Reading Highlights

In John Seely Brown and Richard P. Adler’s article, “Minds on Fire: Open Education, the Long Tail, and Learning 2.0,” the authors presented many interesting topics surrounding Web 2.0 learning.  One of the most thought provoking to me, was the idea of “social learning.”

Brown and Adler refer to Richard J. Light’s research in Making the Most of College: Students Speak Their Minds, “Light discovered that one of the strongest determinants of students’ success in higher education—more important than the details of their instructors’ teaching styles—was their ability to form or participate in small study groups. Students who studied in groups, even only once a week, were more engaged in their studies, were better prepared for class, and learned significantly more than students who worked on their own,” (Minds on Fire: Open Education, the Long Tail, and Learning 2.0).

In my mind, the term “group project” (which at first I assumed meant the same as “group learning”) instantly gives me flashbacks to middle school (and even college) project nightmares, where I generally took on the brunt of the work, or sweat it out while waiting for my partners to show up to the table to help out here or there.  I’d never thought of those moments as group “learning.”  Nor were they.  It was more a divide and conquer approach, that was later divided up again among the members who actually showed up. I also admit, seeing that I was in a group for this class got me a little, antsy.

As a teacher myself, I would struggle (especially in an online setting) to find ways to use groups.  What if they don’t all help, is it fair that Sally gets the same grade as Jamie when Sally did all of the work? What if they don’t mesh well?  What if..etc.  When I really stopped and thought about what this article was talking about though–there was a big difference between a group project and group learning.  This type of learning, as it was described, I admit–I could get pretty excited about.  It’s much easier to see how this type of learning would be–engaging, fun, exciting, more interesting, more multifaceted.  It still allows for the individual to have the responsibly of contributing, but now all members get to benefit.

This got me thinking about my college experience.  Mainly–how I can’t remember much of it.  I don’t remember the projects (in detail) that I worked on alone. Yet, their was one class where we were “forced” to work as a group, for the entire semester…I remember that class.  I remember the discussions, how we worked together, (sometimes how we worked against each other), learned from everyone–it was by far the class I learned the most in, and it wasn’t necessarily “new” stuff that I was learning–but it was a new way of learning it and I definitely retained it far better than any of my other classes, regardless of professor, delivery, or personal interest in the topic.

— I found this realization super insightful, and my brain is already spinning a million miles an hour trying to think of ways to use it in my online classroom.

–Just so my point doesn’t get lost, and my our personal enjoyment–one more illustration of how much I truly disliked group projects.–

How is learning presumed to occur within the context of Web 2.0?

After reading these articles, I would say that learning is presumed to occur in an increasingly social way, within the context of Web 2.0.* No longer are learners supposed to be bystanders in their education, but interactive participants. Instead of being presented with content that they review and merely move onto the next after an assessment of some sort, in the Web 2.0 context of learning, they’re supposed to communicate with others, comment, question, reflect, and dig into and search around for more/related/conflicting points of view on the presented information.

I felt this point was best explained in the article, “Minds on Fire: Open Education, the Long Tail, and Learning 2.0,” but better exemplified in, “Learning, Working & Playing in the Digital Age.”  I really enjoyed Brown’s example of the radios and the Xerox technicians and how this relates to students of this generation learning from one another in a social way.  I think about how I handle things when I have a problem to solve–I’m much quicker to Google something than refer to a textbook or even ask an expert anymore, and I’d never think to take a class on something that was unknown to me unless it covered a larger span of something unknown.

I had never heard of “Learning Ecology” until I read, John Seely Brown’s article, “Learning, Working & Playing in the Digital Age.” Such a cool learning philosophy.  I thought this was  a really neat illustration.

Please feel free to skip the inner ramblings of a HS teacher in the next paragraph, I both ask–and answer my own question, but am going to leave it there to remind myself about this idea–and who knows, maybe help someone else out with a similar issue.  

