Why Schoolwork Doesn't Have to Suck: Learning 2.0
Published January 06, 2009 @ 10:52PM PT
Calm down, you puritans out there scandalized by the title. I use the word "suck" advisedly because, as a teacher, it's the verb I hear most students use when describing their feelings about the work their schools make them perform in too many classes (not all, mind you - not all. There are many good teachers out there).
And I want this quick post to highlight an issue that parents should be attuned to, but probably aren't: the use of the internet for learning. If your child's schooling - their classroom, their homework, their textbooks, their major assignments - looks like it did when you were in school, then dear parent, you may have a problem: your children are being given an education that will help them succeed in a bygone age: the 20th century.
If your answer is, "No, my kids use the internet to find information for their essays," you might still have a problem: especially if those essays are typed on Word and printed for hand-in to the teacher. Yes, using the web to locate information is a skill you should be glad to see teachers encouraging for your kids, but I'm sorry to break it to you: It's still 20th century - what edugeeks call "Web 1.0."
Under the "Web 1.0" regime, the web was mostly static websites, still authorial and authoritarian, delivering information in the same one-directional way that paper textbooks do. You couldn't contest the information, challenge it, critique it, refute it. The website was "teacher."
The revolution of "Web 2.0" has changed all of that. Now the reader has the power to negotiate meaning with the author, to add to the author's writing on the author's page (it's called a "comment thread," obviously), and to engage with other readers about the author's ideas in that thread as well. Truth Authority is much more slippery now, and socially negotiated.
"Unsuckier" still for today's students: thanks to Web 2.0 and the self-publishing (often multimedia) revolution, the very essay itself is losing its privileged place as the standard by which academic merit is judged. Special needs students, or students more skillful as speakers or artists or musicians or filmmakers than as writers, should be given more chances to demonstrate their mastery of content and critical thinking about it in whatever mode of expression suits their strength: a podcast for natural speakers, for example; an mp3 original song from the musicians; a photo-essay on Flickr; a short movie, a cartoon, paintings and sketches, and such for the visually intelligent.
In an age when more people read online than off, and when online "reading" more and more often takes the form of non-textual (non-written) communication, all of these non-verbal communication arts gain in importance for the students' future. This is not to say that writing is not important; it is. But to grade students based primarily on their writing skills for their report cards is arguably a piece of academic prejudice ready for the dust-heap. Muhammad Ali couldn't write to save his life, and was a D- student in high school - yet his words, when spoken, shook the world. Imagine if he could have recorded himself speaking about his subjects of study in school, and been graded based on the skills involved in that (which he had in spades), and you're imagining an Ali with a more accurate - and more just - G.P.A.
How else does Web 2.0 offer "unsuckiness" in the classroom? Watch the (admittedly semi-sucky) screencast below to see an overview of some stuff I was lucky enough to do in my school - a "1 to 1" laptop school in which all students brought Apple Macbooks to class each day (and took home each night). That reform allowed them to create their history textbooks online on a wiki, to reflect on what the history meant to them on blogs (in which they argued in comment threads), to write short stories with peer editors from other countries using another wiki, on and on.
I've got to dash - I'm still in Bangkok, and due at a meeting in a few minutes - but I want to close with this: we've been talking about students with special needs a bit lately, and I'm convinced that some students fitting that category would find school less of a challenge if they were allowed to choose a mode of assessment more aligned to their strengths, and less aligned with the traditional reading-and-writing tests.
And beyond that, I know by experience that a vastly larger percentage of students, when describing digital learning that allows them to use the tools they use outside the school cell - computers, cellphones, digital cameras, so much more - tend to choose verbs much more positive than "sucks."
So parents, give your schools hell - on second thought, first request nicely - if they're ignoring these tools. And count your blessings for this much, at least: it seems Obama understands Learning 2.0 somewhat, and plans to wire our schools for the 21st century at long last.
Image by Wes Fryer at Learning at the Speed of Creativity
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Comments (25)
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Author
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Clay is an American high school Humanities teacher, technology coach, and Apple Distinguished Educator who has taught for the last eight years in Asian international schools. According to law, he's married to his wife. According to his wife, he's married to his Mac.
Thanks for sharing Clay. The video isn't sucky. It tells the story to an audience that may have never heard these ideas. I've got plans to use it myself. Thanks.
