Personal Learning Environments and Anti-Teaching
Think about what you have learned about Multiple Intelligences, Brain-Based Learning, and good instructional design. Are virtual learning environments with course management systems the answer? What about PLEs and Web 2.0 tools? Is technology itself enough?
A Personal Learning Environment (PLE) is a digital organizational tool for collecting information for use and research in one place. You can include your emails, blogs, RSS feeds, calendar and loads of other applications so that you have them all together. This can certainly make learning more efficient; the PLE is a time saver. It can be organized according to an individual?s interests or according to a particular theme (Educause Learning Initiative [ELI], 2009).
It certainly does seem to be a wonderful tool for the self-directed learner, but what about the student who just doesn?t seem to be interested in anything but what about the student who did not learn to read well in the early grades and is just drifting on through the grades, perhaps disrupting the class or barely getting by one way or another? Or what about the student who is only interested in video games?
No, I do not believe that technology is enough. I believe that the PLE is a great tool, but there are other more fundamental changes that MUST be made in the way that we educate if we want to reach most students. Michael Wesch (2009) makes the argument for educational change in his article, Anti-Teaching: Confronting the Crisis of Significance. He says, ?Students ? our most important critics ? are struggling to find meaning and significance in their education? (p. 5). Wesch gives a wonderful example of how he created interest and helped students find significance in his college level Introduction to Cultural Anthropology class. The PLE would be a great tool to use here and it appears that he DID use what he called "a hacked mix of online social media like wikis, Twitter, Jott, and Facebook" (p. 6). He went on to call these "little more than simple parlour tricks. They make up a rather creative and interesting means of learning, but not a reason for learning. They do not address that most significant problem, the problem of significance" (p. 6).
Based on the assumption that the educational systems as we know them do not work for the vast majority of the students moving through them, what would work? What are the key components you would include in new schools? Pull from your learning and the sources you have already acquired to support your answer. What are the key components for 21st century schools and learning beyond the test?
I agree with Wesch that a PLE is a wonderful means of learning. I can see that I will love using one myself and I will find it a wonderfully valuable tool for use with students, but somehow the underlying relevance must be found for students to have interest in learning. How will this kind of thinking change our schools? One factor that we will need to address is how we can take the learning outside of the walls of the classroom. The classroom is fine for certain practice exercises and learning, for example, first graders practicing their reading or making art. What about other topics like how to shop? Or what does a fireman do? Or how to clean our room? Or how to make lunch? Or why can we not just take what we want from the store? Much of this would be better taught in the actual environment. Perhaps we would have a small fleet of "classroom buses" with a driver/assistant and one third or so of "learning time" would be taught on the go. Once students had a level of literacy and real world research skills AND interest in specific topics, then a student could be taught enough to use a PLE as a research tool. As each student became more self-determined and self disciplined, the student could do quite a bit of learning via a course management system, implementing that learning into an active life just as online students of Full Sail University such as myself are doing now.
I believe that some of the key components for 21st century schools would be:
There will be more than one way to address these concepts. I would love to hear the ideas of others on the subject as I continue to explore them also.
Wesch, M. (2008). Anti-teaching: Confronting the crisis of significance. Education Canada, 48(2) 4-7.
It certainly does seem to be a wonderful tool for the self-directed learner, but what about the student who just doesn?t seem to be interested in anything but what about the student who did not learn to read well in the early grades and is just drifting on through the grades, perhaps disrupting the class or barely getting by one way or another? Or what about the student who is only interested in video games?
No, I do not believe that technology is enough. I believe that the PLE is a great tool, but there are other more fundamental changes that MUST be made in the way that we educate if we want to reach most students. Michael Wesch (2009) makes the argument for educational change in his article, Anti-Teaching: Confronting the Crisis of Significance. He says, ?Students ? our most important critics ? are struggling to find meaning and significance in their education? (p. 5). Wesch gives a wonderful example of how he created interest and helped students find significance in his college level Introduction to Cultural Anthropology class. The PLE would be a great tool to use here and it appears that he DID use what he called "a hacked mix of online social media like wikis, Twitter, Jott, and Facebook" (p. 6). He went on to call these "little more than simple parlour tricks. They make up a rather creative and interesting means of learning, but not a reason for learning. They do not address that most significant problem, the problem of significance" (p. 6).
Based on the assumption that the educational systems as we know them do not work for the vast majority of the students moving through them, what would work? What are the key components you would include in new schools? Pull from your learning and the sources you have already acquired to support your answer. What are the key components for 21st century schools and learning beyond the test?
I agree with Wesch that a PLE is a wonderful means of learning. I can see that I will love using one myself and I will find it a wonderfully valuable tool for use with students, but somehow the underlying relevance must be found for students to have interest in learning. How will this kind of thinking change our schools? One factor that we will need to address is how we can take the learning outside of the walls of the classroom. The classroom is fine for certain practice exercises and learning, for example, first graders practicing their reading or making art. What about other topics like how to shop? Or what does a fireman do? Or how to clean our room? Or how to make lunch? Or why can we not just take what we want from the store? Much of this would be better taught in the actual environment. Perhaps we would have a small fleet of "classroom buses" with a driver/assistant and one third or so of "learning time" would be taught on the go. Once students had a level of literacy and real world research skills AND interest in specific topics, then a student could be taught enough to use a PLE as a research tool. As each student became more self-determined and self disciplined, the student could do quite a bit of learning via a course management system, implementing that learning into an active life just as online students of Full Sail University such as myself are doing now.
I believe that some of the key components for 21st century schools would be:
- Relevance of material to the student at every level
- Great instructional design that includes at least as much training of the body or mind and body as it does the mind
- Use of learned skills in relevant activities on a regular basis,
- Cooperative group activities with training on how to successfully work within a group as well as on individual projects. This might included training in communication skills, manners, personal integrity, logical reasoning, as well as how to run a business or manage a family
- Study and research skills taught and used for all learning which address more than just verbal learning -- [a great resource for this is found on the Applied Scholastics International website: http://www.appliedscholastics.org/ ]
- Instructor as manager/ facilitator, not teacher (this would require a change in the systems in which we train ?teachers? [Teacher training in this type of method is also found on the Applied Scholastics International website in 2 or 3 day workshops or more intensive programs: http://www.appliedscholastics.org/educator_programs.php]
- Incorporating the arts into as many facets as possible such as the use of music in advertising, graphic arts for web design, etc. as well as engendering a love of drama, art, music and all forms or art for the love of aesthetic communication
http://www.thedelphianschool.org/page.cfm?p=277
http://www.delphiboston.org/our_philosophy.html
There will be more than one way to address these concepts. I would love to hear the ideas of others on the subject as I continue to explore them also.
References
Wesch, M. (2008). Anti-teaching: Confronting the crisis of significance. Education Canada, 48(2) 4-7.
Educause Learning Initiative. (2009, May 12). 7 things you should know about personal learning environments. Retrieved from http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7049.pdf
You have done an incredible job addressing these questions. Among the things you mentioned there are two things rarely addressed. One, a student's age, why do we group students chronologically when their development doesn't depend on age. Two, the arts should not be a "special" music and art should be a core part of the curriculum. Great post, Kerry.
ReplyDelete