Will Richardson (who issingle-handedly responsible for nudging me into this world of blogging,wikis, and podcasts) has an article upcoming in the October issue of Edutopia.It is called “The New Face of Learning,” and does a terrific jobexplicating the possibilities and challenges for educators of the webas we now know and use it
Here are some quotes from the piece. First, on learning:
In this new interactive Webworld, I have become a nomadic learner; I graze on knowledge. I findwhat I need when I need it. There is no linear curriculum to mylearning, no formal structure other than the tools I use to connect tothe people and sources that point me to what I need to know and learn,the same tools I use to then give back what I have discovered. I havebecome, at long last, that lifelong learner my teachers always hoped Iwould become. Unfortunately, it’s about thirty years too late for themto see it.The good news for all of us is that today, anyone can become a lifelonglearner. (Yes, even you.) These technologies are user friendly in a waythat technologies have not been in the past. You can be up and bloggingin minutes, editing wikis in seconds, making podcasts in, well, lesstime than you’d think. It’s not difficult at all to be an activecontributor in this society of authorship we are building.
Second, on educators using these technologies in their classrooms:
When you read this, blogsand wikis and podcasts (and much more) may be things that students (andteachers) can access and create only from off-campus.And so they might never learn to podcast like the third and fourthgraders creating the podcasts in Bob Sprankle’s class at WellsElementary School, in Wells, Maine. They might therefore never publisha local museum tour, an interview with a local celebrity, or an oralhistory about their town that a billion people could listen to. Norwill they ever get the chance to collaborate in a blog with U.S.soldiers in Iraq, like April Chamberlain’s students at PaineIntermediate School, in Trussville, Alabama, and learn firsthand whatit’s like to be a Screaming Eagle. Or share stories about the placesthey live at Wikiville.org.uk, where hundreds of kids from around theworld have started writing and connecting. Or teach calculus tothousands of interested readers from around the world, as do theCanadian students in Darren Kuropatwa’s math class at Daniel McIntyreCollegiate Institute, in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
And, lastly, for the big picture:
ButI wonder whether, twenty-five or fifty years from now, when four orfive billion people are connecting online, the real story of thesetimes won’t be the more global tests and transformations thesetechnologies offered. How, as educators and learners, did we respond?Did we embrace the potentials of a connected, collaborative world andput our creative imaginations to work to reenvision our classrooms? Didwe use these new tools to develop passionate, fearless, lifelonglearners? Did we ourselves become those learners?Or did we cling to old ideas, old models, and old habits and drift morefully into irrelevance in our students’ eyes?
6″>The New Face of Learning
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