Week 2: Sometimes it’s hard for teachers to “let go…”

  • How is learning presumed to occur within the context of Web 2.0?According to “Minds on Fire,” student learning increases when students are allowed to view each other’s work, work collaboratively in groups, and see the feedback given to each other. When student’s can see each other’s work, a sense of collaboration, but also competition is created.  “Minds on Fire” mentions a course where students were able to see each other blog posts after a few weeks – and when they did so, their standards of work increased.  Our competitive nature kicks in and sometimes boosts our willingness and eagerness to learn.With all of the different ways that students learn, Web 2.0 tools provide a variety of ways to reach every student in the classroom, no matter what their learning style.  I really liked the example of using the web to like older generations with the young kids in school today.  Teachers were able to get a message across that may have been lost had it not been told by someone who lived the era, a generation removed.
  • What are the differences in the role of the learner and the facilitator as compared to ‘traditional’ learning environments? (Do you consider these roles and processes viable/valid given your philosophy of learning?)The learner must take more responsibility for themselves and their education in these types of settings.   The teacher can facilitate but can not be the basic source of knowledge for students.
    Students must seek to interact with their peers and continue discussions on the topics outside the tradition classroom. This is the way learning should always occur, whether “traditional” or not. Learners are living in a “demand-pull” world where resources are rich and expectations of learning are very high.  With so much information at their fingertips, learners must recognize their abilities to change and add to their knowledge at any time.Facilitators, according to Brown, must understand that today’s digital learners are constant multi-processors. We must then teach them in the new way that they learn. And because their are no established sources of information on the web, we must teach our students to question and rethink all sources of information.
  • What implications do these shifts have for how we think about designing learning environments?These shifts allow us to create learning environments that are conducive to all student learning.  These shifts, especially web dependence,  change what is expected of students in the 21st century.  Brown alluded to the fact that because students are expected to know more and problems solve better, we need to consider the “new normal” when creating learning environments for these “web-based” learners.Brown also points out that our students are “do-ers.”  They want to see what is being done around the world via the web and then try and out do it.  We need to challenge them to continue this practice!
  • Courtney Blackhurst

4 thoughts on “Week 2: Sometimes it’s hard for teachers to “let go…”

  1. eimpagliatelli

    @mlc400 I definitely agree with you about students gaining confidence when they are encouraged to share their learning, understanding, and opinions of a subject. I know that in my experience with online courses, the most memorable things I have learned and have made use of is based on discussions with my peers. It also takes a while in a course for everyone to get situated and comfortable in their sharing/commenting process, so i believe the fact that discussions improved over time during the course was due to several factors.

    -Erika

  2. Phil

    is Brown right when he asserts that today’s digital learners are constant multi-processors? Can they maintain full attention on more one cognitive task simultaneously? Nicholas Carr’s book The Shallows seems to disagree.

  3. Karen Yarbrough

    I think a class like this (or online classes in general) are a good example of building off the work of other learners. Some of it may be competitive and some of it may be scaffolding. I suppose that depends on what motivates each learner, but once we see each other’s posts, we can pretty easily judge if our own work is fitting into the class or if we need clarification on something. That said, I’ve noticed that one thing I miss from a traditional classroom environment is the emotional climate of the room. If the class wasn’t getting something or if a test came back with disappointing scores, I could always tell just by reading the room. It’s a skill that comes in handy as an educator, but I miss it as a student now. I think I probably stress more than I should about assignments because I don’t really know in some classes if what I’m doing is fitting in with everyone else’s work. I certainly don’t want to do less, but I don’t want to do ridiculously more either. I miss the raised eyebrow looks and sighs of relief that let me know we are all in it together. I guess my question is how do we keep students engaged with not just the content but with each other, too, if we utilize more technology in the classroom.

  4. mlc400

    I thought that you made a very interesting point about our competitive nature kicking in when we work socially with our peers. I never thought about that being a possible reason as to why the quality of the posts were increasing each week that the professor did this type of teaching style. Instead, my immediate thought was that students were able to build upon one another and gain more confidence as a learner. I know for me personally, I sometimes don’t fully understand a concept being presented. In those moments, I shy from being called on or from participating in class. If however, I had the opportunity to talk through it with a peer, which is less intimidating than my teacher, I would feel more confident in what I was learning and trying to relay when answering prompts or questions. Increasing my confidence then empowers me to take ownership of my learning. Also, talking through our learning allows us to hear others opinions and translations of the information being presented which helps to push one another even further into inquiry about “who was right”.

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