 | Practical ways to facilitate connectivism in a school classroom? |
| I am interested in finding out practical ways to adopt connectivism in the classroom [particularly under 18 year old education]. I can imagine that incorporating global projects, where students collaborate with other schools and experts in subject areas, would be one way. Are there other ideas? |
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I wonder whether there is some fundamental work to be done with learners to help them get used to the connected environment and to develop the skills of creative and critical thinking through which that environment can help them learn. OK, I'm largely working with adult learners but I'm seeing lots of them taking a very tentative look then retreating back into wanting a return to safe comfortable modes of teacher-led instruction. It's almost a question of "Don't make me think, just give me the knowledge". |
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Yes, yes, yes Peter. I can so relate to your words! This is something I deal with every day and I can only put it down to human nature, ie. "laziness". I relate to it in a personal experience way as well. When I left university here in Australia I decided to go back to do a post graduate course and wanted to change my learning style from "just tell me what's in the exam" to "Help me understand this subject". Unfortunately, the system was geared toward the first method and I found myself fighting the system. For example, lecturers talked at us and then didn't allow questions at the end. Mind you, my questions were fluid so I really needed to ask them at the time of the thought. Either way, I found it tricky having to wait until the "tutorial" time, where a smaller group could discuss what was presented in the lecture. Another part of the system was the amount of content being crammed into the time at uni [while juggling full time work]. I found it impossible to make the time to ask the tough questions and seek the answers by chasing people/enforcing collaboration. So, as was in my case, even if a learner wants to seek deeper, intrinsicly motivated, real-world understanding, does the system allow it or encourage it? And for teachers like myself, what is our role? |
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The cultivation of 21st century digital literacy skills is something that a number of edubloggers such as David Weinberger and Will Richardson have been ruminating over for the past 6 months or so. It reared its head for me when Inside Higher Ed posted an article (A Stand Against Wikipedia) about faculty in Middlebury College's history department disallowing the citation of Wikipedia in their courses. Not that I disagree with the practice of not citing encyclopedia-like writings, but it masks the real issue which is the lack of digital/information literacy and critical thinking and analysis skills. This skill set is, in my opinion, absolutely essential for our learners as the amount of information at their disposal continues to expand exponentially. I've posted a few other thoughts about applying triangulation to the process of information validation on my blog: Attacking the symptoms |
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The Middlebury thing is troubling. We've been thinking about this too and, like others, have come to the conclusion that there are two simultaneous needs: digital literacy is becoming increasingly necessary, and much more has to be done to promote information fluency, which in my view is the area where digital literacy, critical thinking, presentation skills, and eventually domain-specific knowledge intersect. Being a participant in the new web, the read/write web, the virtuous circle, cognitive apprenticeships-- whatever the form may by-- absolutely depends on achieving a level of information fluency. |
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The Middlebury decision sounds like they don't recognise some of the currency issues that arise when researching - books are often out of date the day they are printed, or at least have some recent developments missing. Especially in my area of computer science. We have some schools here in Australia that ban/block Google Images, Wikipedia, YouTube, etc. My school bans downloads of any audio format [wav, mp3, midi]. I can understand their policy from a child protection & copyright standpoint but it certainly presents barriers that teachers need to overcome. I now need to plan what audio files I want students to use in website and multimedia projects and provide them on our school network. Students aren't free to choose the content of their projects. |
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| It seems a big part of applying theory to practice is to focus on process rather than product. The individual needs to see her own connection in the network. So an assessment piece might be to have students reflect on how they arrived at a solution, how they helped others to advance their understanding, what tools helped them to manage their participation and track their progress, etc. |
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Hi Sylvia, I totally agree with that concept and find it often the hardest part of teaching - getting students to reflect on their learning. But that is certainly a big part of networks in learning because it is through reflection that students realise the important input of others instead of just benefiting from them. I just had a conversation with one of my 14 year old computing boys, asking him to reflect on last term's work. He agreed that he struggled because he quickly asked what to do instead of how to do - in other words, he wants to be spoon-fed the steps in web design instead of listening and connecting with the methods and learning some of the basics that can be repeated to find solutions to just about anything. I have asked him to focus on this proactive learning method as a way of getting him more prepared for the outside world. I explained to him what sort of jobs have required me to be proactive and a problem-solver. I think that your point about an assessment piece using reflection will help instill this concept further so I will take that on board. Cheers, Jason |
