StigmergicWeb

Dean Shareski is asking the hard question like:

Should we be teaching the creation aspects of communication in equal proportion to the consumption, if indeed very few will be regular contributors?

Asking the Hard Questions - Ideas and Thoughts from an EdTech

I pretty much agree with what Dean says, so I’ll avoid my usual diatribe and encourage to read what Dean wrote.

I could sense a growing disturbance in the force for some time now, and here is the first (and probably not the last) manifestation:

Weblogg-ed - Reinvention Chapter 2 - I Quit

In a nutshell, Will Richardson has quit his day job to pursue his muse, wherever that may lead him. Will, I am happy for you, slightly envious, and just a bit concerned. I am happy because you are following your bliss, and I truly believe that the world would be a better place if more people did that. I suggest you read Paul Graham’s essay on How to Do What You Love for further guidance in this.

I’m envious because as a teacher I’m working in a system that I see as having some serious flaws. I teach in the province of Saskatchewan in Canada, so I’m pretty lucky because I really believe that the educational system here is not only a pretty good one, but it truly has potential to grow beyond some of the current limitations. The limitations are still there, though, and sometimes I chafe a bit because of them. Our system is set up to do a really great job of educating students of the 1960s, but that describes the teaching staff and not the current students. Still, I manage some occasional small innovations. But I know that a lot of teachers, blogging and non-blogging, feel some frustration with the system and want to get out of it. That’s one of the reasons I’m worried.

I don’t know how things are for teachers where you are, Will. I know that despite a pretty good (and potentially great) system here, there is a great deal of frustration at the sometimes glacial pace of change. Any publicly funded enterprise will be the same - the tax-paying public tends to be quite conservative (and even Conservative here in Canada, but that’s another story), at least when it comes to paying taxes. But we’re never going to change the system from the outside, because once we’re outside we no longer have a vested interest in creating that change. I’m concerned, Will, because your example may demonstrate to others that the way to deal with frustration is to exit stage left. I hope that doesn’t happen in general, and I hope that doesn’t happen to you specifically - I still want to read your ideas on education and the betterment of the public system of it in a year, and in 5 years! The only way to get some real change is if we all walk in together singing “You can get anything you want at Alice’s restaurant“

Good luck, Will. I hope you avoid any trap or distractions that might try to lure you off course. I think I speak for - well, I speak for myself I suppose, that’s the whole point of having a blog - so speaking for myself, I need to let you know that I will feel deeply disappointed if you end up as another suit-with-a-book-to-sell-earning-more-money-for-a-30-minute-pep-talk-than-teachers-earn-in-a-month. We need you to do better than that.

Keep the faith, and remember what is motivating you to do this!

This much I do know. We need to get everyone, and I mean everyone access to the knowledge and people and ideas that now make up the Web. Educators need to be a part of this evolution, and maybe the revolution, too. I don’t yet have a clear idea what role I can play in that, but now, at least, I’ll be open to it should it come.

(And update your blog software so I can leave a comment without registration!!!)

I’ve only skimmed this and it looks phenomenally cool - The Socratic Method

I found this interesting for two reasons. The first is that I teach computer networking, and one of the lessons every year with the grade 10 class is on binary math. I approach it in almost the same way, although I fill in a lot more of the details and do a bit less asking of questions. I think that the method described is a very powerful way to get students thinking about and understanding binary math, which is actually quite logical and comprehensible once you start to think your way through it.

The second thing that caught my attention is the discussion shows how learning can occur in a social context, even for something like mathematicsw that is usually not conceptualized as being a social learning activity. One on one, completely individualized instruction is usually thought by many to be the peak of effective learning. In my experience, it is quite the opposite, even in something like mathematics. Good questions will engage students and get them thinking. An individual student might not be able to come up with the answer to every question; only rarely will a student know the answer to everything you ask (and if they already knew, did you teach them anything? I’ll leave that for another time). In a group of students, however, it is almost guaranteed that if you ask the right questions and proceed logically in small enough steps, someone in the group will give an answer to every question. This method of teaching draws out the implicit knowledge of the group, and makes it clear and explicit for everyone to understand. Good teachers, perhaps without realizing, do this all the time.

I was just taking a look at try ruby! (in your browser), a very cool little programming tutorial for the Ruby language. Normally, I would just add this to my del.icio.us feed, but del.icio.us appears to be well and truly bollixed at the moment. (Sorry if this is offensive language to anyone, but it is the only apt description I could think of). Besides, if I post it here, someone else might get some enlightenment from this tutorial.

Almost forgot credit where it’s due - I found this via a post from David Wiley, who is also upgrading to WordPress 2.0 (which I hope to get done tonight!)

I see that many bloggers are signing off for a little break including Rick, who has pointed out that we can monitor Santa’s path using NORAD Santa Tracker

In the meantime, remember to follow Santa’s movements around the globe from the NORAD tracking station.

Hmmm - I think NORAD tracker is a little too 20th Century, Web1.0ish. My daughter and I are keeping track of Santa via Google Earth! (and you can get the file for following Santa at http://services.google.com/earth/kmz/SantaRadar.kml

Santa might know if you’ve been bad or good, but who do you think indexes his list? Google Base, perhaps?

The latest podcast with the posse - EdTech Posse Podcast #010 - Breakfast chat from SACE with Rob, Dean and Stephen is now up and available for your consumption.

