Week 4, PBS Video: Don’t Mind if I Dewey

“If we teach today’s students the way we taught them yesterday, then we rob them of tomorrow.” This was the quote that got me. It’s interesting because when I think of Dewey, I immediately think of experiential education that involves more of the outdoors and less of technology. I think Walden, I think simplify…I don’t think digital media. More than anything, this is because of the specific context of my Dewey-based enlightenment. Although I had been introduced to his theories before, I became a real Dewey convert in Allan DiBiase’s Philosophy, Ethics & Education class at PSU. Every Saturday, our group of ten wandered off into the woods of Sandwich, NH on our snowshoes, returning in the afternoon for lunch and discussion in Allan’s living room. Hands down, my favorite class yet, because it gave me the opportunity to discuss and digest information, share ideas and apply new skills in a unique learning community. And did I mention the snowshoeing adventures?!

For me, learning through action is the most motivational--especially when that action takes place outside of a traditional classroom. That is not to say that I can’t effectively learn indoors through more conventional, stationary methods; I just prefer it the other way around. This is where I can recognize a connection between myself and the kids in the video. The “stealth learning” that they’re participating in within their digital media education programs keeps them motivated, engaged and wanting more, while still providing them with useful technical skills and nurturing their ability to think critically. Preparing students to be able to innovate and solve problems, to try, fail, try again and succeed--this is a common goal that we might be able to see at both an alternative outdoor education school or a digital media education program.

The difference, I think (and as the distinguished-looking, bearded man in our video pointed out), is our educational value system that favors certain learning environments over others. Cue the traditional all-or-nothing idea, which tells us that technology is melting kids’ brains and can’t be an appropriate basis for learning. But why can’t we embrace digital media as just one learning tool among many others? It’s not as if the entire curriculum has to be tech-based, but integrating digital literacy into an otherwise traditional classroom gives students new ways to investigate information, express themselves and gain competence. Basically, it’s a digital realization of experiential education theory…and it really doesn’t seem like there’s much of a downside.

Week 4, Social Bookmarking: Learning to Share

Is there a halfway point between the digital immigrant and digital native categories? I feel like I should be considered a digital native…maybe because of my age, because I’ve been using some sort of a computer since I was 8, because I was competent enough in Word and Excel to get through university and also work part time in a handful of offices on campus. I feel like this “technology thing,” as Kim put it, is not totally foreign to me. But my family’s first computer was the kind that had an all black screen with a blinking green cursor and you had to type in some sort of weird code or insert a flimsy disk whenever you wanted to play a game. We never used the computer to actually type anything, and internet certainly wasn’t available yet. I eventually became relatively competent with both computers and the internet, but then between finishing undergrad in 2005 and starting grad school in 2011, I never once opened Microsoft Word or used the internet for academic research. Six years, and I honestly feel like I’m starting over! Maybe I’m like a first generation digital native coming from a digital immigrant family who never fully embraced or adapted to the new culture?

I had never heard of Diigo, Delicious or the idea of social bookmarking until our very first Skype call in this class. Even though I haven’t had much chance to experiment with it yet, it’s hard not to recognize the potential of these sorts of tools. Working alone, I could save hours of research and prep time (literally hours, as I am possibly the most meticulously inefficient note taker in the world…) by highlighting and commenting directly on websites instead of trying to organize and keep track of everything in notebooks. Group projects would no longer have to involve coordinating schedules for face to face meetings or long and confusing phone calls where you try to make sure that you’re both actually looking at and talking about the same thing on your screen. Social bookmarking is one of those things that I wish I had invented (right up there with ebooks, Nike+, car seat warmers and waterproof mascara), because it’s a quietly brilliant idea that makes you think how and why did I ever live without this?!

This is kind of how I felt when I found out about Google docs for the first time last fall. My lifestyle is annoyingly nomadic, and I always end up doing homework in random places at random times with an unpredictable amount of resources. Opening up a friend’s computer to put finishing touches on a paper that was due the following day, only to find that they didn’t have Microsoft Office installed was always a treat. Google docs has really changed my life as a student for the better. Being able to access my work from any computer with internet is a huge convenience, and I like the universality of it. If I can send and receive an email from anywhere in the world, why can’t I use the same technology to work on homework, complete group projects or just do some simple independent research with a little continuity?

