I'm spending a lot of time in reading your blogs and comments. Yes, it is time-consuming, but maybe this wandering can give us an idea about what this blog-stuff is about, what is for and how could we use it for educational purposes. I would like to share my first thoughts about this with you.
What is for: we are a little community but quite various. We share some interests but we also have different ones. Well, like every class... Last week, before posting my blog, I asked George to what extent our blogs should be "personal": this is one of the points I'm struggling to grasp. Blogs and education? How? And what kind of education? Is it "education" posting a blog about the books or the music I like? Is it education posting a link to an article which doesn't have apparently specific links to education? Of course, it depends on one's idea of what education is. Don't get me wrong: I really believe that education consists also in giving students specific knowledges and abilities in specific subject. Blogs or Facebook are certainly not that useful to teach a class the list of irregular verbs in a linear way, this is true. And they present constraints with regard to the age of the learners...even though probably my son will be able to use these tools earlier that I can imagine now. But this is another story.
Maybe, tools are not the only thing that has to change in education. Maybe education should encompass more stuff that what is being taught now. Maybe these tools could permit us to broaden our range of educability: I mean, I will keep on teaching the irregular verbs as I did, but I could also post an article for my students about whatever topic, to make them exercise in recognizing the verbs within a context AND at the same time to make them reading something I find interesting for their general growth as individuals.
Does it make any sense?
Talking about individuals and what this word means, here's a link to an article I have read some time ago. It is not about education in the strict sense, but I believe there are some interesting concepts about what is I. If I had a class ( at least 16 years old) now, I would certainly post it in the class wiki...:-)
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200811/multiple-personalities
See you soon!
Thanks for your insightful post Veronica! How do tools change the ways we teach and learn? How do our perceptions of education change the ways we use these tools? Let's find out together, shall we?!
ReplyDeleteThis is very interesting. But I am wondering, does perception of education change the way we use the tools, or does the use of tools change our perception of education?
ReplyDeleteBefore applying to this MA DTCE, I was totally against the concept of online education. When suggested by other people my reply would be that without a classroom teaching would be very limited, and transmission of ideas and information will be very mechanical and less creative.
Although a technology producer myself, I was inclined a bit to being anti-technology. It was until I got introduced to VLEs (blackboard, moodle, wikis, etc) that I started to discover the potential of online learning and that it may even foster creativity. I also had your thought about why would having a blog benefit my study, but after I went through the other blogs, I did feel like I was in a classroom, where students where given their own turns introducing themselves and expressing their thoughts. When I go through a blog that is properly structured, I think of its owner as being an organized person. If I visit one thats colorful with many images, I think of its owner as being a funny and cheerful person. Does anybody feel this way too?