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In my own classroom, I saw that at the beginning of using what some would classify as a more connectivist learning structure (for those who agree that connectivism is a theory) there was a definite initial hurdle to overcome. You do have to shift students to a more exploratory learning format where they seek information and read and use their discernment to determine the facts. (Mine then post via wiki, blog, google video, or youtube or whatever tool we are using at the time.) I guess it is like having to go to a garden and look for the ripe vegetables versus going to a grocery store. It is harder to find the produce in the garden, but it means more and is much better for you when you find it in its natural state. It takes more class time initially to push students out there to non-teacher-led instruction, however after the initial learning curve of teaching my students to collect and share information, they now "take over" when I give them a project. I now give the class an assignment and allow them to elect a "project manager" to create the wiki for a project. The project manager creates the teams and holds groups accountable. I facilitate and make sure everything is working smoothly and keep people searching in the right direction when there is a question. I assess and handle things that get off track. Thus, it is a much more student-centric model of learning -- however I am still very necessary as the teacher because I keep the focus and accountability. It also requires my knowledge to create the projects and determine the appropriate next step. (Something that changes from class to class depending on the sources of information and class interest in a particular angle.) Yes -- it is easy to go back to a teacher-led model of instruction and sometimes we do have a more lecture style discussion. I see how a teacher could also "claim" that they cover more material because they just charge through content without assessing student understanding and effectiveness of the delivery method. But teaching is about not showing how much the teacher knows but about producing students that will eventually surpass the teacher because they become self-learners and passionate about the topic. It is a much more exciting method of learning. My five year old told me yesterday -- "Mom we can't take toys to school because we're not supposed to have too much fun there." Let them have fun and let them learn. Let them make connections and let them connect to the things that they are passionate about to instruct them on the topic at hand. Harness the power of student passions to teach. We have a great gap between the majority of students and their teachers. It is time for such teachers (who harness passions and allow students to connect via a network of other students) to become the norm and not be so extraordinary that the few who do it have a movie made about them. It is also time for teachers to become engaged in discussions with theorists and administrators. I look at it this way -- I can read all day about how to kiss but a thousand books won't teach me as much as my first french kiss. Likewise, theorists can pontificate all day, however, the process of teaching is often best understood and expressed by those who teach. I must say that I've been nervous about participating at all in such a conference and a lot of the discussion and terminology has required me to do research just to understand a snippet of conversation between the mega-theorists. However, I am a teacher and it is time for us as teachers to accept what I think should be included in the new definition of professional ethics of teachers: that we contribute to the discussions in our profession. Have you ever sat in a workshop and whispered to another teacher, "I don't think that consultant has ever been in a classroom?" Well, it is time for you to give feedback BEFORE such things come to your doorstep. And if you don't, you have no right to mumble. You have the opportunity to have a voice. Use it. Comment on blogs of the "experts," blog, listen. But most of all, join in the conversation. Stop just reading and get out there and communicate your viewpoint. (Sorry this comment is so long -- I got so carried away, I posted it on my blog too!) I'm just passionate about this topic (if you couldn't tell!)  |
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Hi Vicki - great comments. Your emphasis on passion is exactly what we need. Like any period of significant change, those of us who feel we are entering an age where power shifts from the center (instructor) to the edges (learner)...and where democracy and relevance begin to make their way into the classroom...must rely on passion to move these ideas forward. People are not so much convinced by logic or theory. During Will's presentation today, I noticed (again) how important practial examples are in communicating ideas. The results will be felt in the application. The theorizing that we do may lay a bit of a framework, and contribute to forming a shared language. Beyond that - as we've seen with software standards development - use and practicality are king. I'll keep happily theorizing on my end, but the adoption will arise through the passion and activities of people like you, Will, Clarence, Darren, and others... |
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Hi Jason, I am not sure if this is what you are looking for.......... I teach grade 5 and we are currently following a BC researcher exploring global connections as he travels through South America and the Antarctic (http://blogs.bcit.ca/catttrax2/). My students read and reflect on his regular blogs, will be researching a specific aspect of his study, and will be participating in a live elluminate Vclass with him a bit later. What I am loving about it is that his journey, discoveries, questions are occuring now. To me, this is one example of networked learning. This could certainly be expanded and I will do so with the next project, whatever that is Hope I provided something useful, Jill French |