Week 3, BoC: Incorporation Frustration

Once or twice in the past year, I’ve found myself getting overwhelmed in one of my classes. Usually, it’s not the workload but the subject matter that gets to me. More specifically, it’s the prospect of seamlessly incorporating all of the theories, methods and content we discuss into each of my lessons that feels overwhelming. I think it’s a combination of the broadness of course materials (in some cases quite unrelated from one class to another), my relative inexperience and my perfectionist tendencies. Also, the fact that I’m not currently working with an ELL population complicates things, as class discussions seem more abstract and less applicable. This familiar feeling popped up just last week when I started wondering how the heck am I going to teach students about web tools and their many uses without letting the focus drift completely away from language content? This time, though, I was feeling more overwhelmed than ever.

Reading Scott McLeod’s If we were really serious… list got me thinking more about integration. In terms of digital learning and teaching tools, he suggests that we integrate them into “subject-specific pre-service methods courses rather than marginalizing instructional technology as a separate course.” This makes sense and seems totally appropriate, but I certainly haven’t experienced this in my PSU courses. Yes, we talk about useful TESOL websites where we can find or create handy teaching resources, or where students can play interactive language-based games. And, sure, one professor even introduced a website specifically geared towards language learners, which allows students to write their own personal comic strips…so there’s some of that creation of new and interesting things that we’ve been discussing. For the most part, though, it seems as if there’s an underlying assumption that everything we need to know related to technology and web tools will come from the Computer Ed requirement. As a result, there’s no need to incorporate any digital learning/teaching content into TESOL-specific courses…apparently.

Is it a case of nonchalant chuckling, as McLeod puts it? I’m at the end of my Master’s, but this is the first time I’m really being introduced to web 2.0 technology and tools. In TESOL, we talk constantly about the importance of incorporating specific content areas into our language classes, to give students the kinds of linguistic tools that they need in order to understand certain subject matter while they’re studying that material instead of pre-teaching lists of meaningless vocabulary and context-less grammar. So what’s going on here? If web 2.0 has changed how we define authority and how information and knowledge is distributed, then why is technology instruction (for TESOL students, at least) still being left exclusively to the experts in the Computer Education department?

Week 3, Connections: VLC? idk…

The timing couldn’t have been more perfect. As I read the first chapters of Schwier’s Connections, I felt as if he was responding to my previous post, validating my feelings while gently explaining the facts. His main point? Mediated communication is fundamentally different from other types of interpersonal communication--not necessarily better, simply different. Online connections can help support existing relationships, while also encouraging new relationships to gestate and grow. This much seems obvious. For me, it’s the virtual learning communities, specifically the style of learning that they encourage, that is taking some getting used to.

I’m one of the people that Schwier refers to, a learner who has been trained to expect lesson content to be prescribed and coherent, and who still sometimes sees social learning as an intimidating prospect. I’ll admit, though, that after a year of mostly online classes at PSU, I’m beginning to get my bearings. I enjoy the freedom of making decisions about what I’m going to learn and where my personal academic focus is going to be. I think this kind of learner responsibility is assumed in graduate level courses, but I recognize that VLCs encourage it in a unique way. Sometimes it doesn’t matter if we arrange our desks in a circle, our instructor sitting beside us as an equal; the physical presence of authority is often still there. In well-run VLCs, on the other hand, it is as if the instructor has stepped out of the room. Student-student communication can happen in a direct and unobstructed way, where content is navigated together as connections are built.

Thinking about the role of the instructor in a VLC presents us with a while different viewpoint. Schwier points out that a community of learners is not always appropriate; instructors must take into account the learners’ starting point and move from there, even if they had originally expected something different. This is nothing new, simply standard procedure for a teacher who has ever put together an elaborate lesson plan masterpiece, only to realize in the first five minutes of the class that it will never work. Once the VLC is established, however, the teacher takes on a very different role than he or she would within a traditional classroom, depending on the boundaries of that particular learning community. For instructors of non-digital natives, it seems as if half the battle is helping students understand that they are in control of their learning and encouraging the community to grow and learn from there.

Week 3, Portal to Media Literacy: Nerd Alert!

It’s funny, because, as a student, I really liked the institution of school, just as much as I liked the traditional hierarchy through which it was administered…at least at the university level. I could sit in a lecture hall of 114 students and walk away feeling the same kind of informed satisfaction that I did after leaving a 15 person conference session. It depended on the personality of the professor, of course, and there were plenty who I just could not stand. But, for the most part, I took comfort in their knowledge of a subject area and trusted that by the end of the course, I, too, would share that knowledge. In this sense, I guess I was guilty of some rather blatant professor worship. Maybe so much of what I liked about school came from being good at it--I didn’t mind following directions, I strove to accomplish what was expected of me and I didn’t often argue with authority.

