Chapter Four: QUOTE: "People learn through their interaction and participation with one another in fluid relationships that are the result of shared interests and opportunity" (Kindle Loc 579). These relationships are later referred to as "collectives" which are fluid groups of people with similar interest who build knowledge through their interactions. QUESTION: Near the end of the chapter the book warns against formulating learning objectives for the collectives, "Any effort to define or direct collectives would destroy the very thing that is unique and innovative about them" (Kindle Loc 645). If that is true, then how can teachers utilize or even use collectives? CONNECTION: The connection to collectives and blogging made a lot of sense to me. I personally follow a few blogs and learn a great deal from them. It is not just reading someone's personal thoughts about various topics, but a community that builds meaning through interaction. Take a look at the Tone It Up community. This is a collective of women who interact virtually to lead a healthy and happy life. EPIPHANY: This chapter talked about the change in how we "disseminate information." In order for us to build knowledge we have to interact with it. People might not understand why someone uses Twitter, but you don't really get it until you actually do it. Not only to you build understand but you add your own thumbprint to the entire collective. Chapter Five: QUOTE: "There is no public influencing of private minds. Yet learning happens all the time. And because there is no targeted goal or learning objective, the site can be used and shaped in ways that meet the needs of the collective... Identity and agency within the space are both fluid, but they are defined by how the personal meshes with the collective" (Kindle Loc 706). It all comes back to this idea of a collective. Our understanding of the world around us is changing. The way we learn is ever-changing. I guess having the right collective for what you need is very important. QUESTION: Are learning objectives harming learning? CONNECTION: I had a connection to the section about group projects. I hated them in school. There was always one person who ditched their duties and the rest of the group had to make up their work for the sake of the project. There is no real way for teachers to grade that sort of experience because they are not some omniscient educator. Since grades are individual, there was no way to grade the group effort. EPIPHANY: One thing that caught me off guard was the section about private versus public. The book says, "perhaps the fact that the boundary between the two is becoming so permeable indicates a need for a new way to think about the differences between them" (Kindle Loc 661). I constantly struggle with the public nature of social media. Is my life still meaningful if I share everything out in the "public?" Are there things I need to keep "private?" Just like the change in learning, there is a change of public and private. Honestly, it now depends on the collective. Chapter Six: QUOTE: “Students learn best when they are able to follow their passion and operate within the constraints of a bounded environment” (Kindle Loc 1042). I think what this chapter is trying to say is that learning has moved on from the static knowledge of the past and on to the inquiry based education of the future. Not to say that inquiry based learning is new. It actually has been saved for college and even post college. Why not earlier? School should be fostering imagination not regurgitating facts. QUESTION: Do state standards suppress this idea of inquiry based learning? CONNECTION: One connection I made with Ch. 6 came during the example of appealing to student interest. Using basketball to frame a physics problem does not get basketball players to buy into physics. The right question, however, will. “What if, for example, questions were more important than answers? What if the key to learning were not the application of techniques but their invention? What if students were asking questions about things that really mattered to them? (Kindle Loc 1089). This reminded me of a TED talk by Dan Meyers (check it out here!) he thought Math needed to fix the way they ask questions. EPIPHANY: I could never really comprehend why I liked Socratic Seminars so much in English classes until I read this chapter. I'm not sure why exactly it clicked but I now can actually put into words why I think these collaborative discussions are better than a multiple choice quiz. In my opinion, I would rather spend more time getting to the life lessons in novels rather than make sure my students know specific plot points. I feel like asking big questions and having students relate the novel to their lives make the books more impactful. Check out some of my favorite blogs/collectives:
3 Comments
Katie Johnson
2/4/2016 05:56:43 pm
Came for the memes, stayed for the insightful commentary
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Staci Henry
2/7/2016 11:29:25 am
Great question for Chapter 4, since teachers are all about learning objectives. I hadn't connected that until I read your post. Thanks for making the connection.
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Sophia Monaco
2/9/2016 08:13:05 am
Thank you for brightening my day with memes! I like you connection in chapter 4 to the Tone It Up community. This community wouldn't work if the people involved did not work together and share their progress and thoughts. I really like your questions for chapter 6 and think about this a lot in my class. Inquiry based learning seems to work very well, but how can you ensure that students are meeting the state standards with this type of learning? Thanks for a great post!
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May 2016
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