My views on using the internet in the classroom are rapidly evolving.
We use the internet at home often to “look stuff up”. And that may be one of the most common uses in classrooms. I believe it was Gary Stager who made the (paraphrased) point that if the main use of the internet in the classroom is to “look stuff up”, we shouldn’t be surprised when some kids look up inappropriate stuff. I think it’s very important for the kids to know how to use web search engines to find information - and also to be wise consumers of information. But I also think we need to use the internet for something more.
Recent podcasts I’ve listened to concerning web 2.0 have emphasized the use of the web for student productions - writing assignments using blogs and wikis, and podcasts. The motivation of a possible world-wide audience helps the kids do better work than when just handing it in to the teacher. Using such constructive methods to show what a student has learned may also be more motivating than a test (especially, if the student has been a part of the decision making process about what he was to learn and how he was to demonstrate his learning!). In my opinion, such use of the internet has much more educational merit.
Just lately I’ve been hearing more and more about conversation. Building personal learning networks - around the globe. This theme has continued into the K12 Online Conference currently in progress. The idea here is a 2 way conversation. Blogs with comments (and commenting on others’ blogs) would be an example. Students join with others with similar interests to share ideas and negotiate meanings. I feel like we’ve come full circle. The web is being used to create what I considered the very best part of classroom learning - a group of students with a common passion learning together.
By the way, I don’t think I ever really felt this type of learning community before graduate school. There’s probably not enough students in a normal K12 classroom passionate about something to generate such a learning community. Let me rephrase that… there probably not enough students in a normal K12 classroom passionate about something that is considered a “school” subject to generate such a learning community. (Probably better leave this one for another post.)
I consider the use of the internet to build learning communities through persistent communications pathways (such as blogs, comments, forums) and participation in these communities to understand and negotiate meaning to be consistent with constuctivist / constructionist learning principles. And I think such use is very worthwhile.
My kids (grades 5 and 10) aren’t using the internet in such ways at school. I could work with them at home to encourage such use - and I probably will. But I would really like them to experience this kind of excitement in an educational setting. I wonder how I might influence a teacher to move toward such an activity?
When I got home from work on Tuesday evening, my 15 year-old daughter Brit was in a horrid mood. When I asked if everything was all right, she replied “I hate school!”. After a bit, I decided to see what had generated this attitude. It seemed she had taken the Plan test (a career aptitude type test) earlier that day. She was upset over 3 things: there wasn’t time to get it all done, she didn’t know how to do some of the problems, and she had just finished taking a practice PSAT test (PSAT was test was on Wednesday) and had “failed” it. Pretty tough medicine for someone with perfectionist tendencies!
It took me a minute to realize that she didn’t understand what a standardized / norm-referenced test was all about. I explained that the goal of these type tests were to generate a wide range of scores. There isn’t a “pass” or “fail”. She probably wouldn’t know everything they asked about. There might not be sufficient time to get all the questions done. I could tell she was skeptical of a test that doesn’t test what you should know, or what you need to know. Her response was a simple, “Why?”. To rank people. The sole purpose of this kind of test is to rank people.
Oddly enough, she was all right with that. I explained how the PSAT was scored and gave her a simple strategy to follow when taking the test (do the problems you understand, don’t get bogged down - if you don’t know what to do move on and come back later, don’t guess wildly on multiple choice). Brit took the PSAT the next morning without all the stress she had experienced the day before.
What amazes me is that the teacher, counselors, … at the school didn’t explain this to the kids. Stress, angst, and moodiness are common among high school age teens. They don’t need any extra!
After reading Wesley Fryer’s blog for a while, and being motivated by Will Richardson’s talk (Bob Sprankle’s Bit by Bit podcast #52), I’ve taken the leap and decided to start blogging. Tonight’s main goal is just to get WordPress up and running (not too tough using Fantastico) and the site looking reasonable (that may be tougher).
Will mentioned http://www.fanfiction.net in the podcast mentioned above. This is a site where people with a passion for a book, TV show (new or old), movie, … can publish their own stories - and get feedback from others with the same interests! I spent 30 - 40 minutes with my 15 year old daughter (and somewhat less time with my 10 year old son - not quite as interested) in looking over the number of stories written on fanfiction.net. Astounding! Over 100,000 Naruto episodes written. Over 40,000 Lord of the Rings. Enough Hanna Montana to keep Mylie Cyrus busy until retirement! If I remember correctly, Will said that about half of the authors on fanfiction are adolescents. Kids have plenty of motivation (the intrinsic kind!). Kids have loads of ability. School needs to harness these - not burn the kids out (see Alfie Kohn’s Choices for Children http://www.alfiekohn.org/teaching/cfc.htm).
Next step… what is a technorati tag and what does it do?