Andragogy and emerging technologies

This article expressed an idea that has become a common theme this semester: the emerging class of social learning tools implies a shift in the role of the instructor. No longer is the instructor the 'dispenser of wisdom' who leads students along the learning journey based on his or her superior knowledge of the subject matter. Instead, the instructor is leading students along this journey based on his or her ability to facilitate learning among students. The students are now discovering the knowledge or even constructing the knowledge with a little help from the instructor. No where is this paradigm more true than in the case of adult learning. Adults tend to be much more self-directed than younger students. Adults have an opinion on what is important for them to learn and they act upon that opinion. They want 'just in time' learning rather than 'just in case' learning. And the emerging social learning tools support that paradigm nicely allowing adults to collaborate with each other in a learning environment under the facilitation of an instructor. Of course, for this paradigm to succeed, both the instructor and the student need to accept their new roles. With the power to direct their own learning comes the responsibility to do so!

A Whole New Mind (Chpts 1-3)

In the first part of Pink's book, the author describes the two parts of our brain and how they differ from each other: both at a low level--control of body parts--and a higher level--reasoning, pattern recognition. After that, the author takes us through an historical perspective describing the dominance of left brain thinking and the more recent rise of right brain thinking. He even offers several drivers for this rise of the right brain. The story is fascinating; but it makes me want to go back to learning for the 21st century. In learning for the 21st century, the authors describe a group of skills that are a 'must' for successful education. However, it is interesting to note that most of the skills/tasks described in that article were pretty much left brain thinking. There was not really an emphasis on the right brain skills that Pink talks about. Is this because we have don't yet know how to interject right brain learning exercises into our schools? To me, this seems like a critical point. I tend to agree with what Pink is saying about right brain skills and since these are so 'foreign' to our currrent culture, we have to make an even greater effort to exercise and develop these skills in our schools. I think this could be a major challenge for 21st century learning.

For a mind map of the first three chapters, see my wiki.

A student on vacation

I just returned from a week's vacation--both physically and metaphysically. I was on the East coast and almost completely disconnected from my normal life (no wireless in my cabin, cell phone reception was spotty, I had to go to the library or K-Mart for computer access, but I had my Kindle with me). It was both a good feeling and a bad feeling. I did access my email several times during the vacation and kept up with the text book readings via my Kindle; but I had no communications with my fellow students. No blogging, no ninging. So now I am back and I can spend some time reacquainting myself with the joys of asynchronous communications. It is good to be away; but it is also good to be back.

Learning for the 21st Century

In their report, the partnership of 21st Century skills discusses the need for relevance in education. The idea of education needing to be relevant is not new. What is new; however, is what relevance means for the current generation of kids. Not only are they very technologically and digitally savvy; but they are use to a life style much different than the traditional classroom. They are use to being very social and interactive with their peers. They are use to multi-media and multi-tasking. This background has huge ramifications for education. For a detailed outline of this article, see my 830 Wiki. Also, look at the image below for a mind map of the article.

Growing Up With Google

In her article, Growing Up With Google, Dr. Oblinger describes a generation that grew up with the internet and how that has shaped their psyches. These net genners as they are called have, among other things, a high need to communicate and collaborate--and not just one on one. She goes on to describe what impact this has for education. Being I am in a Corporate environment, I see it also having a huge impact to the Corporate world as these net genners enter the work force. In our Company, we rely very heavily on email and the telephone for communications (and a smattering of IM). The net genners; however, rely much more heavily on IM and social networking tools such as Twitter and Facebook. I can foresee generational issues with communications--especially in team project situations. We have been trying for several years to increase the use of collaborative tools--primarily Sharepoint--with very little luck. I would imagine the net genners would find it both incomprehensible and frustrating to encounter such resistance toward technological collaboration. I foresee a lot of learning happening in the next several years.

The World is Flat Project

I was very impressed with what these students did with the World is Flat project. Using a wiki for structure, they created an extensive library of videos that, taken togehter, examine not only what the World Wide Web is but also what it means for society. The particular episode I reviewed (see my specific comments on my class wiki 830 wiki) was an interview / debate between two classic points of view: the individual who believes the Internet is the be all and end all for his or her world and the individual who believes that books still hold a special place in this World.

The producer of the video was the off camera narrator / moderator, asking each individual questions, follow up questions, offers to rebuttal. It was quite effectively done. Most of the shots were tightly framed and really allowed you to see who the interviewees felt about what they were saying. It did a good job of capturing their emotions and not just their words. Also, it did a good job of illustrating that there are always more than one side to any issue.

Emerging Technologies

As pointed out in this week's reading, emerging technologies can have a significant impact on instructors, students, and the entire learning process. One aspect brought out by the author that I find very interesting is the way emerging technologies can promote facilitation and the impact that has on the process. A key premise of the author is that in order to maximize the value that emerging technology can produce in terms of promoting facilitation, the instructor must transition their pedagogical strategy from one of being a lecturer to one of being a facilitator. Although this may seem relatively self evident, the process itself is not necessarily trivial. Based on my own research for my 894 project, the problem can be two pronged. Not only are many instructors quite familiar and comfortable with the 'brick and mortar' classroom and lecturer style of teaching; but also, they are quite unfamiliar and uncomfortable with the many technologies that are typically deployed in the online environment to foster to foster collaboration among students. So I thoroughly agree with the author's suggestion that a support mechanism must be in place to help the instructor with the transition from lecturer to facilitator. I would just add that such support must take into account not only the mechanics of using the new technology; but also the pedagogical strategy for using the new technology. Both can be new for the instructor and both need to be learned before the instructor can realize the full potential of the online learning environment.