Do social networking tools diminish the role of faculty and other authoritative sources in learning? We read about the wisdom of crowds, and I see my own children consulting (usually via 15 IM windows) friends and networks for homework help instead of the teacher-created website. Do these communicative tools portend a chaotic "yellow learning" environment where the most connected claim is given the highest "tag" rating and thus the most credence? The constructivist part of me applauds connectivism while the "Dad" part worries the connections may not be accurate. And yet I know that if we attempt to impose order on an essentially anarchistic environment, we will destroy the spontaneity, the very life of that connected world. And if I start actively using MySpace, my daughter will then declare that MySpace is for "old people" and move on to something cooler.
What is the Role of Authority in Online (Informal) Learning Communities?
October 14th, 2007 manderson
Online Authority
Being an online education advocate and a parent of a teen-ager, this is a hot topic. I find the more the students interact with one another, the more they learn. When my son is chatting with his buddies on a particular topic, I always ask what information he had gained is real and what is BS. He, as well as students, needs to understand how to decipher the information and pull out what is needed and what is important and to discard the rest. This is the new learning age; a new way of researching. Maybe we as facilitators need to stay one step ahead of the game ;)
Information Filters - good or bad?
The discussion on teaching students information literacy skills has never been more important. In an ever growing world of information (both good and not so) I wonder if there are any examples of where communities of both teachers and/or students are working together to create, catalogue and maintain "filtered information results". For example on the question of which web based resources are most relevant to a student learning about river sources - could a newspaper article digitally archived (in the minds of the teacher, student & learning objective) be an good source of "information"? The reason I ask this is whilst recognising the importance of unrestricted "research & discovery" in answering questions could this "research" be helped (sometimes) by being directed to an existing "teacher / student" moderated set of information. This resource could provide access to relevant resources, saving students time that could be more productively used in understanding the information that they are directed to.
Online Authority
This is a great thread. Instead of shielding learners from online sources that might not be fully accurate, we need to give them the tools to evaluate those sources. So really, the usual questions about Wikipedia and blogs are the wrong questions. The question should not be where to find reliable information; the question should be, "How do we evaluate any information source?" That includes peer-reviewed journals, research studies, textbooks, and pundits as well as the online resources that are so frequently maligned.
But, goodness, that might teach learners to think for themselves. And that could be dangerous!!
Ann Randall
Distance Ed Faculty Development Coordinator
Boise State University
Online Authority
I couldn't agree more.
Information competency is an increasingly important issue (how's that for an alliteration!)
"Authorities" no longer have exclusive access to information; so teachers need to focus on providing learners with tools to evaluate information. I remind my students that *anyone* can create a web page or a blog. So they have to critically evaluate the source of the information.
we live in exponential times
The "Exponential" video on YouTube says it all: in a few years, technical information will be doubling every 72 hours. There is no way we can (or should) keep us with that. Our children will use any means necessary (social networks, wikis, mobile devices) to retrieve information when they need it. Our efforts must be aimed at teaching them how to consume (evaluate) that mass of data.
I made the mistake of having
I made the mistake of having many of the assignment drop boxes open from the beginning of the semester so this one student felt compelled to get her work in ASAP. I then closed the rest down and I only upload the course work 2 weeks ahead. It is clear that my other students who did not do this are integrating and applying what they are learning quicker than the other student.
pacing
I agree with your plan (opening the assignment drop boxes only 2 weeks ahead of the assignment due date). I think it's particularly important for younger students to provide pacing in the virtual classroom just like we do in the physical classroom. In fact, in a lot of our faculty training, I recommend pacing the entire course that way--release the content, the assignments, the discussion threads, and the assessments a little at a time. Not necessarily day by day or week by week--that sort of defeats the purpose of asynchronicity (and also penalizes adult learners who may be able to study really hard for two weeks then have to take a week off because of job travel). Some of the research seems to suggest that students prefer (and have improved learning outcomes) when the online class organization is very clear; I would argue that's because clear structure/pacing/expectations help bridge the cognitive divide bewteen the physical classroom (that we know) and the virtual classroom (which is still sort of foreign to us). I can already hear someone saying that pacing doesn't necessarily equal clear organization, and that's absolutely true. But I think it might help.
