Logan LaPlante is a hacker. He stood in front of an audience at the TEDxUniversityofNevada and said he has successfully hacked his education. When Logan was 9 years old his mother took him out of his public school and started homeschooling him. Since then, Logan has learned a lot. "What do you want to be when you grow up?" Logan might know what he would like to do, but for right now, the only thing he wants to be is happy. As teachers, are we doing what we can to teach our students to be happy? In my last post I discussed the idea that our students learn by doing. So in order to learn how to be happy, they have to practice it. In his TED talk Logan brought up Dr. Roger Walsh's 8 TLC's (Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes):
So what does it mean when I say Logan "hacked" his education? According to this well spoken 11 year old, a hacker is someone who challenges and changes the system to make it better. He leads his own education by learning all the skills necessary to do what he loves. His classroom is wherever his laptop is (usually Starbucks!), and his lessons range from math to fashion design. He spends one day a week completely outside, learning survival skills. He designs and tests experiments with other hackschoolers. To Logan, education is freedom. The school he has hacked into is flexible and opportunistic. At the core of his school is technology. It gives him to freedom to bring his classroom wherever he might be. It shows that a classroom does not have to be squished between four walls and a desk. If a student is given the freedom to be creative, technology allows him/her to explore their interests and offer the possibility of a very happy and healthy future. There is a lot to learn from Logan LaPlante. I hope that through my journey to becoming a teacher, I learn all the tricks to ensure my students have a happy and healthy future. Check out Logan's TED talk below! LaPlante, Logan. TEDxTalks. (2013, February 12). Hackschooling Makes Me Happy/Logan LaPlante/TEDxUniversityofNevada. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=h11u3vtcpaY
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Back in 2010, Michael Wesch gave a talk at TEDxKC (watch above). He boldly stated that the world is in a crisis. He compared our current situation to that of the Aztec story where the world was once engulfed in flames. I know I will be ruining his ending, but don't worry its not too late for us. The solution is in our education system. We need to focus on our students being "knowledge-able" versus "knowledgeable."
So what's the distinction? Knowledge-able refers the the ability to find, sort, analyze, create (etc.) new information. This change in the regular knowledgeable came from the shift in media. Social media has changed our ability to communicate. According to Wesch, media use to have a one-way conversation with its viewers. You had to be on TV in order to be significant, to have a voice. Nowadays your ability to project yourself in front of people is held in your phone. Social media has created a type of global communication that has the possibility to bring forth real change. Our students have the capability to bring social change but we have to show them the power they hold. Wesch made it clear that students learn what they do. If our students are only sitting at their desk filling in worksheets, how will we change our current situation? This TED talk got my brain churning out ideas of how I can bring media into my classroom in order to bring social change. I was completely enamored with his example of Eric Whitacre's virtual choir. The music gave me chills. I like the idea of having something where anyone can collaborate. What if my classes had a virtual story they created together? Similar to the Google doc Wesch created for his students, this document will allow everyone to contribute and edit. Learning has changed. Google, Twitter, Instagram, these programs now unite us all in the ability to communicate. As a future teacher I want to teach my students how to become knowledge-able so that they can use these tools to save our burning world. Wesch, Michael. [TEDx Talks]. (2010, October 12). TEDxKC-Michael Wesch-From Knowledgeable to Knowledge-Able. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeaAHv4UTI8 The introduction of social media has changed our roles on the world wide web. In the past, using new technology was a young man's game. However, sites like Facebook and Twitter have changed that. In his YouTube video, "Visitors and Residents," Dave White gives new insight into the identities we hold on the internet. White describes a spectrum where one end is "Visitor" and the other end is "Resident." In his video, Visitors are described as the people who use the internet like a "tool box." They strive to retain their privacy and only use the internet when they have a goal in mind. White described the Visitor as seeing the internet like an unorginized tool box that they shuffle around when they need to use it. For example, a Visitor is someone who fires up the web to get directions on Google Maps and then logs off. On the opposite side of the spectrum lives the "Residents." These are the people who live out a portion of their life on the internet. White used words like "visible" and "social" to describe them. The more the Resident is posting/uploading/conversing on the internet, the more visible he or she is. Bloggers are a great example of a Resident. These are people who post large portions of information on their blog. Then they tweet about their day to day lives, and their latest blog post; as well as provide a visual insite into their day through instagram. They hold constant interaction with the internet.
