(Return to K12online 2006)
Here are my notes from David's excellent keynote presentation! My notes are in lowercase, my own thoughts are in uppercase.
Information doesn't move in rows/straight lines anymore
LEARNING HAS ALWAYS HAPPENED IN MORE DYNAMICAL AND CHAOTIC WAYS, WE KID OURSELVES OFTEN THINKING THAT IT HAPPENS IN ROMAN NUMERAL OUTLINE FORM
True enough. I think that the distinction is the difference between teaching and learning. Teaching tends to be planned and sequential. But learning is a different matter.
David spoke of "the electricity that passes from eye to eye in some face to face teaching and learning contexts"
MY QUESTION IS: HOW CAN WEB 2.0 TOOLS BE USED TO FACILITATE AND SHARE THIS SAME SENSE OF EXCITEMENT / ELECTRICITY?
this is the old romantic talking here, but it can't. The digital is a poor conductor of electricity compared with the face-to-face interaction. It's why, I think, humans will never be satisfied with an exclusively virtual experience. That said, we live in a time where the virtual is essential for life-long learning. ..and the multimedia is helping a great deal -- as with your example in podcasting. it's why it is so important that students learn to express themselve compellingly through information, and to do it skillfully.
It is time for us (the adults) to stop acting like immigrants and start acting like natives
I LIKE THIS METAPHOR, THIS REMINDS ME OF LIVING IN MEXICO AS SOMEONE WHO PRIMARILY SPOKE ENGLISH AND NOT SPANISH. AT SOME POINT I NEEDED TO ABANDON MY INSISTENCE ON COMMUNICATING EXCLUSIVELY IN MY NATIVE TONGUE (ENGLISH) AND BEGIN COMMUNICATING MOSTLY IN SPANISH, THE LANGUAGE OF "THE NATIVES."
Exactly! As I said last night, the point is that we can't use our immigrant status as an excuse.
David asked the question, how much are our kids in schools "on the rail" of traditional, linear learning
He contends that when kids leave school they continue to learn via "side trips"
Education needs to emphasize more "side trips" and less "rail-based learning" (VIA STANDARDS AND A PRESCRIBED / SCRIPTED CURRICULUM)
learning today involves accessing information, building knowledge and sharing it with others
THERE IS DEFINITELY NOT CONSENSUS ON THIS. MANY PEOPLE, IF NOT MOST PEOPLE TODAY WHO ARE ADULTS, STILL CONCEIVE OF TEACHING AND LEARNING AS FUNDAMENTALLY A PROCESS OF CONTENT TRANSMISSION RATHER THAN REMIXING AND REBUILDING (FEW EMBRACE CONSTRUCTIVIST LEARNING THEORY TODAY, PARTICULARLY IN OUR HIGH-STAKES ENVIRONMENTS)
So how do we change people's thinking? What's the new story? I think that it centers around three elements:
- Globalization
- A new generation of learners (Millennials)
- A dramatically new information landscape -- being mapped largely by the millennials
21st century learning = teaching each other
THIS REMINDS ME OF A CONVERSATION TODAY WITH A LIBRARIAN, WHO WAS UPSET AT THE SUGGESTION KIDS SHOULD USE WIKIPEDIA. SHE SEEMED TO REGARD INFORMATION PUT ONLINE / MADE AVAILABLE BY SOMEONE WITHOUT A CREDENTIAL (LIKE A PHD) AS ILLEGITIMATE-- NOT A LEGITIMATE SOURCE OF INFORMATION AND LEARNING. I THOUGHT THIS WAS VERY INTERESTING. AFTER THE ELLUMINATE CONVERSATION, I REALIZED IT IS IMPORTANT WHEN TALKING ABOUT WIKIPEDIA TO LIBRARIANS AND OTHERS TO NOT PORTRAY IT AS A COMPLETE REPLACEMENT FOR OTHER SOURCES, INCLUDING TRADITIONAL ENCYCLOPEDIAS. IT CAN BE A SUPPLEMENT.
I think that we should not make it look like Wikipedia is competing with Britannica. The skill today is knowing when to use the Wikipedia and when to use Britannica. Chris Anderson, in The Long Tail does a great job of describing Wikipedia.
The best thing we can teach kids today is how to teach themselves (reference: Friedman's "The World is Flat")
Now the balance between geography and talent is favoring talent, because of web 2.0
We need to emphasize side trips for learners more
For this conference, "we" are asking you (participants) to blog and bring content together in ways that are personally meaningful to you.
Use tags for each blog post:
k12online
k12online06
firstnamelastname (of the presenter whose session you are blogging about)
David has created a tool on Hitchhikr for creating tags
My questions for David:
What does it mean practically speaking for us to stop acting like immigrants and start acting like natives? (David addressed this at the end of tonight's Elluminate session)
My point in saying that is that we should stop using our immigrant status as an excuse. We'll never be natives, but we can learn the language and learn to use it.
How did you do the screencast that had your image in the upper left corner?
It was a program called Screentool, from Citrus software. It is shareware, about $12.