Because that's the way it has always been done...until now

     A child watched her mother prepare a ham for an upcoming holiday dinner and asked her why she cut it in half before placing the two halves side by side in the pan. She explained that that is how she learned to cook it watching her own mother years ago. Later in the day, she asked her mother about the meal preparation to which she replied that she too had watched her own mother prepare the meat the same way.  Finally at the meal the two generations asked the matriarch of the family why she had prepared the holiday ham by cutting it in half first to which she replied, “ because I only had the one pan and it was the only way it would fit into it”.  Each successive generation followed the original model of preparing the meal without realizing where it had originated. They had learned within a social construct, but social learning today occurs within a much bigger construct, a global technology network

     As educators we have the opportunity to serve as models of learning for our students, thus using social learning but George Siemens suggests  that our role is changing due to advancements in technology and social networking. The traditional class room driven by preset objectives, assessments and learning outcomes becomes less effective as outside sources of supplemental information causes fragmentation of both content and conversations. Today’s educator of socially networked students becomes a curator of information; arranging key components of content for students to encounter. In addition teachers must help students to navigate the many sources of information, aggregate them into themes and filter the over-abundance of information rich sources. Siemen’s encourages educators to become a persistent presence for students via technology using tools such as wikis, blogs, podcasts and social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. Group collaboration supports both independence for the individual learner being accountable for their contribution as well as interdependence by meshing the varied skills of diverse learners into singular projects.

     We are by nature, social creatures. Many years ago learning from the group around you may have saved your life as you discovered which foods you could eat and which “foods” would eat you. Later social learning would be used to learn a trade or skill at the side of a parent or employer.  Social learning today is not necessarily out of necessity but out of opportunity and the cooperative group allows for learners to construct knowledge in conjunction with other learners. The youth of today are connected and networked in multiple ways and through multiple technologies. Connectivism is the combination of social learning theory  with the connections we are able to make socially and technologically to other learners and even teachers. Pitler et all explains the importance of the cooperative group in student learning through interactions with each other.  What is decidedly different are the types of activities that  corroborative groups can now accomplish using technologies such as wiki pages, Voice Thread, multimedia presentations, web site creation and even establishing connections with peers and content mentors from around the world. Ultimately the goal is the same as it has always been. We want our students to learn and if we realize the importance of using technology and networking to develop and maintain legitimate connections then our learners will never again be confined to only within the four walls of a traditional class room.

An aside:

The thread that binds us all....or not.

This is my attempt to create a voice thread about the issue of building a sense of community within a school building. Voice Thread could also be a good way to present an issue or topic to your students then have them make comments to develop an online class discussion.  Science lends itself well to asking a question that has no set answer. Students are encouraged to develop and support their stance and predictions.  My goal is to set up a voice thread for my Environmental Science students to have then discuss the impact of their activities on the environment and to propose and hopefully commit to, feasible solutions. Rest assured that there will most likely be a great deal of editing, mumbling under my breath and gnashing of teeth. You HAVE read the name of my blog, right?
voicethread.com/share/3752200/

Blah, blah, blah Ginger... blah blah Project Based Learning

Some time ago there was a Far Side Cartoon that suggested that what we say to dogs--sit, stay, don't do that on the carpet;  and what dogs actually hear; blah, blah, have a cookie,  are two totally different things and so it is not only with our students but with educators as well. Recently there has been yet ANOTHER term thrown into the soup that is educational jargon, Project Based Learning....dun dun dun...and then my eyes glassed over. Please not another psuedo research based, magic fairy dust and acronym laden, be all, end all, curriculum busting, life altering, just gotta do it and have it in your class room now, strategy. So for the sake of the future of all learners everywhere, I decided to take a look anyway.

SO...what does PBL look like? Let's see, it suggests that we start by asking a question that every student can answer. Well that seems reasonable.  Next...questions asked will direct students to encounter the principles and major concepts of the content through student driven inquiry......whoa, whoa, whoa....you mean without me standing rigidly in the front of the room delivering a mind numbing and behind blistering lecture? Let's see...students of different learning styles can learn and present material in a way that best suits that individual style. You mean we should want students to actually enjoy learning and coming to school just because it fits their learning style?  It continues...students will investigate real world problems while integrating genuine curriculum. Well that is just educational anarchy. And finally...PBL encourages students to explore abstract and intellectual tasks in order to make judgements and synthesize information meaningfully.  Well that is just crazy talk, after all I have curriculum I have to cover and I'm the teacher and they are the students so I am supposed to lead them to the fountain of knowledge......right? Hmmmm maybe we need to rethink the status quo a little.

