Do As I Say - Not As I Was Taught - CCK08
This week started off as any other week, get up,
make breakfast and check my e-mail while eating…
However this week I was forced into a Moodle Forum beyond my control.
Before I rant and rave like many before me I must say that I usually
follow the current week and unsubscribe to past weeks to ensure that I
am staying current, as well as filtering many many messages that would
enter my in box.
In the short time that everyone still in the course was forced to
participate, I like many others became upset at being manhandled into
something that was not our choice, that was not our network, to have
had our own limited power taken away from us. We started wide eyed,
and fancy free, then bam.. pillow sack over the head and taken to a
dark room to sweat it out…
I understand why the approach was taken, however that does not leave
the bitter taste in my mouth turning into sweet gumballs of heaven. An
Open Course is well supposed to be Open, regardless of the lessons
supposedly taught. So I wonder, how many of the lurkers, the
looky-loos the passer-by’s have stopped coming at all… Was this
lesson more important than the learning of others, was it more
important than each of our own learning techniques, which I have heard
repeatedly should be thought of first.
So how can I apply this lesson to my class. Am I supposed to feel
sorry for my students that they do not have control over their own
learning. My Answer at this time is NO. They are 12 years old, to
them the power is on because they can plug something into the wall and
it works… They have no conceptual understanding of much of anything
other than their own limited space…
Now before I get comments galore on this, think about it, how many
times do you see teenagers in an open space, acting wild, talking
loudly, being exaggerated versions of themselves… ALL THE TIME…
why…. BECAUSE THEY THINK THEY ARE THE CENTER OF THE WORLD AND WE
ACTUALLY CARE WHAT THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT… Now not to hurt their’s
or your delicate feelings …
the people you want to guide their own learning, they cannot even dress
themselves most of the time… And no I am not talking pre-school I am
talking Teenagers… The Average North American Teenager….
I have heard through the grape vine that Connectivism will not work at
a K-12 level, pure connectivism, not groups, no teacher guidance, just
students forming connections and knowledge run freeth… I agree…
At this time I feel this is an excellent learning theory for Adult
Education, for Individuals with Professional Development goals, not my
students, who have a hard time remembering their homework when it is
both posted in the classroom, and online…
Please someone PROVE ME WRONG….
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[...] and her take on the day and Jason’s response to the exercise of power. ( I saw Tom’s post too through The Daily [...]
Hi Do as I Say Not as I was Taught,
I have a gifted teenage, but I still agree with you for the K-12.
I love this for professional development — for people who have already say an undergrad degree even — an some of those for the first couple of years are not much out to the K-12 range. I have many neices and nephews in that age range.
Jo Ann
I have no interest in proving you wrong, but would share my experience with recent hs grads coming into our web design and interactive media program. Our program attracts (through sales) many students who do not have a clear idea about what they want to do in their lives, and get talked into the joys of learning to be a designer. An into course I teach this group immerses them in social networking - partly because these students will become designer/developers and they must understand the various technologies from an experience level, and partly because we hope to help them become more self-directed. Some choose not to get involved beyond responding to a topic and not commenting to others. But those who try and grasp the meaning of blogging, aggregating, social bookmarking, collaborating, etc., discover that there is excitement and efficiency, and that they can get deeper into learning in this environment.
I don’t agree that age range limits connectivity, for it is possible with anyone who has a positive experience of it. My guess is the teens you refer to are experts at connectivity, but have not discovered yet how to relate those skills to “learning”, which I assume your reference is to formal learning, for all of them are engaged in informal learning. I think one of my major goals is to help my students merge informal learning with formal learning, or to use their digital skills for different purposes and possibilities. I don’t subscribe to the digital native concept, as most of the students I meet are actually not that different, they just use different tools. They all seem to lack the knowledge of what to do with the tools beyond socializing, basic day to day communicating, etc. But they also have the capacity to take it to a deeper level if we accept where they are and invite them to take it to another level.
You don’t care because you DO care. You have a vision and goals and know the most efficient way to get from Point A to Point B is a straight line. Connectivism is a different route. It’s one where everyone branches out gathering what they will and then coming back and sorting through the accumulated pile of interesting stuff. Time is infinite to a 12 year old but the teacher of a group of 12 year olds is very much governed by time - the year’s curriculum divided by the number of class days. In high school, we all critiqued Shakespeare but Shakespeare was still Shakespeare and we were still a bunch of pimply faced teenagers. When I was 12, I thought 20 was so old that everything of consequence had already happened by then and those over 20 were destined to be forever boring until they died. In the back of our minds, all adults have a touch of the drill sargeant in them - we know they are going out into a world where not everyone survives.