Pacing, a.k.a. Buffet or Five-Course Dinner
Several years ago I had a very chatty group of students who were way, way over the top in the number of postings they were generating. Having beaten topics to death, they would tend to then stray to nearby shiny objects. Out of a sense of frustration with keeping up and herding them, I finally just put the class on a one week hiatus. THey could read, but they could not post. It was a very effective means of slowing them down and having them spend a bit more time absorbing their own prose. And, they returned to their commentary refreshed and focused. I have integrated the "hiatus" into my toolkit and pull it out whenever the group is rushing forward at unsafe speed.
Last year, in what was my thirteenth year teaching online, I finally got an insight about pacing in a virtual world, from opening and closing threaded discussions. I have, in the past, just let the forums and threads run their course. It was all fine enough. Then, I'm not sure why, one semester I started "opening" and "closing" discussions, in conjunction with my sense of the unfolding curriculum. When I felt we had dug into the topic, and well before we'd beaten it to death with redundancy, I would announce the end of the thread with my FORK posting, as in "stick a fork in it; it's done." I would leave the forum accessible, but no longer 'live.' In fact, on the side menu, I figured out how to grey out the topic to really signal "over and done."
It certainly seemed to make life easier for the students, or so they said. They could feel a sense of progress as things were passed by, "finished," and attention focused elsewhere. Even the visual markers (the greyed out topics) lent a sense of progression. It seemed to make a big difference in the quality of the discussions.
I suppose the metaphor I see is: the buffet, where you can pick and choose items to eat in any order, versus the five course, sit-down dinner, in which courses are presented to you in an intentional order and pace. THe content I take responsibility for usually has an orderly flow, and it DOES matter if my three Type A students decided to finish the final paper before we've discussed issues that relate to it. And, it does matter if my procrastinators finally post on a topic weeks after it has ceased to be in play in the course conversation. The buffet metaphor is not a good one, for my curriculum at least.
And I do believe you're right that this is a feature that is especially problematic in a virtual class, in a 24/7/365 networked world, as opposed to a Tu/Th 2-4:15 time and space bounded class.
Thanks for listening,
Lindax
Perspective is worth 80 IQ points. -- Alan Kay
Are you kidding?
You're thanking us for listening? We should be thanking you! This is a great post--well-argued and oh so practical. I love the fork! Can I use it? I'll attribute of course.
Here's where I think your ideas tie in with pacing. One aspect of constructivist theory suggests that reflection is critical to higher orders of learning. Pacing provides time for reflection by slowing things down a little. I haven't read enough to know if this is supported by neural research (i.e., measure learning retention--and not just memory but integration--immediately after a learning event and then after a reflective period) but I suspect it is. At the risk of mangling your buffet, it's sort of like taking time to digest the food.
It seems that there are times we need buffets (i.e., I need help on this topic right now because I'm stuck; I want to dive into this topic and keep going as fast and as far as I can) and times when we need sit-down dinners (and not just because the content requires structure but because the learning needs to build over time). This would be intersting to look at I think.
Again, thanks for a great post and a great analogy.
I understand your point but
I understand your point but this socializing behavior is just the same like in the other schools where students have the chance to physically interact. Most of them will always consult each other before reaching the teacher. There is nothing wrong with that, the worst thing that can happen is to get bad influence from other students and loose the interest to learn. My cousin fell into this trap, he hang out with this kind of guys and he left school in senior year. Now he is struggling to get a fake diploma to compensate his school efforts.
'A Vision of Students Today' by Arlene JL
Hi Arlene,
Actually I showed the video in a lecture last week! It was very well received.
I like the apparent collaborative nature of it - and it does sit well with a Drama educator - there is dramatic tension, roleplaying, and all manner of critical input.
Thanks for sharing ti with the world.
Cheers
Kim
Are we hoisted by our own petard?
First, as I stated in the discussion on SL and "tools", faculty do have authority, sticks and carrots. And, in the end, its one-on-one, the teacher's grade of the student as individual. Its the student and the teacher, regardless of the structure and the setting. That sets the ultimate rules. Its a finite game in the idiom of Carse in his thin volume, infinite and finite games. Communities are infinite, open-ended engagements.
