The film that I watched, “The Networked Student,” by Wendy Drexler pointed out many good ways to allow students to use technology to help themselves reach their full potential in the educational system. (Drexler, 2008) The video chronicles a young man’s journey through an American Psychology class at his high school. His teacher believes in the pedagogical practice of connectivism. Connectivism defined by George Siemens means, “learners are actively attempting to create meaning. Learners often select and pursue their own learning.” (Siemens, 2004) To me, this means that the students in the class are the ones in control of the curriculum and the teacher gives guidance to the students. The students in Wendy Drexler’s film do not have textbooks; instead the students are to create their own textbook on a blog they created. The students do all their work online and interact with other students around the world to help them learn in an untraditional way.
After I watched the film by Wendy Drexler, I thought of two implications for the school system. First, I love the idea of students not having textbooks. The price of the American History textbook in my class is eighty five dollars. We need about nine hundred of these books for our students in the school. Some of the books stay at school while some of the books are available for students to check out to take home. That’s a grand total of 76,500 dollars spent on textbooks for one subject area. With so many resources available online, I don’t know why the school system pays so much for these books and does not think about buying students laptops. Most students at my school have about four or five textbooks. I know this might be a trivial point to many people, but this could be one way to help ease the budget crisis.
The second implication for the school system is the role of the teacher and the role of the student need to be reversed. In our current school systems, many teachers are the ones responsible for the curriculum, and they decide how the students will learn. Under the system that Wendy Drexler suggests, the teacher would be more of a coach for the students and the students would be in more control of what and how they learn. As Wendy Drexler wrote in her paper, The Networked Student Model for Construction of Personal Learning Environments: Balancing Teacher Control and Student Autonomy, that the role of the student and teacher change dramatically. (Drexler, 2010) She says, “A student's success depended upon his or her motivation, but also greatly on the strategic guidance of the teacher. The teacher's ability to gauge students' understanding and progress were key to achieving a balance between student autonomy and teacher intervention.” (Drexler, 2010) I do not think most teachers would be comfortable with giving the students more control. However, in my experience, whenever I have given the students more control over their learning, it has made my life a lot easier. For example, when we talked about industrialization in my class, we talked about all the different inventions that helped make life easier in the 1800’s. For a project, I had the students create something realistic that would help make life easier today. After I gave the students some guidelines about the project, they went to work and all I had to do was walk around the room to make sure everyone was on task. The students did all the work and I just helped them with questions about their projects. It was difficult to not have control over certain things in the room, but after a while I had more fun than on days where I would lecture.
In conclusion, I hope that the two ideas listed above could change the school system for the better. Since we are stuck in the age of standardized testing, I don’t think these ideas will catch on soon. However, if enough teachers get fed up with the system and demand real change, maybe ideas like these can help our students become more successful.
Resources
Drexler, W. (2010). The networked student model for construction of personal learning environments: Balancing teacher control and student autonomy. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 26(3), 369-385. http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet26/drexler.html.
I love the concept of giving students more control.... especially coming from a classroom teach (I still use my pretend classroom model). It's also heart felt to know that someone out there really wants to impliment these ideas. Sometimes I see something, and jot it down as something I want to try in my future classroom and later on I think "will they let me?" So knowing that you gave control of the classroom away and the teacher police didn't come in and grab you makes me smile.
ReplyDeleteAs for your point about the cost of books, I agree... but you and I both know the school boards at the state level are in bed with the texbook companies. It would not be good for them to give up their lucrative multi-million dollar contracts with a state like Florida just because we want to make education more interactive and meaningful. (the horror!) I know I'm being overly sarcastic, but it's unfortunately the truth regarding the reason we use one textbook company over the other or why we even have to have textbooks.
One of my younger brothers lives in Ireland, this past year the school gave him a laptop. They told him, if you maintain a B average for the year the laptop is yours for 100.00EU (about 150US), otherwise he'd have to pay 300 to keep it. He did ALL his work for every class over the whole school year on it -not a textbook to be seen- and he loved it. Now this year he does everything on it and he's only got to buy novels to read (which he can put on his laptop or his Ipod). He finds school (and school work) much more interesting this way... and he normally dislikes school work.
"Connectivism defined by George Siemens means, 'learners are actively attempting to create meaning. Learners often select and pursue their own learning.' (Siemens, 2004) To me, this means that the students in the class are the ones in control of the curriculum and the teacher gives guidance to the students."
ReplyDeleteI'd quibble a bit with this point. Just because students "often" select/pursue their own learning, this does not mean that they are "in control" of the curriculum. There is absolutely more student-centeredness, a clear powershift. However, I'm certain that George Siemens still sees value in someone other than the learner laying out the curricular foundation.
I do also share your love of “students not having textbook” (para. 2). The staggering “grand total of 76,500 dollars spent on textbooks for one subject area” (para. 2)—and in one school alone—reveals the potential and the magnitude of the savings associated with not having physical textbooks which the networked students prefer not using. In an era of increasing budget restrictions and lack of funds, such saving may become vital in improving schools’ technology resources, infrastructure, and more. Indeed, using the Internet along with the electronic versions of the textbooks should gradually become inseparable resources in our educational system.
ReplyDeleteAccording to Siemens (2004, as cited in your article), in an educational institution—in accordance with connectivism learning theory, as he defines it—,“learners often select and pursue their own learning” (para. 1). Accordingly, you have correctly concluded that in such an educational environment, “…students would be in more control of what and how they learn” (para. 3).
As a teacher, I am in total agreement with this proposed collaborative aspect of learning—by which students have a strong voice in determining their preferences in selecting learning methods. I believe this process will maximize students’ learning outcomes. This point addresses the notion that students should be in control of “how” they want to learn.
However, I wonder how practical it may be having students determine “what” to learn. For example, as a mathematics teacher, I wonder how incoming freshmen high school students who start with Algebra I—an important and fundamental mathematics course in high school and beyond—can decide on curriculum content of their course? Indeed, would the students be able to make informed decisions even if they are provided with the state standards and content recommendation? Even if this was achievable, would the class be able to decide on a uniform set of contents for their course? Please note that these (and more) concerns are directly applicable to other subjects as well.
I believe that students of the 21st century should (and gradually will) have more control of the curricula, especially in the area of selected learning methods and contents delivery. And, as you have rightfully observed, in such an environment, “the teacher would be more of a coach for the students…” (para. 3). Such an environment, I believe, is both practical and achievable.