Posted by Dean Shareski on 01/06/2009 @ 11:07PM PT
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As a student, Web 2.0 in education has been a life changing experience for me. A teacher helped me set up my blog a little over two years ago, and not only has it helped me grow as a writer, but it's introduced me to my personal learning network. Whether it's been a meaningful discussion or an internship in San Francisco, Web 2.0 showed me that a high school student's learning doesn't have to be restricted to a traditional classroom.
Posted by Lindsea Kemp on 01/06/2009 @ 11:09PM PT
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Great post and a lot 'food for thought' for all stakeholders in the educational process.
Posted by Anne Mirtschin on 01/06/2009 @ 11:36PM PT
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Clay,
The Philippines will take notice. You can rest assured.
Posted by Marc Guerrero on 01/07/2009 @ 01:15AM PT
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The idea that the reader has the power to negotiate meaning with the author, to add to an author's writing on an author's page is exciting to me. And I am sure students find that kind of interaction meaningful and stimulating as well. I'm going to poll the students tomorrow. What do they think of that idea? Who do they read? What do they share? Contribute? Do they negotiate?
Posted by Tod Baker on 01/07/2009 @ 01:16AM PT
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Clay, You offer an excellent presentation! Your energy and enthusiasm is very much alive in both your video and writing as it is in person. This work is a true reflection of a teacher's dynamic personality leading students through a creative process and then being carried over into dynamic media. I'm happy to see your work and would very much like to see your rubrics that helped you evaluate each student's work. For the students who just didn't get the writing skills or didn't want to write publicly, what other opportunities did you offer?
Good luck in your pursuit of getting a job at the International School of Beijing! Your video will help! :)
Take care,
Lawrence
Posted by Lawrence Jackson on 01/07/2009 @ 03:42AM PT
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Clay, I agree, and this should have even more relevance for home school kids. Learning to do outside research and question experts could be the most valuable thing they learn.
Posted by Charlie Reed on 01/07/2009 @ 04:15AM PT
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I'm fortunate in that my children's school is a 2.0 school. It was a little scary --as a parent --when my 12 year old got her laptop for school. There were the inevitable negotiations about when, where, and how much she could be on it at home, but no longer. Now I don't 'interfere' with computer use at all, I just share in what she's doing. What I've come to understand is wikis, photo essays, and blogs are so engaging to the student that they become engrossed in learning and teaching. ALL children should have Web 2.0 schools. Demand it of your schools.
Posted by Jennifer Parker on 01/07/2009 @ 05:35AM PT
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As an elementary Media Director (technology teacher) I have been using web 2.0 tools since the conception. I have also butted my head against the wall trying to get our district on board. It is very frustrating. We do have one-to-one laptops in our middle school and our high school. But they are not willing to use open source and web 2.o products it doesn't make sense to me. My daughter who has a laptop tells me all they use them for is playing games and that is all I see at home. They use iWorks for all their school products...why not OpenOffice, Zoho, J2E.
It is very frustrating as an educator to see the great educational potential web 2.0 has, but having administrators and teachers and technology directors unwilling to even look at it.
I loved your article! My dream someday is to work in a progressive, cutting edge school that is willing to embrace new ideas and new ways of teaching.
Posted by Lisa Smith on 01/07/2009 @ 07:49AM PT
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Excellent post! As someone who works with children with special needs, I would LOVE to see schools move towards a Web 2.0 model. In Massachusetts we are still relying on paper and pencil, fill-in-the-bubble assessments to allow kids to graduate. Then colleges/universities and employers are stymied as to why young adults are ill-prepared for advanced learning, work, and can't critically think their way out of a wet paper bag.
Thanks again for the thought provoking post!
Susan Giurleo
www.childdevelopmentpartners.com
Posted by Susan Giurleo on 01/07/2009 @ 07:56AM PT
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Integrating technology, to allow students who can best share and learn through different mediums, is great. So is giving them the ability to take active control of their education. I loved that students wrote their own text book, and incorporated video, audio, and visuals as well as the usual written word. I've noticed it's something that the text book publishers have been trying to do, what with multimedia cds and dvds shipping with texts, but it comes off as half-assed; they simply don't get it. And, of course, it's always better when the students take charge.
I wonder though, if teachers start incorporating choices between podcast assignments, essays, collages, etc., will it just devolve back into, well, assignments and reports to the authoritative figure (the teachers) like the essay is now? I mean, my greatest communication tool is the written word, and yet I still hated most assignments, because I wasn't able to focus on subjects that were interesting and meaningful to me. I guess that might be unavoidable when you work with prescribed schedules with core curriculum and GPAs, but it seems a shame. It is as if one were handing a student the gift of their own beautiful voice, but then demanding they use it to regurgitate back the same the same old sucky songs.
