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Seminar in Personalized Learning and Leading with Technology

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New Culture of Learning Reading Reflection 2

7/3/2015

8 Comments

 
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Chapter 4 - Learning in the Collective
Quote: “Give a man a fish and feed him for a day.  Teach a man to fish, and feed him as long as the fish supply holds out.  But create a collective, and every man will learn how to feed himself for a lifetime” (Thomas, 2011, p.53).  Not only did this quote make me laugh out loud, but it fully explains the concept of a collective that is described in chapter 4.  A collective is the process of people working together to collaboratively learn through group participation on a topic.  This is a fundamental part of the new culture of learning.
Question: What is the best way to present this type of learning to administrators who still place a large emphasis on standards and objectives? Collective learning environments cannot be directed or defined without ruining innovation (Thomas, 2011).
Connection: A collective learning environment that is described in this chapter is exactly what our Google+ community is doing for my classmates and I in our program.  We are all learning independently with  support from our professors, but by sharing our learning with each other, we are collectively learning things that are better than the sum of its parts.  
Epiphany/Aha: An epiphany for me was another quote that states “Learning from others is neither new nor revolutionary; it has just been ignored by most of our educational institutions” (Thomas, 2011, p.51).  This is so true! Teachers are told to allow students to learn from each other, however, certain restrictions apply.  We still need to control what they are sharing with each other and monitor this learning to ensure certain objectives are reached.  The concept of a collective is that objectives won’t apply because you don’t know where the learning will go, but allowing students to collaboratively learn is a great idea.

Chapter 5 - The Personal with the Collective
Quote: “Because learning with digital media occupies a space that is both personal and collective, people can share experience as well as knowledge.  Here, people are not just learning from one another, they are learning with one another” (Thomas, 2011, p.67).  I chose this quote because chapter 5 discusses how the media can be viewed as having two separate spheres: the public and the private.  However, with the new type of learning that exists with collectives, these two distinctions are not appropriate.  Instead, we can describe two domains that are intertwined and overlapping: the personal and the collective.  Most online media cannot be divided into public and private, but the personal and the collective are better domain descriptors.
Question:  It’s going to be difficult to get parents to see the distinction between the public/private and the personal/collective domains.  Many parents don’t participate online like our students can and therefore are still concerned with internet safety.  How do we get parents to understand that learning in a collective is beneficial for their children?
Connection: I am currently participating in a collective with my 20Time project.  I am creating games using coding on a program called Scratch with others doing the same thing.  This is a type of collective because everyone participating is interested in coding and creating games or animations.  It is also personal because people are sharing their individual work and commenting on others.  Collectives are built and structured around participation (Thomas, 2011) and that is exactly what Scratch does.  It’s fascinating to see what other people have created and then I can incorporate small parts of their work into my own.  It’s an amazing environment for learning, so I can see its value in the classroom as well.
Epiphany/Aha: An Aha moment for me was when they redefined the domains for online participation from public and private to personal and the collective.  Now that I have participated in a collective and seen it’s value I know that you cannot separate online participation into only public and private.  The domains are much more fluid and sometimes you can participate without including anything personal, but most times it overlaps.

Chapter 6 - We Know More Than We Can Say
Quote: “But tacit knowledge, which grows through personal experience and experimentation, is not transferrable - you can’t teach it to me, though I can still learn it” (Thomas, 2011, p.77).  I chose this quote because chapter 6 focuses on how schooling in the past has focused on teaching knowledge, but the new culture of learning focuses on tacit knowledge.  Tacit knowledge is the type of knowledge you gain through personal experiences and interactions.  It cannot be transferred from teacher to student, but we can allow students time to practice experimenting and interacting with others to gain more tacit knowledge (Thomas, 2011).
Question:  Thomas (2011) mentions that measuring tacit knowledge is difficult.  If this is the type of knowledge that we want students to practice and get better at, how will we measure it? Or is it implied that measuring knowledge (tacit or otherwise) is not something that should be emphasized in schooling?
Connection:  As I was reading this chapter I began thinking about how I was as a student in school.  Thomas (2011) states “The skilled student today learns how to watch the teacher closely and thereby infer what questions will be on the test” (p.78).  I never did this in elementary through high school.  I did my homework, tried somewhat hard (I was not the “best of the best” type of student), and did fine in school.  However, in college it was a totally different story.  We had to write papers that required critical analysis.  We had to complete research that was important (I was a psych major).  And the answers were not “right there” like they always had been.  I did so much better in college than I had in any of my high school classes, and I cared too.  After reading this chapter I know that I was using my tacit knowledge, which I had never been asked to use before.  I would go to class and watch the professors, ask questions and interact with them to figure out the solutions to problems.  And let me tell you, my classes in college were much more worthwhile than any of my high school classes.
Epiphany/Aha: It was an aha moment for me when Thomas described tacit knowledge.  Who knew this would be a type of knowledge that could be valued? It is not something that can be taught, but I know it’s a valuable tool for students to have, especially when they are asked to think critically.  Asking questions, synthesizing information, and inquiry based learning are things that students need more experience with.  