I’m back from the week-long blog-hiatus, and I did manage to get a few things taken care of (although just as much got added to my to-do list as I managed to cross off). And staying off the blog was extremely difficult at times, especially after learning that the EdTech Posse has been shortlisted for this year’s edublogger awards. (Although I did mention this on the EdTech Posse site - was this cheating on my hiatus? Hmmmm…)

Although I have mixed feelings about these sorts of awards, I am going to buckle under to the needs of my ego and suggest that, if you do listen to the EdTech Posse podcast, you should go cast your vote for the 2005 EduBlogger awards, but only if you listen to the podcast and you like what we are doing.

I suppose my problem with awards of this nature is that it tends to be more of a popularity contest than an award based on the intrinsic merit of what someone is doing. Of course, it feels great to make it to the short list; I love it whenever we get any sort of feedback about the podcast. Its great to find out that there are people listening and grooving along with our conversations. But it doesn’t make a difference if there are ten thousand listeners or 10 - if our conversations are meaningful to you and maybe give you pause for reflection, I am glad that we did that for you. If had to choose between quality and popularity, however, I’d rather be putting my energies towards making a podcast that I felt had some terrific quality to it rather than putting my energies towards making my podcast popular. Some people will suggest that you can do both, but my motivation will always be to produce a podcast that is good enough that I listen to it again after I’ve posted it, even if that does mean I have to listen to the sound of - ugh - my own voice. (Do I really sound like that?)

So, as I’ve said, if you like what we do then by all means vote for us - my ego will be eternally grateful. If not, then I’d encourage you to vote for someone who does work that you think could use some more attention than it may already receive. If the EduBloggers awards becomes a forum for bringing attention to some of the high-quality but perhaps less well known edubloggers, it could transcend the level of mere popularity contest that too many awards and awards shows sink to.

I just came across this from Gardner Campbell: Gardner Writes - Dental Students “Not Numb” to Podcasts. The link to the story didn’t work, but apparently dental students at the University of Michigan are creating and listening to podcasts of their professors’ lectures.

I’m not sure if I’m going to jump up and down and shout Huzzah, or just shrug my shoulders and smirk knowingly. Its so cool to see this happening, but at the same time it comes as no surprise. The movement of educational content on to podcasts is going to happen, probably much more quickly than universities are ready for. I know that students in many programs often organize note-taking groups. Many students record lectures for later listening (really effective for auditory learner’s like me). Now we have the technology to combine the two to create course podcasts. I think it would be a smart idea for universities to get ahead on this and start officially podcasting courses. Certainly this could be done to integrate students taking courses by distance education with a traditional lecture course. Do I expect that universities will actually get organized to do this? Probably not, but that won’t matter because if the universities don’t do it, then the students will.

Of course, if the class time is nothing more than a lecture, then the obvious question (at least to the students) is why isn’t it just podcast and eliminate the necessity of the instructor and students all being in the same place at the same time:

The time-and-place constraints of the classroom (beautiful, necessary, misleading constraints) distort our understanding of learning. The classroom is one node of attention and focus, with ramifications we could imagine more creatively.

Absolutely true. When the classroom becomes a stage for a regularly scheduled monologue, education is reduced to mere content delivery. But if we can move some of the lecture (which is often a necessity) into an alternately delivered format that can be produced and consumed asynchronously, that opens up class time as a forum for a genuine meeting of minds. Of course, that may be exactly one some universities and some instructors are afraid of.

UPDATE - Gardner fixed the link to the story. Thanks to him for posting the update.

If you aren’t a regular Slashdot reader, a current discussion there might be worth checking out - Slashdot | The Future of Technology in Schools:

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel is running parts one and two of a three-part series dealing with the future of technology in America’s schools. Part one asks whether technology in schools is merely a fad or, as some may argue, a necessity in today’s technology-driven society. It raises some interesting points, such as the contrasting the wide availability of computers in schools to the generally limited use among students. Part two goes in-depth about the technology’s cost, citing the dependence of grants that are disappearing and the effects of reducing technology staff.

If your filters are set high enough, you can get something resembling a reasonable discussion regarding computer use in schools.

Stephen pointed out a good analysis of the Podcast Theory Gap by Susan Smith Nash. She points out the implication of many theories in learning with regard to podcasts as part of online courses. But one point at the beginning of the article puzzles me:

Although instructional designers do not often like to mention this, the fact is, it is the rare learner who will sit at a computer and willingly watch a 20 or 30-minute presentation. However, the same learners are happy to listen to an audio file (podcast or book on tape).

I can only speak to my experience, but I would willingly watch a well designed 20 or 30 minute presentation. Lawrence Lessig’s presentation on Free Culture from OSCON 2002 is one of the most coherent arguments for rational limitations on intellectual property. There is also an audio only (MP3) version of the presentation, but the full multimedia (slides and audio) experience is not to be missed.

But I am also quick to admit that I am not most learners. Indeed, I didn’t think of watching and listening to Lessig’s presentation as learning, at least not in a formal sense. It was just something that I found interesting and more worthy of my time than an episode of Seinfeld. I think that Susan is meaning learners in a formal, course-based context. Would they be willing listeners to the an audio track that was narrating some powerpoint presentation? It doesn’t sound any more onerous than attending a lecture, so I assume that they would. In fact, in an online course a podcast might be the only time a student would actually hear the instructor’s voice, and the effect of this might be to reduce the affective distance between the students and the instructor. The value of the podcast might not be strictly in the content it contains, but in the sense of connection the listener has for the speaker.

A quick google search for online courses that use podcasts yielded no results, which is not surprising considering that podcasting is barely a year old yet (the first entry for podcast in wikipedia is dated from August 4, 2005). I’m sure that there will be at least a few teachers and instructors integrating podcasts into their online courses this coming year, and then we’ll have some actual student experiences to compare to theory.