Any thoughts on how to give students more control over what information they are learning, not just how they interact with it, within a NCLB era public school? Is real bottom up education, real student driven learning possible within the system? If not, how close do you think we can get at the local classroom level, before radically rewriting federal or state guidelines?
Short version: How much power is it possible to grant a student when it comes to deciding what they will study, pace, and level of specificity from within the current system?
Posted by SP Greenlaw on 01/07/2009 @ 08:50AM PT
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I like to imagine what it must be like to teach in a school where each student takes their laptop with them everywhere they go. I do not know how long your school has been 1 to 1, but I think that learning to teach in a 1 to 1 environment must be quite challenging. Is that the case or has it come quite easily? Also, does your international school operate its network through a proxy server? If so, does that cause problems for you? I can't wait to get home to watch the video...not enough bandwidth here in my school in Montana. That is supposed to change soon...
Posted by Jeff Agamenoni on 01/07/2009 @ 09:00AM PT
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I think it would also be beneficial to consider class inequality in this discussion. Often times it is real life inequality is reproduced in the web/virtual world.
Who has access to these technologies?
If it becomes a standard, who will be left behind?
This is especially relevant in U.S. public schools where funds come through property taxes, some schools are financially ready for this, others are not.
Posted by Lu P. on 01/07/2009 @ 09:38PM PT
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Unfortunately, I have had a similar experience to Lisa's. We do not have 1to1 laptops in our schools but we do have a computer lab and get more and more computers for classrooms each year. In our elementary school these computers are used mostly for programs that are supposed to be supplements to learning but in many classes have become the entire curriculum (Accelerated Reading and Accelerated Math). The principal has also bought into a website that produces worksheets and has games that are supposed to aid in learning. What a waste!!
Yes, we have to do something about the funding so that students in less affluent areas have the same access to the web/virtual world. But there must be a change in the culture of schools so that parents, teachers, and administrators buy into the need for students to explore, question and share their understandings of the world around them with a larger community.
Posted by Tanya Sharon on 01/08/2009 @ 08:15AM PT
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We spend so much time thinking about reforming schools, we fail to see waht is oftentimes already out there that makes education relavent and essential for the 21st Century. Many of us went through schools answering questions, when inside so many of us had important questions that remained unanswered. Critical thinking demands that we learn to ask the right questions to get a better understanding of the issues we face as people. We only need to look at recent history to understand how leaders gave us the answers to solve such problems as armed aggression, the economy and yes, education, to know that they and others failed to ask the right questions so we could create better solutions to the problems we face. This video is an extraordinary example of what should happen in every classroom to value inquiry as an essential part of the learning process. We do not have to wait for every student to have a laptop, although that would be ideal. When necessary, small groups can work collaboratively around one computer and still benefit from the value of this type of learning. If we wait for the field to be leveled, we will continue to climb what seems like an insurmountable goal to make educational equity and real learning a basic human right.
Posted by Doug Kreeger on 01/09/2009 @ 05:56AM PT
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homeschooled kids can many times find fun ways to incorporate fun into learning, I know of a family who was learning about the middle ages and had a friend dress up in chainmail and talk about the middle ages. It was great fun for the kids and didn't cost anything.
Posted by Kharles Honnegger on 01/09/2009 @ 09:48AM PT
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This makes a strong statement.
I would add one more important point: That the bottom line basis for education for the 21st century lies in recognizing that we adults can trust in the student's inate curiousity and inner motivation to grow into his/her optimum potential. Our job is to provide the nurtuting environment - one that includes a democratic governamce, resources and competent, caring facillitators who park their egos and imprinted agendas and tune into the student's interests and passions. Remember, we learn best from what we initiate. And play is essential!
Posted by elisabeth wertheim on 01/09/2009 @ 11:38AM PT
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From one box to the next
Every year there seems to be different catch words promoting various programs that promise to save public education. This year shows no difference. ‘Inquiry’ seems to be the top terms with ‘follow the child’ and ‘collaborated learning’ following close behind. I understand these programs are important but because of the ‘No Child Left Behind’ program the language is overwhelmed by the reality that as teachers we teach to the test.