Resources
Thomas, D., & Brown, J. (2011). A new culture of learning: Cultivating the imagination for a
       world of constant change. Lexington, KY: CreateSpace Independent Publishing
       Platform.

8 Comments
Jacob Dominguez
7/5/2015 02:34:28 am

I was looking at your questions and I think for chapter 5 the solution, if i can call it that, is that the collective can be both public and private. For example at our school because we use GAFE, no one can contact our students from the outside. Yet my students are able to post in a public way, and via various different forms. I choose at times for them to post on youtube while keeping the channel private, only my students are invited to watch, which still allows them to learn from each other in a small collective.

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Nona link
7/5/2015 05:02:53 am

Hi Andrea,
I like your question regarding getting parents onboard with the idea of collective learning. I believe, just as you do, that our Google+ community resembles a collective and that because it is not specifically learning objective based, we are actually free to learn so much more! I love the freedom that comes from knowing I am not expected to be a master at any of these assignments but that I am no less valuable a player because my prior experience is not as great. I also agree that parents will have to rethink their ideas of the internet as a "big" and "scary" unknown domain so that children become comfortable participating in the collective via their work in blogs or their association with gaming communities such as the Scratch player system.
Thank you for sharing,
Nona

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Jake link
7/7/2015 10:00:32 am

Andrea,

I love your chapter 4 epiphany. I agree that we are encouraged to allow students to learn from each other, but are usually bound by objectives. So, to use maybe 20% of our weekly class time (well, that's a start for me) to allow students to contribute to collectives with no defined objectives (just the practicing of digital citizenship), I'm hoping to see real innovative ideas and genuine learning unfold. Great reflection!

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Polly Macuga link
8/1/2015 10:53:49 am

Many of us have questioned how to get parents past their concerns about internet safety, but in reading your reflection here I have another question about parent attitudes. How do we get parents and others to see the value and need of tacit knowledge? Most parents, as well as educators or most adults, grew up with knowledge being imparted by the teacher and then measured by the test. Even more difficult than getting them past their concerns for safety, will be getting to understand and accept the change from traditional learning to valuing tacit knowledge.

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Andrea Rivera link
8/1/2015 12:03:44 pm

Hi Andrea,

I too struggle with how to explain to parents the distinction between a public/ private and personal/ collective domains. It seems as if some parents understand clearly and others are very resistant.

Recently, I assigned my students the 20% project that asks them to create a blog. Because my students are 12-13 years old, I sent home a permission slip asking parents for their permission to have their students create a blog. I reassured them that student blogs would only be seen by them, myself, and (if student wanted) their peers. I received a handful of "nos," but because it was only a handful, I am thinking that the acceptance of the use of technology by parents (at least at my school site) is improving.

Respectfully,

Andrea R.

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Sheila L. Davis
8/1/2015 04:57:13 pm

"A collective is the process of people working together to collaboratively learn through group participation on a topic. This is a fundamental part of the new culture of learning." I thoroughly enjoy our Google + community. I like how cohort members throw out reminders, helpful tips, share their work, comment on others' work, and make plans to meet in the real world. At first I was concerned that I would not "connect" enough with other cohort members. But, that concern is gone.

I also like what you wrote about Tacit Knowledge. 'Tacit knowledge is the type of knowledge you gain through personal experiences and interactions." This reminds me of someone who is street smart vs. book smart. I know people that do not have college degrees, but their personal experiences have enriched them so that they are considered experts in their field.

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Monica Martinez link
8/2/2015 05:53:14 am

Great reflections Andrea! I particularly was interested in your chapter 5 reflection. The difference between public/private and personal/collective is one that isn't clearly seen or understood. As I am becoming more literate in the digital world, I can begin to see the difference; however the change isn't automatic. In this case, I only known and heard of private versus public, and in my mind and in my social activity, I've always focused on making everything private. With time, I've realized that this concept has never really existed. These past few months, belonging to a collective, I know understand the difference and have experience the benefits. These benefits are ones that I would love for students and colleagues and parents to experience. So now I just need to think of how to get this started. Thanks for sharing.

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Kristin
8/4/2015 12:31:14 pm

I love your chapter 4 reflection, "We are all learning independently with support from our professors, but by sharing our learning with each other, we are collectively learning things that are better than the sum of its parts." This is very true and I think perfectly describes what we are doing. Your question regarding the over-emphasis of standards and objectives is spot on as well. Unfortunately, this is something we as educators seem to have little control over as long as the people in charge stay there. I guess our job is to continue to make our classrooms into the collective environment such as the one we have experienced here. I appreciate all you do for our collective Andrea and really look forward to learning more about your work in the future.

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    Andrea Jacobs

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