KM personnel at IBM and in other corporate environments understand these "communities" where groups form, dissolve and reform differently, where problems and learning occur in groups and communities and where solutions allow for group recognition.
Age or generational differences may melt away. On the net, no-one knows you are a dog as the popular metaphor goes. Who is mentor? who is learner? In the MMORPG's there is a difference than in the LMS's whether 2 or 3D because the technological structure is trumped by the social structure. The old idea of a University is dead. The Oxbridge community is defaulting to the cumulative 3 credit course model.
What happens when role reversal occurs? The prince and the pauper, Dickensian characters and plots,Arthurian legends?
Constructivist relationships have a better chance of working in primary schools and some secondary environments. Communities and relationships don't work well in 3 credit, 16 week modules where a student and teacher may connect for that window in a life time.
Where do students get their information? Remember students in post secondary education, particularly 4 year liberal arts, are still the minority of the population and supposedly the brighter or better prepared while their classmates go out into the world and vote, have babies, and work. Where do these disparate groups get their information? Yet do we trust the college student to make better decisions? Or do we let out the constructivist leash only so far? and,perhaps, make sure that they know that there is an invisible "doggy" fence in one direction and "doggy treats" in the other direction?
tom
tom abeles
http://www.p2gray.com/
I always wondered...
...what that phrase meant--and your post title led me to learn. I can't wait to tell my kids the French word for fart, although I wonder if you're saying this discussion is hot air (it probably is) or if higher ed's engagment in community-building will blow up the Academy "from its own devices." Either way, I expect a ribald MySpace post from my 12 year old before the evening is out.
A few reactions:
You have some strong opinions about the role of communities, especially informal ones, in learning. These are exactly the sorts of questions we had in mind when we created this strand. I hope you're planning to submit a proposal.
Let us wonder,....
I have thought about the role of the faculty and the issue of authority and have come to the conclusion that, indeed 3 credit classes in post secondary education, for example, are indeed a finite game. The course has an ending and the faculty member controls whether the student gets to play in the next round or even, perhaps, stay in the institution. That authority exists separate from the issue of knowledge acquisition. In fact, the way most institutions are structured, the individual stands naked for judgment and can be penalized for certain methods of knowledge acquisition or demonstration of knowledge acquisition. The concern about cell phones in class and its ramifications are clear examples.
If I want to learn something, I may choose any method I wish- Clearly, if this knowledge is part of my deliverables in my job, then how I obtained it, within the limits of the law, is irrelevant. On the other hand, education systems set boundaries and make the instructor both a dispenser and a judge- carrots and sticks.
Formal, structured, educational institutions that control degrees have these carrots and sticks as institutions, and by transfer of authority, so do the faculty.
We, as faculty, can not give up that authority, in the end and, in most institutions, retain our positions, unless, of course, our continuance is based on other criteria such as publish/perish/grants.
Instruction/education are two sides of the coin as are the many vehicles and approaches to student mastery of materials. But, in the end the mark is put in the record by the faculty member regardless of the level the student feels has been obtained for the experience or for other purposes.
There can be other relationships between students and faculty but often these transcend the bounds of the 3 credit course.
KM is education. Snowden defines several types of knowledge; his ASHEN model: Artifacts, Skills, Heuristics, Experience and Natural Talent are all types of knowledge- some easier to obtain or easier to transmit, through whatever means.
I agree that constructivism works better in primary grades, only in part, because of the elements of authority, and in part because there is a longer term relationship between all persons, teachers and students where time allows such to develop.
Here is where communities within the education system can flourish. It also works in preK-12 where the school is small and the students and faculty get to know each other over the course of several years. This usually happens in private schools with a stable population and strong parental involvement as well.
This brings us to communities. I agree that communities are bounded, often with subsets. But they can be fluid with leakage into and out of the boundary and shifting linkages internally. IBM in England, has studied this within their own corporate culture and we see these forming and evolving in schools at all levels. But as one moves to the post secondary arena we see these as being tenuous. I have a problem when faculty, in 3 credit courses, try to develop "communities" within the time and space constrained boundaries where the purpose is other than task oriented towards a product and certification.
