IF YOU ARE NOT FEELING DISRUPTED OR CHALLENGED IN YOUR TEACHING PRACTICE THEN YOU ARE NOT PAYING ATTENTION.
Will Richardson, 2009 (OTF conference, Toronto Ontario)The only way we can teach students to create, navigate and grow is if YOU (the educator) can create, navigate and grow your own personal learning network in a safe, responsible and ethical way. How do you teach kids to do this if you don’t do it yourself?
Will Richardson emphasizes that KIDS ARE doing this. Kids are creating and participating in on-line networks. Richardson walks us through the power of a Blog as both a reflective, informative and collaborative tool and admits that he is often surprise at the amount of passion and feedback that he receives Globally about issues in eduction arising everyday. This type of learning – Global Learning – can be practiced by anybody, anywhere but it takes a risk of change, of transparency and time.
Recently, a student of mine (Jacob) wrote in his blog about an assessment that I administered. The assessment was to be done collaboratively. I know that teachers have been using group work and collaborative skills already. The difference with this type of activity was that I did not put the students in groups. Jacob called his blog – “Is it Cheating or Collaborating”. In 24 hours, this student received more than 15 responses from educators across the world. Can you imagine the authentic writing experience felt by this young boy? Read Jacob’s post here: http://jacob213.edublogs.org/2009/11/05/cheating-or-callaborating/
SUMMARY OF STUDENTS RESPONSES FOUND HERE: GOOGLE FORM
Richardson is talking about how important it is for learners to be pushed, to be questioned, and to listen to many perspectives. “It is easy…” says Richardson, ” to immerse ourselves in a network of like minded people however, it is not a great learning environment. We want people in our learning environment to push us…to question us, to remind of where we are in our learning.