I believe Dr. White's theory still holds relevance for users of the internet today. Technology is no longer for the young and intelligent. My Grandma in Australia has a Facebook that she manages all by herself. The part of the video that stood out to me the most was his conversation about Residents' visibility and how it can errode over time. If someone is not constantly uploading and sharing, they begin to shrink. The bigger chunk of information you share, the longer your visibility lasts. The smaller the chunk, however, the quicker you loose visibility. If you gain a huge following on a social network like Instagram, you have to be uploading daily, otherwise you begin to fade and the people following you will stop. I think one thing that was not addressed in the video is the content you share. I know that I am not alone when I say that some people can over do it. I have a ton of experiences "unfollowing" people becasue they are constantly posting a bunch of nothing. Sure they hold a strong visibility becasue they keep popping up in my feed, but there comes a point when enough is enough. I do believe there should be some discussion of quality vs. quantity. So where do I fall on this continuum? I would honestly have to say I land in the middle but closer to visitor. I am in constant use of social media and different tools on the web. I check my Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook multiple times a day, but I am using these sites as more of a tool for information rather than a place to make a name for myself. In the past, I have for the most part used my Twitter as a news source, a place I go to get updated on what is going on around me and collect articles I found interesting. I am now learning how important it is to use these tools for networking. One important piece of advice I received when I first started my journey toward becoming a teacher was, "Don't reinvent the wheel. Steal, steal, steal." There are millions of educators out there with piles of resources they would happily share. It is now up to me to step up and make myself more visible on the web. Yes it will take more time, but the dividends in this day and age are invaluable. White, D. (2013, May 31). Visitors and Residents [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sFBadv04eY I have a vivid memory from when I had first decided to go into teaching, of a conversation I had with an old friend on AIM ( <-you guys remember instant messaging?!). He asked me why would I want to become a teacher when students will just use their iPhones to look stuff up. At the time I did not have a good response, but his question has always lingered in the back of my head. Fast forward to the first month of my teacher credential program and I have come across Will Richardson's eBook, "Why School?" Richardson brings up the conversation about the future of teaching in this new world of instant information, or as he coins it, the "world of abundance." Richardson begins with a story about his son and the ever popular computer game, Minecraft. He noticed that his son wanted to learn how to play the game so he used the tools around him (YouTube, blogs, video chats, etc.) to teach himself. Our children's access to knowledge is changing. As teachers, we have the opportunity to shape the way our students learn. Richardson believes it is time for schools to teach differently. He feels teachers should be helping guide our students toward discovery, rather than telling them what they need to know (their smartphones and tablets serve that purpose now). "The illiterate will be those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn." -Herbert Gerjuoy Richardson outlines six ideas of unlearning/relearning for teachers to consider. The one that I most connected with was #4, be a master learner. When I set out my journey to become a teacher I did not consider myself a person who knew all the brilliant ideas there were to be had about literature and writing. I did not see myself as having all the answers that my future students would need. Instead, I see myself as a LIFELONG LEARNER. Think of the knowledge you learned back in grade school as an early model of the iPhone. In about a year, that iPhone model will be outdated. The knowledge you gained in the past is helpful but it will never fill your cup. As a teacher, I want my students to look up to me and see that learning and knowledge discovery never ends. I feel motivated after reading Richardson's book. I see the future of teaching changing and I look forward to being apart of that change. Richardson, W. (2012). Why school? How education must change when learning and information are everywhere. New York, NY: TED Conferences. |
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May 2016
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