I come from the hard sciences but having co-taught transdisciplinary courses with artists, philosophers, social scientists and other hard science faculty.
tom
tom abeles
tom
tom abeles
http://www.p2gray.com/
a couple of points
It is my understanding that constructivism is a theory that describes how people learn, not a teaching methodology. It is informed by extensive research. Teaching strategies either capitalize on how people learn to a greater or lesser degree, so the argument that authority and the context of learning "works better" in lower grades has some interesting implications, and I understand your point to say that it is harder to capitalize on how people really learn as they advance through our systems of education.
But I also have questions about the authority constraints. As an example, I had a college prof who relied on self assessment. She reported that in 10 years implementing that practice she had to change a student's grade one time only. I have had similar experiences with peer and self assessment in my teaching. Ironically, there is no doubt a need to scaffold authority to empower students to seize responsibility for learning because they are, as Jerry Farber wrote years ago, "authority addicts." But that does not mean that mindful, consistent, and imaginative strategies cannot wean students from their addiction. In fact, I take that to be more than a simple challenge. It see this as our job.
Smells like school... not teen spirit...
Hi,
The rebel in me wants to scream "I hope so!!".
I see my role as a teacher is to diminish the need for me to be present. Ultimately, I am chasing a suituation where my role in the teaching-learning process is redundant. The goal is a self-directed, social, critical learner. Focussing our energies on letting students learn to be effective learners - with all the requisite critical capacity - seems to be the way to go.
Give that these contexts are communicative - it should be possible to operate with them to help students develop the capacity to evaluate, understand, challenge and reject any propositions they encounter.
As you point out, the taint of "school stink", "uncool", and "old people smell" is cultural anathema to many young people... and that operates whether the context is technological or otherwise.
As a Drama eductaor and practitioner, I see the use of ROLE as an important instrument in this big game we call lifelong learning.
Chaos, risk, uncertainty, ambiguity - these elements are essential in any learning context, and I suggest that kids are far more capable of dealing with these features than most of their teachers.
Kids already operate in an incredibly confusing world - fostering their capacity to cope is a much better option than pretending conformity, safety, predictability... at least in my postmodern view of the world.
Cheers
Kim Flintoff
A Vision of Students Today
"Kids already operate in an incredibly confusing world - fostering their capacity to cope is a much better option than pretending conformity, safety, predictability... at least in my postmodern view of the world."
Kim,
I thought you might find this youtube to be of interest.
It was posted in our SLOAN C SL Ning.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o
This is the mediated culture website about its creation and part of its introduction:
http://mediatedcultures.net/ksudigg/?p=119
"This video was created by myself and the 200 students enrolled in ANTH 200: Introduction to Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University, Spring 2007. It began as a brainstorming exercise, thinking about how students learn, what they need to learn for their future, and how our current educational system fits in. We created a Google Document to facilitate the brainstorming exercise, which began with the following instructions:
“… the basic idea is to create a 3 minute video highlighting the most important characteristics of students today - how they learn, what they need to learn, their goals, hopes, dreams, what their lives will be like, and what kinds of changes they will experience in their lifetime. We already know some things from previous research (and if you know of any interesting statistics, please list them along with the source). Others we will need to find out by doing a class survey. Please add whatever you want to know or present.”
Over the course of the next week, 367 edits were made to the document. Students wrote the script, and made suggestions for survey questions to ask the entire class. The survey was administered the following week.
I then took all of the information from the survey and the Google Document and organized it into the final script portrayed in the video which was all filmed in one 75 minute class period.
The introduction was filmed by myself a month later. It is inspired by Marshall McLuhan’s ideas as they apply to education, especially as they have been used by Neil Postman and Charles Weingartner in Teaching as a Subversive Activity."
Arlene Jurewicz Leighton
SL Roshana Rives
Collaborative Learning Online
Brilliant
Arlene,
As the Guinness ads say, "Brilliant!" I showed this to my my high school kids. Their reaction? The second "not lame" vote I've gotten all year.
This next one worked well as a precursor (and was the the other "not lame" vote):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIqk4agzKPE.
The role of "roles"
Great addition--but I wonder how roles are formed in communities? At the danger of offending some folks, when I look at how roles seem to play out in MMORPG's, I have noticed that the best players take on mentoring roles to less experienced players on their teams. What I'm seeing (I think) is exactly what I dream of in a learning environment--peer tutoring, scaffolded learning (player A learns from player B until the point that A has learned everything she can from B--and then player A starts learning from player C), and situated problem-solving.
