning to develop “conversations” via Web tools as a way of information seeking and reasoning, and developing knowledge.

Much has been written about the way learning has changed with the technology and the Web. The main theme being we cannot teach in an industrialized way, with students sitting in rows, listening to the teacher, taking in information via rote methods. Instead of disseminating information via the teacher, text or other limited source, information is now available  through a virtually unlimited source, the Web, and readily accessible to people of all ages and walks of life, be it their Smart phone, home computer, school computer or access through public library. This has changed the method of instruction, to restate a common phrase, from “sage on the stage” to “guide on the side”. Teachers need to become facilitators of learning, helping students learn to reason out information and think critically.

This does not mean that students can just be turned loose on the Internet to discover knowledge on their own, with the teacher there to help navigate. As shown in the experience with Xerox (http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/sci_edu/seelybrown/ ) technicians were able to troubleshoot issues by sharing knowledge and experience, but did so much more effectively when it came after formalized training and establishing a firm knowlege base through training. Then, when the technicians pieced together their knowledge and experiences, it helped to yield a better understanding. This was even more productive when a system was developed to help collect this group knowledge, document it, and build on it. Students need to learn facts and accepted procedures, but then need the environment to share, discuss, and create knowledge.

I believe the role of educators today is to teach about a topic and then construct and facilitate methods for sharing and creating. This, coupled with methods of hands on experience helps students to develop tacit knowledge. Both articles make reference to the idea of explicit vs. tacit knowledge, which brings us back to the differences in the way education has been  – “industrialized” develop during the industrial revolution to create workers who can sit and do a task or Cartesian as described in Minds on Fire – versus the type of learning that needs to happen today, in our technology based, on demand driven environment. The pace of technology and information availability is changing our world at a blinding rate. As has been said before, we are preparing them for jobs that dont even exist yet (Shift Happens), which is going to require people to learn to adapt, think independently and work collaboratively.

I really enjoyed these articles and it really spurred me to think about ways instruction can be altered to help facilitate a collaborative, self directed learning environment. I think the format of  in this class, the blogging, Diigo, and sharing of thoughts and ideas is a great model. I was also thinking of ways that students (in my case, high school) can have experience with peer review. Perhaps an activity where a junior class can review a research based project of sophomores.

What ideas do you have for sharing knowledge among students?

The other road block to collaborative learning is standardized testing. How do educators handle this? How do we make shift happen in an educational world entrenched in scores?

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4 Responses to Learning and Web 2.0

  1. ASHLEY G STONER says:

    Zach- I liked your idea about sitting groups in pods or tables instead of rows. My question to you is how do you keep them from social talking when you are trying to discuss something. I had my classroom in tables from a project we had to do, and kept then like that for a few days to see how it would go. It got to the point where I gave up on trying to redirect or get the group focused and went back to my rooms. I also noticed when they are sitting in tables/group some members are at odd angles to the board and are forced to look sideways for a majority of the period. Zach, I think I read you’re in a high school setting, have you had any similar problems as I described?
    Lauren- We also have all kinds of “teaching strategies” through a program we started with, but have since seemed to stray away from, and that is the LFS (Learning Focused Strategies) models which have all sorts of helpful classroom activities like the Jigsaw. Does any one else have LFS at their school? Has anyone really noticed a difference in learning/retaining with these? We also just started something called Collins Writing, has anyone else had any experience with this?

  2. JOAN MRUK says:

    I like the jigsaw idea. I did something similar a few years ago with my freshman class. Instead of spending 6 lessons going over the various aspects of Digital Citizenship (privacy, security, Netiquette, etc) I made 6 groups and they had to spend a class reading through some sources and prepare a presentation for the class.

  3. LAUREN MCFADDEN says:

    I enjoyed reading your perspective on this weeks readings. Although I teach the little ones- 2nd graders- I think social learning is an important aspect of the learning process at all ages. I often put my students in mixed ability groups in hopes that those who know can help those that are struggling. As I thought about your first question, I was reminded of a learning technique that I was taught in college. It is called Jigsaw learning. It occurs when learning about an topic that is impossible to cover in the allotted time. Students are put into groups and are assigned a specific piece to the puzzle, so to speak. So if they were learning about the Civil War, one member would learn all they could about the Southern groups, one would learn about the Union, one would learn about uniforms of each, etc. When all the members reunited, they’re job was to teach the other members about their specific piece. This could be extended into a variety of topics and subjects. This also allows the teacher to be the facilitator, not as “the sage on stage.” Just a few thoughts!

  4. ZACHARY SCOTT BAUERMASTER says:

    Great points you make Joan. In the second paragraph you mention how learning is changing with the advancements in technology and the web. In our school district they are slowly doing away with desks and rows. They are experimenting with tables or “pods” where students are sitting in a collaborative setting and they have laptops at each seat. With these resources it makes it much easier to incorporate technology and participate in collaborative learning. Not nearly all our classrooms are like this, but slowly our district is moving in this direction.
    Also, I agree on your points of teacher being a facilitator but not simply letting the students loose to surf the web. According to Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence, “The teacher’s role is to guide and assist students as they take on more responsibility for their learning.” A key point there is students taking more responsibility for their learning. I believe the day’s of lecture classrooms are coming to an end.
    As for sharing knowledge among students, I agree the blogging and Diigo are a great way to keep us constantly discussing and communicating. This would be good to implement into any classroom as it keeps students productively engaged and sharing knowledge with one another. I would like to establish something like this in my classroom just to have an ongoing discussion as students share thoughts and opinions on topics. I like to incorporate discussion forums in my classroom using Moodle to keep students sharing and discussing topics. This way all students participate and discuss rather than the usual ones who raise their hand in class while the others just sit there. This helps keep all involved.

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