The Networked Student
The Networked Student by Wendy Drexler was an interesting video. It really made me think about how much education is changing and I'm not so sure I like it. The networked student has no textbook and the teacher rarely lectures. This is in high school, but it seems more like college!
The networked student takes control of their learning experience and collaborates with others. They build their own personal learning networked. The student will find valid websites on his subject and checks for the credibility of it. The student is taught how to do all of this before they are required to do so. The networked student will use Google Scholar to search for scholarly and peer-reviewed articles that pertain to the subject they are learning. When the networked student finds a website or article which is worth using, he will post it to his social bookmarking site where he will share the sites he's found with others and he will find site's that others have posted that may be helpful to him. The networked student will also read the blogs of others which might contribute to his learning.
The purpose of the teacher in a networked class would be to teach the students how to build their personal learning network, offers guidance, teaches the students how to communicate correctly with others in a respectful way, teaches the students how to decide what is good and bad information, and helps that students organize the information that they gather.
In my opinion I do not think that students would get as much out of a networked class as they would physically habing their teacher there everyday. As a future educator I do not like this idea because there would not be a need for as many educators as there are right now. I think that a networked class is too complex for younger students and personally if I was a parent of a middle school student who Mrs. Drexler was teaching in this way, I would be annoyed with all of the time my child would have to spend on the computer. Children do not need to have to spend so much time on the computer. They need to be active. In my opinion this idea would be good to use if students were only required to use it in completing one project. It would allow the students the best of both worlds.
Mallory,
ReplyDeleteI completely appreciate your concerns. You are right. Students should be active. But, by active, do you mean physically or mentally? Students should have balance in their lives - chances to be physically and mentally active. How physically or mentally active do you think students are in most of their classes during a typical school day? How much time do typical students in a traditional school spend using technology to learn or just collaborating and problem solving with others? At the school where we're doing the 7th grade networked learning project, this is the only class where computers are used. Many brain breaks are taken during the class for students to "think on their feet". In many of their other classes they spend a significant amount of time sitting and listening (or pretending to listen). I do not believe that any one teaching technique is a panacea. But, I can assure you we do not have balance in our schools right now. The ability to experience networked learning in one class is quite a change in the day. But, even in that class, we also do other things. Is your concern about networked learning more about the number of teacher jobs available or what is best for student learning? I assure you, the students cannot be successful in this learning environment without the help of a qualified teacher. In my humble opinion, it is the networked student who is getting the best of both worlds.
Thanks so much for your comments.
Wendy Drexler
really liked your post. good one!!
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