How do we make that transition? Can we design scenarios with defined roles and assign them? Or do we design scenarios based on the user community characteristics and let the roles evolve (i.e., based on knowledge pre-tests, student A knows algebra and student B knows mole calculations, so we design a chemistry experiment so they can teach other)? I also wonder if role affected by environment (I suspect it is)?
Learning in a Social Institution
K-20 education in the US is a social institution and changing social institutions is a bit of a challenge. Change is occurring as the parents of today's 5 year olds have different expectations, and somewhat different memories of their own elementary school experience. And the impact of testing has not just changed how teachers teach but also what supports universities are obligated to offer when a high school graduate enters college. I have been teaching in K-20 for more than 20 years and I am amazed when I think about all of the support services universities offer now, as compare to even 10 years ago.
Universities are driven by different factors than K-12; parental expectation is different, standardized testing is minimal, and the pay as you go nature of HE causes us to think of change differently, as well as *knowledge.* And roles really have changed. Pre-internet, a faculty member was THE expert and that was his or her primary role. Long gone are those days. Not only are we educators, researchers, and servants, we are managers, recruiters, accountants, counselors... and so on. I think what some of our posts have suggested is for faculty to let go of some of these roles, at least within teaching. I say, yes!
For me, online communities offer an opportunity to do several things that are difficult to accomplish until the institution evolves, mainly to establish role-free groups that are able to interact and communicate outside of the institution, I guess 'range free' is a useful way to think about it. HE's nature is to manage, document, assign value, and organize knowledge. We are asking the institution to let it go... and for free!
I would like to see online learning communities, range free, be able to:
Share knowledge
Store knowledge
Harvest knowledge
Value or devalue knowledge
Acknowledge contributions regardless of role, status, membership
I love applications like Viddler (http://www.viddler.com/)and Expert Village (http://www.expertvillage.com/) - the *potential* is very exciting! And even those these tools are just tools, they do form a community of knowledge sharers.
I think Michael is thinking about a gaming pedagogy whereas I think about a participatory pedagogy that is less bound by roles and rules. Not possible in current HE? I think it is possible. But my question is... don't we need to think about how we can best learn different things? What role does community play in learning?
Participatory Online Learning Communities
"I would like to see online learning communities, range free, be able to:
Share knowledge Store knowledge Harvest knowledge Value or devalue knowledge Acknowledge contributions regardless of role, status, membership"
"But my question is... don't we need to think about how we can best learn different things? What role does community play in learning?"
Participatory Online Learning Communities
Over the course of the last five years I have taught over sixty sessions of
online courses for the Jason Academy part of the Jason Project/NG
http://www.jason.org
These are five week introductory online courses in science content and pedagogy for mostly middle school teachers. Participants come from all over the world and are preservice and inservice teachers.
The development of a learning community happens over a week's time. My role is one of an organizer, facilitator and collaborator. I do not see myself as an authority figure but one who encourages participants to engage to become a learning community , reflect on content and pedagogy and to collaborate to develop user generated knowledge.
Developing an online learning community is key to this type of online offering. I agree that we need to think about how we can best learn different things as this type of online structure is not a "one size fits all"
Arlene Jurewicz Leighton
SL Roshana Rives
Collaborative Learning Online
Gaming pedagogy
Pat,
You are absolutely right. I was indeed thinking of a gaming pedagogy (what a great phrase!) because I was thinking of how I could get my kids as excited about their chemistry class as they are about their games--or their Facebook/MySpace interactions. I see these online communities (and I would argue that they are learning communities) as having attributes I would like to emulate in the higher education "for credit" world. That may be crazy.
I love your vision. I think the issues of sharing, storing, and harvesting might be fairly easy to solve technically (given your NSF work in learning objects and metadata, you know where I'm heading). Solving the policy side of those same issues is more difficult--I just don't see a lot of faculty putting learning objects into repositories. The issue of credit is more difficult and seems fraught with political landmines. Valuation--hmm. Wonder if we could think of a social networking "recommender" type approach? You've given me some good things to think about.