Tick, tick, tick tock. The bell rings and students continue on their typical school day. They come, sit down and expect to be “taught.” Before I continue with that thought, let me start with this one: “Taught” versus “Learn.” How are students taught and how do they learn. It has become an interesting paradox has it not? It seems to me, to be taught, students are given the information and told what to study or how to study for dissemination of information.
To learn, we have to take a step back and realize how students are getting their information. Students learn with a point and a click, and we tend to say that is the incorrect way of doing things. If you sit a student down at a computer to “learn” something, you might be pleasantly surprised or horrified as a professional.
Recently, I was doing a project at the school library and introduced a product that I modified from Darren Gurney from New Rochelle High School, the stock market game. Students were a buzz looking over the Internet and trying to figure out which stock fits their criteria. I suggested Yahoo Finance or Google Finance; they went to Wikipedia and other sites looking for ideas.
David, the School Media Specialist, and I were talking as usual, trying to figure out new ways to reach students, and he always has an article for me to digest about new technology. In the process we taught my students more about stocks, as I don’t really own any, and he does… collaboration. We were discussing cell phones and noted that students were attached to the hip, that they almost go through withdrawal trying not to get the instant gratification of a text or e-mail. It occurred to us at the time something that was not really that ground breaking… students use their cells as a means to garner information and we try to get them to shy away from it.
What I realized wasn’t really earth shattering, in fact, when a student now asks a question that we might need to answer to continue a class moving along, I tell them to use their phones. When we need prices for our stocks, I ask them to use their phones because they probably work better then our cows.
Okay, back to the original thought, we “teach” students. The problem is what is the outcome, students that can spit out facts. This has become a collaborative world we live in, shouldn’t we teach that way?
As I start my research about Web 2.0 applications it just seems like a no brainer, but we almost need to shift the paradigm and allow for this collaboration. The new expectation, which is not new, David Warlick and others were way ahead of the curve, is for a constructivist approach to learning within the parameters of collaboration between students and teachers. We as adults are expected to collaborate. Lets be the positive models and allow them to do so also and take ownership of their learning.
Somerightsreserved?