At the same time, I really DO appreciate that the idea of ‘just follow along’ has been subverted, and Wesch’s network model of the classroom, which provides an easily accessible platform for student participation, seems appropriate in many teaching situations. I recognize the truth in Wesch’s statement that a student’s ability to excel at school is not representative of his or her learning capabilities. I was raised by a Montessori teacher mother and have worked with average and special needs students in non-traditional school settings for several years; transforming the lesson to meet the student’s needs is much more practical and effective (not to mention fair!)  than forcing individuals to conform to an institution or a particular teaching style.

Despite the examples Wesch provides from his own lessons, I have difficulty visualizing his approach in a university level classroom. I think this is because of my own university experience which, for the first two years, was anything but personal and interactive; I’ve never actually seen it done, and this makes me curious. I can, however, see his network model working smoothly in a high school classroom or below. Students collaborating on projects using tools like Skype and Diigo, conducting web-based research, checking facts and information, posting questions on class wikis where their classmates can provide answers or feedback. If these kinds of meaningful learning connections can be made at the high school or middle school level, then I imagine they must be possible on a grander scale within a university classroom.

Week 2, Chapter 1: Question Authority

Listening to Miller's presentation to the Rutgers Board of Governors about the ways in which web 2.0 tools have redefined "authority" and "expertise" brought to mind all kinds of theories relating to ESOL and literacy education. The idea of all students as bearers of knowledge in their own right, as individuals capable of creating rather than simply mimicking, is a huge part of modern educational practice. The Language Experience Approach (LEA)  is a terrific example of this sort of thinking put into action. LEA allows students to engage with language in the form of reading, writing and discussion without being overwhelmed by the process. Even young students are given authority and allowed to create a text upon which the group lesson is then based; each student gets the chance to create, and everyone learns from each individual text. This is perfectly in line with Solomon and Schrum's (2007) suggestions that Web 2.0 has allowed a shift from a vertical "command and control" universe to a more horizontal "connect and collaborate" one (p. 110).

I can see blogs being used in language classrooms to serve a similar purpose to the LEA. I love that agency is given to the students and allows them to not just look at information, but really interact with and get excited about it. One of the articles that Kim posted had a link to Mr. Allen's class blog...and it is amazing! Not to mention hilarious. The first graders get to write simple messages to their classmates and teacher and post short journal entries on what appear to be topics of their choice. The blog serves multiple functions--it's a great way to get the kids involved in literacy, but also to teach them about blogging as an educational tool.

For teachers trying to incorporate blogs and other online resources into their classrooms, I think the main focus is on stressing the importance of filtering information and using web tools in academically appropriate ways. The fact that anyone can post anything at anytime doesn't necessarily mean that they have something worthwhile to say. Or, to put it more diplomatically, it doesn't mean that the information they are posting is relevant to you or to the subject matter you are trying to research. At worst, I think blogs can turn into an online textual equivalent to reality shows. Used smartly by an informed and focused audience, however, blogs are a tremendous resource.

Week 2 Initial Thoughts: It's as Easy as Learning Japanese

When I filled out Kim's survey, I ended up selecting almost the entire list under the question, "What are you least familiar with?" This made me start to think about how foreign even some of the simplest of web tools are to me, and I could feel my confidence dropping.

I'm not used to being hopelessly bad at things. That is, of course, not to say that I'm good at everything (far from it!)...but I find that, as an adult, it is relatively easy to focus your energy on your strengths rather than weaknesses. I was good at analyzing texts and critical writing, so I majored in English Literature; I avoided anything related to math. After graduation, I took a job teaching English in Japan with more of an interest in travel than working, but after a few months I realized that I was good at (and liked!) teaching. Learning Japanese was painful at first, but every bit of progress I made was clearly and encouragingly apparent, as communication became easier and I grew more confident, capable and independent. I think that's how this class will be for me--sort of like learning a foreign language. You feel completely helpless at first, but once you accept that inevitability and just begin attempting...THAT'S when you find success.

This past year, I watched first graders click away at computer screens with the ease and efficiency appropriate of digital natives. I, on the other hand, didn't even learn how to type properly until 10th grade, when I took my first (and, until now, only) computer class. Even after that, the extent of my computer knowledge was Word 98 and AIM. I've certainly become more proficient since then, but as Kim said in our Skype conversation, things are changing constantly! Fossilization is a real risk for me here, just as it would have been when I was learning Japanese if I hadn't constantly challenged myself with new information, input and learning materials. I'm still lacking confidence a bit, but I'm open and enthusiastic about building up my knowledge base and skills so that I will feel better equipped and more Web 2.0 capable at the end of this class. Then, of course, the next step will be to start integrating these skills into the classroom...