LightintheWoods

I was inspired by this blog by Anne Collier, which was written in response to Andrew Keen’s Cult of the Amateur. I am part way through this book and felt as though it was time for a brief rant. In his book, Andrew argues that all of the with the millions of people using the social web we are creating a plethora of poor content. Further, he persuades readers by claiming that mediocre pieces distract from the important research and creations that professional organizations create. While this is true to some degree, it doesn’t out whiegh the benefits we reap from this new age of media.

In response to the cloud of gloom that Mr. Keen blows over the idea of online creation and participation, I offer these reasons of why I see web 2.0 tools to be an integral part of education as we continue to live our days on this planet. I believe that these tools provide both the teacher and student with new opportunities that rarely existed in schools as recently as 3 years ago. These web 2.0 tools open the vault that is active student directed participatory learning. Users are encouraged to participate, to produce for an audience, to collaborate with peers and experts in virtual spaces. Often like minded folk share highlights of successful pedagogies and practice. Teachers are using web 2.0 tools to empower and engage students in these new skills. It must be understood that in order to do this successfully they must be willing slowly adopt tools into their personal tool belt in a methodical and reflective process. It must be understood that these tools are not going to go away until a new media invention makes them irrelevant.

Good teachers will realize will promote these tools in classes because they provide another reason to reinforce fundamental life lessons of etiquette, morals, values and privacy. By having dialog about these concepts with regards to the tools, students are given opportunity to reflect upon and evaluate their real life morals and values. In our role as as the grand sage we strive to mold learners to practice self assessment to continually strive to produce quality examples of their learning.

In some ways, I agree with Mr. Keen, that their is much rubbish floating around this WWW. It is time we began to investigate how these tools can be used not only by our students but by society. In the past I mentioned that I don’t hold the crystal ball, but I don’t see social media evaporating soon. My complaint is that Mr. Keen does not offer suggestions to improve the social web. Nor does he aptly recognize the positive contributions of amateur participation to society in terms of learning, discovery and collaboration. As the world shrinks we need to adapt.  Let us talk about how we are going to do that.

As part of my writing course, we participate in mock writing lessons. Yesterday was letter writing, and the assignment was to write a simulated letter from the perspective of a grade 5 student. This letter was in response to a new intern inquiring about student advice for new teachers. Here is my simulated response.

Dear Ms. Adams,

Hello Ms. Adams, thank you for writing. I think we have a lot that we can learn from each other. You seem to be very eager about your training to become the best teacher possible. You have already nailed one of the things so many teachers miss, you asked for student opinon. I really believe that more teachers need to listen to the students voice to really be able to facilitate optimal learning.

My favorite subject is Science, but I really enjoy when the teachers relate all subjects to a common theme. I also like being given choices about the types of information that I want to learn and how I am going to learn it. Sometimes I get bored because lessons are not very interesting and seem to be all lecture, all the time. I want a teacher that inspires me to learn and facilitates that process. A teachers that prepares me to make connections and links between different topics and subjects. I also must share that I like when I can collaborate with students from our class but also from around the world. I think that in order to make learning fun and engaging you need to empower the students. Yes, sometimes this means trusting us more. We need our teachers to guide us to learn how to learn. My advice is to use tools and lessons that engage your students, provide them with skills to find relevant information and conduct personal learning journies.

My advice for you is this commit yourself to being a life long learner. Model learning for your students. Relate classroom learning to real life experiences and connect students to experts in the field. Find examples of other successful classroom experiences, we learn well from other models. Connect us with other students, guide us, give us the strategies and skills to be effective learners.

Sincerely

Kyle Lichtenwald

I composed this letter and then read it to my class as part of the authors chair. Their eyes bulged out, they heard the student, they understood him. I am trying to share the idea of shifted learning with my real life network, including this second year class of soon to be teachers and this was a great opportunity.

I am blessed to be participatory in a diverse network of thinkers and learners whom mentor me on a daily basis. I am beginning a series Mentorship Recognition Pieces. I think mentorship needs to be celebrated and appreciated more and I hope to do that with through these brief Biographies.

This is a shout out for Kelly Christopherson. Kelly works tirelessly connecting online and ensuring he runs the best school possible. In his writing, Kelly devours the idea of online learning networks in real ways. The perspectives he shares at Educational Discourse are rich with reflection and advice for balancing an online learning community with the daily demands that teachers face. When he is not drafting a new post, @kwhobbes shares insight with his twitter colleagues, builds Ning communities for fellow Administrators to connect and attends a wide array of online professional development opportunities. I share Kelly’s blog because he is representative of an administrator that has shifted his thinking about learning.

Photo Credit @kwhobbes Twitter Profile