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That is a very useful example Jill, thanks for sharing. Are the student blogs publicly available by any chance? I'd love to see how they reflect on such a global initiative. Cheers, Jason |
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Jason, Although without the global component here is a class of 7th/8th graders in Canada who are publicly blogging |
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To find or submit student blogs online have a look at the Dekita.org Exchange project. We aggregate student posts in the Orchard. My school year has just started so the blogs are not up yet - but you can have an idea of the work we developed last year. If your students are interested in participating in a blog exchange but your school only allows walled gardens, you can contact the teachers at Personal Learning Space. The teachers conducting the project are the same who host the Teachers Teaching Teachers blog. Warm regards from Brazil, Bee |
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| I hope that some people will contribute under the context filter that I've posted for K12 -- I took a while to post and then went in and found your post here! |
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Hi Vicki, Are you talking about the discussion thread on assessment in K12 found here: http://ltc.umanitoba.ca/moodle/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=43? If so, I think they are suitably different in scope - my question is a more general one asking how we can incorporate connectivism, assessment probably being one method that I will read about in your thread probably. I suppose there is a limitation to asynchronous discussions like this one - someone could be posting the same question at the same time Cheers, Jason |
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Hi Jason, I am glad that your question is about connectivism in practice. It's for sure that there are a lot of ideas. And I wonder with you if there are more people who want to share their ideas in this forum. You wrote about 'global projects'. In Holland there’s an organization who supports so called ‘learning circles’. First please watch this streaming video (3:25 minutes): http://www.e-koen.nl/e-frontiers.htm
More information: http://www.globalteenager.org/
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Hi Ronald, Awesome projects there mate. I particularly liked the video showing students interviewing an expert - what looked like an army sergeant from world war II. I can see how these sort of video conferences can be useful in connecting theory into practice for students, and this is what connectivsm is all about from what I have read so far. I my computing classroom I could have a skype video conference with a software engineer friend in the city [my school is semi-rural] and this way students could connect with a real professional in this field. Definitely something I will consider doing now. Technology makes it a whole lot easier. Thanks for sharing. Cheers, Jason |
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Hi Jason, We had Garry Stager visit our school as part of our move into a 1:1 laptop program, he suggested Taking it global , a site which offers potential for collaboration with schools around the world in interdiscplinary areas. I have only just set up a class here but it looks promising. Cindy |
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Thanks for sharing that link Cindy, will take a close look. Garry is a vibrant character and advocate of great technology use in education. I heard him speak at an Apple sponsored event here in Australia a few years back. Well worth visiting his website for anyone else interested in his work: http://stager.org/ |
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I'm a strong believer in being more student-focused in education, so here's a thought. Lay out the objectives for the class and ask the students for ideas about how they might learn the objectives. Help them to identify what projects they could do and what needs to be teacher presented. Share the projects with the class (shared knowledge creation) instead of just handing it into the teacher. Evaluate the students on how well they demonstrated the objectives in their projects and classwork. I saw a great Wiki project where a student chose a country and posted information about that area on a Wiki, in the end you had information available to the class about 30 countries. A teacher would have taken years to accumulate the info for the class and it would have been out of date long before they finished. Next year's class could update the info or research the countries from a different perspective. (Shared knowledge creation across school years what a concept!) |
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These are very good ideas Deidre. I am about to implement a new multimedia project with my senior computing class (17 year olds). I wonder if it would be possible to do something like this in the context I have? Maybe I could lay out the objectives for the assignment and ask them how they mights show their knowledge and skills in the assignment? Is that too fluffy and open-ended? I suppose I could control it a bit by steering discussions and deciding on the final version. Wiki for this task sounds gr8. i also wonder how we could add a connectivist flavour and am struggling with ideas. I'll throw that out to see if there are any bidders. Would make for a great practical research task for this conference - can report back to the masses in coming weeks as to how it went and even share examples of student work. Whatya think? Cheers, Jason |
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Jason, Depending on what you teach, why not throw out a request to this group for a companion class. A joint project for two groups of high school students or a teach **** to a younger class, could bring connectivism on a national/international scale. Another option is, do an online interview with a researcher in an area of interest. This could be part of a group project but would require a flexible timeline since research types are notoriously busy. Smile! |