Never mind the technology, where’s the learning?

Konrad Glogowski latest post has deep resonances for me. Often the problem with adopting new technologies and exploring their pedagogical use is the guilt of “not teaching”. Our view of ‘what teaching is’, is ingrained in us by our own experience as pupils and generations before us. This is what I alluded to and Seymour Papert meant in my previous post.

Konrad says:

“Learning to transform my classroom practice was very difficult and I certainly don’t want to sound like someone who believes he has mastered this difficult new role of a teacher in a networked environment …

“It started with facilitation. I spent a lot of time guiding and assisting my students. This involved class discussions about individual posts and blogs as well as conversations that began to develop in response to specific entries. Gradually, however, I began to realize that I needed to become more than a facilitator (hence my previous entry) and tried to enter the community as a learner, writer, and contributor.
…

“It was difficult not because of my students (who, by the way, thought it was the most natural thing to do) but because I kept thinking that by engaging myself in the process of learning I was neglecting the class. I thought that it was irresponsible to read and post about the Potsdam Conference, for example, while my students worked (seemingly) unsupervised. I abandoned many drafts of my own entries just because I felt the need to “move around” in the class blogosphere, to see what the students were doing, to comment, assist, and oversee. It took me a while to realize that I could contribute more as a learner than in my capacity as a teacher.”

It is this that James perhaps in his presentation (see last post) was talking about - VLEs forcing us into the same old pedagogy, Konrad makes a similar connection when he says:

“This ongoing exchange of ideas (centred around one clear, collective goal) helped all of us see that we were contributing to a larger whole. This was not in addition to class work or some preconceived, carefully delineated curriculum. No. This mesh of interactions was the curriculum. Unlike the environment in a typical LMS where the discussion forum is an additional space where students can interact, this community was written into existence by contributions made by every single student. This was our space. There was nothing else; no resource collections or teacher-generated lesson plans. It started with an idea which grew through individual contributions and a growing network of interactions.”

All this suggests that there are huge barriers to overcome if we are to use these technologies effectively for learning. There needs to be a whole culture and attitude shift on behalf of us all. Technology adoption for young people lives outside their formal learning experience while teachers (in England anyway) feel they can do little else but “teach to the test” rather than focussing on learning skills.

Image credit: Bingo Little

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