The other day I had a conversation with my curriculum coordinator discussing different ways my students can become interested in engineering. For the past six months I have been working with the University of New Hampshire in order to motivate my students toward the new technology of nano-technology and setting up systems in which these same students can visit the university and work with both professors and students. I told her this system would alleviate the fear they are not smart enough to join these systems.
The administrator agreed programs like this will help the student become an important part of our society. It is common knowledge we need more home-grown engineers because the foreign student who study in our nation used to stay here to work. With today’s global economy many of these foreign students go back to where they were born. Without motivating our students toward engineering there will be a void that will make us weakened in competition with the rest of the world.
But, alas, she ended our conversation by stating I had to stay with curricula that were written to have our students succeed in the state tests. These same tests do not know what nano-technology or bio-technology is. They are based on old safe standards that the state believes is important if our students are to succeed in their dreams. All I could do was tell her that she, and the state, is eliminating new programs because of the demand to have our students do well on a test. In other words, they are putting teachers who try and stay up with modern technology in a box of teaching to a test.
Posted by James Fabiano on 01/11/2009 @ 06:51AM PT
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As much as I am a fan of technology, I have to disagree that it holds hope for improving education in any fundamental way. Education can adopt flash and glitter, but such changes will not advance outcomes in material way until the basic short-comings of exposure-as-instruction are recognized and evidence-based instructional practices adopted.
Posted by John Lloyd on 01/12/2009 @ 08:00AM PT
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John, your language is revealing. "Flash and glitter" don't motivate any teacher worth his or her salt to embed tech in the classroom; opportunities for enhanced learning do. In my case, it's usually enhancing literacy through these tools - they happen to be better than older technologies like paper and pencil for those goals.
"Evidence-based instructional practices" sounds good, depending on what you mean by it. And whose evidence is used to sell what kind of curriculum.... (DIBELS, anyone? ReadingFirst?)
Posted by Clay Burell on 05/23/2009 @ 05:37AM PT
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James,
You have found the key problem in the situation -- governments are making standards that are out dated and relatively useless. It is true that basic skills are needed, but the tests fail to focus of those skills; instead, the focus on rote facts that are normally out of date. Students need to be able to locate resources, understand the value of the resources, and use the resources to create new products, but instead, they know that the U.S. Civil War was fought between 1861-65. It is nice that they know that, but why is it important? How did it change U.S. society? The deep knowledge is lost. With Web 2.0 tools, I believe students can engage other students, teachers, experts, and the world at large which will help them develop the connections that build meaning and learning. Let's not forget that testing is a billion dollar industry; we are the consumers, if we demand a better product, it will exist. But we must dare to demand.
Posted by Tim Bray on 01/15/2009 @ 08:22PM PT
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When I was a boy during the second world war I dreamed of this kind of education, I was so happy when it started to become reality. now for a language which isn't word order dependent...
Posted by Ron Amos on 01/29/2009 @ 06:28PM PT
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It is so exciting to see people trying to utilize web 2.0 tools for learning in the public school sector!
I have seen (and have been involved with) attempts at the University level, and it's still a work in progress for us as well.
I'd like to invite everyone here to check out a live prototype of a course we're beta testing (but it is a "live" course with actual enrollees and faculty) via the "Penn LPS Commons," a platform that we hope will set new benchmarks at the intersection of online learning and social networking, making learning engaging, interesting, and open! This particular offering focuses on global environmental sustainability and policy. A critical concept to be leveraged via the Commons is to break the paradigm of exclusion and open windows of opportunity in the learning environment to participants beyond students enrolled in a particular course, program, or even university. The word “open” here applies to the concept that there will be open (free) access to the public to view course content such as lectures on YouTube and/or iTunesU, and to participate in faculty and student-led blogs, polls, and community discussion forums. This inaugural offering is a prototype of potential future offerings via the Commons. Join the discussion today at: http://pennlpscommons.org/ We look forward to your active participation, feedback, and ideas!
Posted by Jennifer Maden on 02/02/2009 @ 02:09PM PT
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This is wonderful. I am definitely letting others know about this.
Posted by A. A. Alvarez on 02/05/2009 @ 08:08AM PT
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Clay- I completely agree. I am currently taking a Literacy Learning as Social Practice class, and the importance of using digital technology like Web 2.0 sites in classrooms is prevalent in many of our discussions. Educators really need to embrace "Learning 2.0" and integrate it into their curricula.
Posted by Lauren Seeley on 06/09/2009 @ 12:24PM PT
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