*I do not believe, that this is how it is primarily happening however–at least not in the online school setting that I work in.  All student-to-student contact without a teacher present is disabled by the administrators, mainly for bullying concerns and other behavioral risks (webcams and high schoolers–ahh).  I’m struggling with all these exciting ideas–and figuring out how to implement them.  There is a strong need in our school to stick to the “assigned curriculum” with resistance to ideas like independent group learning (everything they should need is provided in a very rigid context, live classes are daily, lecture based, with time for Q & A but no real contribution happening from the students themselves). How do I use what I’m learning about the group learning, and student-led classrooms in a shool run like that?  Ideas welcome.  One thought I had while typing this us was assigning Group Google projects (doc, sheets, slide, etc), they do have access to that, but no real means to communicate with each other unless also in my Adobe classroom monitoring the discussion–which, actually isn’t a terrible idea and I would love to try it sometime, or a more formal discussion like a discussion board…also an option I suppose.

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 differences in the role of the learner in a traditional learning environment–I feel, is to listen, and regurgitate the information presented to prove some sort of understanding (or not), before moving onto the next lesson.  The facilitator more or less gives the information (lecture, PowerPoint, etc.), or provides the resources needed for the information (book, video, activity, etc.).  In the reading assignment, Brown and Adler previous a newer idea–an idea that has learners as the ones in charge of their learning, and facilitators are strictly…facilitators.

One of my favorite sections of “Learning, Working & Playing in the Digital Age,” was this paragraph,

“My generation, speaking generally, tend not to want to try things unless we already know how to use them. If we don’t know how to use some appliance, software or game, etc., then we tend to reach for a manual, ask for a training course or ask to be shown how to do it by an expert. Believe me, hand a manual to a 15-year-old or suggest going to a training course and he thinks you are a dinosaur. “A manual? Give me a break! Let me get in there and muck around and try various things and see what works.” More generally, today’s kids tend to get on the Web and link, lurk and watch how other people are doing things and then try something themselves.”

I easily see this in my life on a daily basis–my mom and dad constantly are asking my brother and I for help with their computers and cell phones, instead of just diving in and figuring it out on their own (or, more likely, Googling it and finding a video or blog on the topic and looking like tech genius).  I feel that my generation in particular is a little more willing to play around with tech, it was growing at then same time we were!  I’m never afraid to mess up the internet–or not be able to undo a setting change.  It’s all about trail and error, but my parents, no matter how often we tell them, just wont do things that way when it comes to technology.

I find this image particularly funny, because the point is that the younger generation wouldn’t read or study anything-we’d just drive in and play around with settings, or whatever, until it’s fixed.

In the same sense, it’s a really great idea to let students have this trial and error mindset about their education (with some help from a more experienced facilitator).  I feel that this type of learning would be more meaningful, and therefore have more of an impact on a students.  While I think my idea of a learning environment was more steered in a traditional sense (let’s face it, that’s mostly what I was taught, and almost exclusively what I experienced) I think after reading these articles and already starting to experience it firsthand in this class, I would wholeheartedly agree that this approach makes for a better learning experience and would encourage more of a “life long learner” mindset–which, for myself–is the desired outcome for my students!

What implications do these shifts have for how we think about designing learning environments?

This theme, of moving away from a teacher standing in the front of the room (or a teacher speaking from behind her mic) is showing up over and over again, all over the place.  The pattern seems to be, that the research shows that this type of learning just isn’t cutting it anymore, and that the more preferred way to retain, understanding, grow, and learn is to have the learner dive into things themselves.  The shift is happening from teacher-led classrooms, to student-led classrooms.  Learning environments will of course need to change then.  There needs to be way more time for interaction. Interaction between students and also interaction between individuals or groups of students and the teacher.  And on the other side of that, there needs to be more individual time for exploring their own interests.  There also needs to be more time for collaboration,more  time to really (and I mean REALLY) dive into a topic that sparks their interest, teachers also need to figure out ways to assess these new ways of learning and also hit all the benchmarks/standards/expectations that are asked of us as educators, and much much more that I’m probably leaving out!  It’s exciting to think about learning this way–but also a little scary.  Those are big things that would need to really change in order for this type of learning to take place in a classroom.  I’m sure it’s the changes that are what hold most teachers back from making this transition, even when it’s clearly the more ideal way to learning and running our classrooms.

My biggest concern is, gosh, can my students do this?  Would they even make a half descent attempt at it?*  It’s hard enough to get them to do what I assign, what if they decide they just would rather do nothing.  Then what do I do?

*note – currently in our school, about 90% of our students will leave before the end of the semester, and by the end of the year over 50% that stayed will be repeating their current class, we are by no means a typical school, so it’s hard to imagine how all of this will play out for our students–but I think these new ideas could make our school so much better and that’s really exciting!!