Who are the digital learners?
July 16, 2008
As I shared with a friend today about the importance of networking, the example I gave was my ability to drop in on a fabulous conference going on right now–>Buliding Learning Communities 2008 in Boston, Mass. My colleague is there at my recommendation from last August, and so I emailed to briefly explain UStream and Cover It Live, and how using a laptop and these apps would make the experience there immeasurabley better–that you just couldn’t beat interacting with others in and out of the room (like me 900 miles away–but glued to my chats, UStreams, Coverit Live Blogs, and Twitter…) I received an email stating that not only had he joined Ustream, but he also joined Flickr and Twitter!! It doesn’t take long to “catch the 21st century vision” at BLC, does it?
So my question is this. If THIS
is the way we like to learn too, then why, oh why can’t we bring THIS into the classroom? (Notice the laptops, PDAs, cellphones, & use of cameras sprinkled into this picture. That is pretty good for a basic sit and get session, wouldn’t you say? I would wager they are all emphatically and enthusiastically engaged.) Hoping and praying the ones from my district who are at BLC08 will come back excited about the possibilities of digital tools in the classroom for 21st Century Learning. (Of course I realize there are implications for school policies too.) It makes me SO HAPPY though to know my colleague that quickly adopted some of my favorite apps, like Twitter, Ustream, and Flickr, all b/c he is absolutely immersed in it at BLC08!
Picture Attricbution:
UGC 20 for What Can I Do Now @ BLC08
Uploaded on July 16, 2008
by dkuropatwa
Some rights reserved Anyone can see this photo
July 18th, 2008 at 8:50 am
Like your friend, I am somewhat new to this although, and like him, I absolutely love all the new tools; I created a ning for my library staff so we can talk about what we are reading and doing this summer (i’m a school librarian), I’m on Twitter, I love iGoogle, and think that VoiceThread is a wonderful tool. Many of these tools do a wonderful job of keeping us connected. BUT, are those people in the picture really engaged or are they texting their kids/wifes/boyfriends? Are they reading the newspaper? Are they engaged in the talk or are they engaged in their personal stuff? This is what I worry about in a school setting. Nowhere on the blogosphere do I see the comment that kids with their heads down looking at their laptops is maybe not always a good thing. Maybe they should be engaged in the community of the classroom rather than the community of the web! I have heard speakers say that that they are happy when they see kids with their heads down during class “engaged.” I disagree with that. Just trying to get a discussion going…
July 18th, 2008 at 11:57 am
I am by far no veteran expert of the tools either, but I swear this is the way I enjoy sessions too. When I go to out of town conferences where I must stay over night, I check the hotels for free wifi. I won’t stay if it is not an amenity freely offered by the hotel. I also take my laptop to the conferences–MOST nowadays offer a complimentary conference signal. I have even ditched the conference bag and the exhibit hall in lieu of toting my laptop around. I did not even go into the exhibit hall at NECC this year (and its a mega exhibit hall with lots of impromptu sessions a with lots of freebies and gifts. Instead I went to impomptu sessions at the bloggers cafe–another thing i see popping up at conferences I like to attend, and not just NECC. In sessions, I am always online searching out the content presented, the wiki for the handouts (which is by and large becoming a norm–e-handouts), and anything referenced by the speaker. Do I get off task–sure. I will glance at Twitter, check my email, text on my phone, and pull up the reader too, and if something catches my eye, deal with it. But it does not cause me to be anymore disengaged. I think I get a lot from the session too, while doing all these things.
Now I’m a forty-something year old adult. I don’t think we give our students enough credit to be able to handle this. I have first hand experienced students texting in class, and I don’t think it makes them pay any less attention. I think they handle it quite well, and they even manage to disguise it quite well too. (Not that I’m condoning the behavior, after all it is against school policy.)
I went to Educon 2.0 in Philadelphia at the Science Leadership Academy in January, and the first day of that conference was for us to visit while school was in session and observe or interact with students. Of course this was a one-to-one laptop school, so all the kids had laptops. I saw all varieties of things going on–chats and IMs open all day, kids checking and sending emails, and other assorted activity. None seemed to be off task or unengaged. Quite the opposite, they seemed very engaged. I even asked a student and the student told me she was emailing and IMing with a classmate b/c they had a project due their last block, and they were tweaking it by using their email and IM. I would say not only is it the norm at their school, but expected and accepted. I think our students would be so much more interested in school if the tools were allowed. Oh yeah, there would be some initial overdoing it, but once kids realized it was ok, it would become as natural as doodling or passing notes in class, things which can be harmless or harmful, depending on the context and the student. This is just the 21st century way of doing things.
Great debate, and I’m sure I’m in the minority on my opinions of this. Thanks for stopping by to comment.
July 19th, 2008 at 10:29 pm
Your picture expresses my feelings exactly. Why are “adults” at a conference allowed access to our gadgets to facilitate learning and “students” are not? These same tools that we use to record our thoughts and experiences are kept our of the classroom because they are a distraction. People are distracted by many things and the elimination of electronic tools will not necessarily mean that they will be less distracted.