Conversations on Learning

I've been following a few conversations about Marc Prensky's article Engage Me or Enrage Me. In the original article, Prensky makes a case for the use of video games and other technologies as a way to bring students into a more appropriate style of learning.

Here are three blog posts that disagree somewhat with his premise.

• Chris Lehman, Principal of the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia shares his concerns. 
• Dennis Fermoyle, a veteran Social Studies teacher from Minnesota is a bit more harsh in his criticism.
  
• Kelly Christopherson, from Eston, SK writes about his concerns as well.

Here is a couple of posts supporting Prensky. 

• Scott Mcleod from Minnesota as well defends the article in two posts.
  First here,then here.

I would encourage you to read the comments from these posts as well to get a perspective on the various opinions. Then either comment on one of their blogs or leave a comment here. This is an important discussion that requires some fresh thought.

A 50 minute recording of the final portion of a meeting of teachers and administrators on change with author and blogger Will Richardson. Details of the event are here.

One teacher who I feel exemplies master teaching in the 21st century is a grade 7/8 teacher from Manitoba named Clarence Fisher . Reading his blog reveals almost daily insights and journey into creating a classroom where students are engaged and involved in authentic learning and where they have a great deal of ownership. This post addresses some of the concerns about providing students with choice. Clarence writes:

Our classroom blogs show who we are, our wikis show what we are working on. Certainly there are classes that use their spaces differently and more effectively, but we are learning. We take suggestions from all corners of the globe and try to represent ourselves honestly and truthfully to the world. We invite parents in to our virtual spaces, members of our class, other local classes, and other kids or adults around the world equally. We privilege no one. A resource that a student uses in the classroom is just as likely to have been gained from being published on a blog in China as it is to have come from me. We evaluate all information equally.

Without having the words for it, I think this is something that we have edged towards in our classroom without realizing it. I didn't set out to have an open classroom, I set out on this journey to change and improve the learning environment of my classroom, but transparency is something we are gaining along the way.

As you read the entire post, you'll see how much he believes in providing students with choice within the parameters of the classroom. Is this something teachers should be striving towards? What examples are currently helping us move towards this type of learning environment?

Information overload is certainly something many of us struggle with. This post by George Seimens helps understand one way to deal with this.

As I build my own learning networks, I am "plugging in" to the
thinking, decision making, and filtering habits of others. I have about
300 blogs in my RSS aggregator. The ideas that I find of most value are
clipped, blogged, or furled. Anyone who follows my elearnspace blog encounters the distillation of my information sources. When I read Stephen's, Will's, or Clarence's
blogs, I receive the benefit of their own filtering activities. Each
blog I read may represent the distillation of several hundred
information sources (of which there will be many duplications). To
follow even 10 blogs may be filtered outcome of 3000 different
information points.

There is also a clear difference between networks and groups. Stephen Downes explains it here and this video also demonstrates the difference.

Groups require unity, networks require diversity. Groups require
coherence, networks require autonomy. Groups require privacy or
segregation, networks require openness .

Most of us understand groups. Our PLC's are examples of groups. Our staffs may be examples of groups. Most of us do not understand networks very well and certainly aren't tapping into their power. There is potential and need for us to understand this and introduce our students to networks.

Is this concept too far "out there" for us to deal with?

For some, the prospect of blogging is fearful because of what may be involved from a technical standpoint. Most that face this fear quickly are put at ease and realize it's not much different than composing an email or writing in a word processor. I'm using Microsoft Office 2007 and one of the features within Word 2007 is the ability to post directly from a Word Document to your blog. It took me a while to configure it to recognize the blogging platform we are using but once I did, I was fairly straight forward. Not sure how adding images will work but so far this is pretty cool.