Background on  project based learning or PBL can be found in multiple places but most echo the need to develop 21st century skills in our students. I am happy when my students remember to wear deodorant and bring their own pencil to class but let's just say that maybe, just maybe I might want them to pick up a few additional bonus skills in my class room like personal and social responsibility, strong communication skills, cultural understanding, decision making and knowing how to choose and use technology appropriately to accomplish a genuine task. Just saying, it might be nice if later in life my former students might actually contribute positively to the world situation. I suppose I could look at Problem Based Learning just a little more and sarcasm aside, it really does make sense. For years our students have been telling us that they learn best by doing hands on activities and they like to talk to each other. Sometimes they even cooperate with each other without me standing over them. It is easy to see that the engagement level goes up significantly when they can make some personal connection to the question and task. Perhaps it is best to try and teach how our students actually learn.  By doing so not only will they construct and build their own learning but we also just might construct and build better citizens that can stand up and deliver in our quickly changing world.

How Many Gargoyles are on Notre Dame Cathedral or why DID the Chicken Cross the Road?

     How many Gargoyles are on the Cathedral at Notre Dame?  I suppose if I wanted to be the center of attention at the holiday office party or were a contestant on Are You Smarter Than a 5^th Grader, then I might need this informational tidbit but according to author Jamie McKenzie on From Now On, The Educational Technology Journal, these are the kinds of meaningless questions that educators typically ask students to research when exploring with technology. McKenzie continues to insist that there is a difference between knowledge and understanding or insight. If we want our students to develop higher order thinking skills then we, as educators must ask them to search for the answers to essential questions. Rather than just engaging our students in a search for random information to accumulate shouldn’t we ask them to deliberate on why and how and what if?  Once they ponder these questions what kind of understanding can they build and what would that look like if you could actually map the thought patterns in the brain?

     When it comes to actual content, these essential questions should be at the center of any network or visual organizer. Thoughts can become actual words and pictures that support the construction of cognition. I don’t necessarily want my students to simply tell me the structure of DNA.   I want them to use their knowledge of that structure to infer what could happen to the traits of organisms if that structure would change and suggest what implications there could be for a species that has undergone those mutations. Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn & Malenoski suggest that if students are going to synthesize new meaning from what they have found then they must be able to sift and weigh all the accumulated bits of information in order to glean out the most important and supportive ideas. Learning to summarize is much like writing a traditional newspaper article. Who, what, where, when, why and how are merely guides to get the complete scoop and now even note taking and brain storming have entered the digital age with access to software that can assist students in this task. If we are to believe wiki answers then we could discover that there are 5000 Gargoyles on the Cathedral of Notre Dame but what was more enlightening for me as a learner was that Gargoyles were actually architectural rain gutters that had different spiritual and social meanings. Surely that is more essential than a simple head count.

     However, I still do not know exactly why the chicken actually crossed the road even though a Google search yields over three million hits in less than .15 seconds. That’s going to be a BIGGGGG graphic organizer. Oh the meaning we can construct.

Teaching the Animal in All of Us?

     I have always maintained that I like most animals better than some people but perhaps that is because the furry beasts just seem to make more sense to me than some of the almost as furry teen students that inhabit my class room.  Lately I was asked to consider the role of behaviorism and whether or not it had a place in the modern class room so I have pondered.  B.F. Skinner would tell us that learning is the result of a response to events or a stimulus depending upon how it was reinforced. My St Bernard has learned to associate the word "cookie" to mean that he is going to get some sort of treat. It can be a meatball, a goldfish cracker or even his pill coated in gooey peanut butter. It doesn't matter. Cookie means yummy and his leviathan head quickly lifts from his cozy den under the kitchen table on stilts at the mere whisper of the word. My students are not as quick to be molded. One I could not afford enough treats to feed hormonal, growing teens and the administration might frown upon me smearing the roofs of their mouths with peanut butter when they answered a question correctly. There are potential peanut allergies of course. No other reason I can think of other than that.

     Rewards may motivate some students to do well in school but motivation is a tricky beast. What motivates one student may not motivate another. I am amazed at the excitement shown even  by teenagers if I happen to put a sticker on their papers and they hold up the smiley face in  the nine of a good score as if they were Braveheart on the hillsides of Scotland. Some students HAVE to have the A. Some students are convinced that they will never GET the A.  What I find seems to be the biggest reward to many of my students is that I BELIEVE in them.  They get honest feedback from me about their challenges but more importantly I see strengths in each of them that perhaps no one else has taken the the time to notice. Is this recognition and expectation a positive reinforcement or a negative one? I suppose it depends on the student.

      Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn and Malenoski would have us  specifically reinforce effort in order to teach our students about the link between effort and achievement and for them to set goals for that to occur. Having students track these goals is a visual and tangible way for students to link their effort with a specific outcome. I agree that as educators we have a vision for our students that sees beyond their immediate situation but a sage will tell you that you just can't put an old head on young shoulders. Sometimes hard work just doesn't pay off with equal academic reward though and then we must help to guide our young students to the reflection that leads to personal growth or dare we say....learning? I think most kids just want to feel like they are doing okay and they look to our red pens, raised eye brows and smiles as gauges of where they are on that journey. Is this learned behavior or not? I believe that it is definitely a part of it and as educators we need to be aware of what behaviors we are rewarding. Do we want rote mastery or creativity and do we have to sacrifice one for the other?

     Meanwhile. Sit. Stay.  I'm going to get the jar of peanut butter.

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.