Should we let our students use blogs and wikis that are available for everyone to use and see? Is wikipedia a reliable resource? Are password protected (gated?!) systems like Blackboard, Moodle, etc answering all the students’ learning expectations? Are these so called Virtual Learning Environments adjusted to the Web 2.0, i.e., to the learners’ realities, or are they just being used as mere information repositories?
I know that there a handful of good examples where the use of educational technologies is concerned, but there is also a lot to do. We need a more hands-on, dynamic learning approach. I think that in some cases we are still on teaching, not learning, mode.
Should we still be calling ourselves teachers/lecturers, etc or should we be considering our role as learning leaders? I like the word leader. It’s inspiring. I served in the Portuguese Navy for more than 4 years and there I met two kinds of people: the ones that led and the ones that gave orders. The first ones were sure of themselves. They were just one more member in the team, who everyone looked up to, because they were able to inspire the rest to accomplish a given mission through their guiding, knowledgable and experienced hands. A team sprit would immediately be established in those occasions and everyone would work to give their best. The second set was less certain of what they were doing and were never able to mingle with the rest of the group. Imposing and controlling everything we did was their idea of guiding people. In those situations everybody worked to accomplish the minimum requirements.
I feel that we still have some reservations about losing “control of our classroom”, but haven’t we already? Our kids are using technology at home, in cybercafés, at their friends’, or any place they can have access to a connection since they were born. And they are using it with proficiency.
The greatest challenge for the educators now is not to prevent the students from using it, but to provide them with the educational perspective, by making them experience the web with a didactic touch. I still don’t understand why there is this need to control everything.
We have to accept the fact: technology is here and it came to stay. It is part of our lives. Make the best of it.
And learning, and even teaching, is not about supplying information, is about working it out. It is about moving from a passive to a more active perspective; about moving from web 1.0 to the web 2.0.
Keywords: Active Learning, Learning, Learning leader, Web 1.0, Web 2.0
Comments
Thanks Cristina - enjoyed reading your blog and in general I'm with you all the way - but I wouldn't want to throw out the gates completely. I agree with you that Blackboard is limiting and is far too often used simply as a repository for the things that the teacher wants his students to see. It's also easy to use it more as an administration tool for control and security and for teachers to be worried about the 'risk' of letting their students off the leash. But at the same time, sometimes I need that privacy and security, sometimes things have to be kept local for ethical or copyright reasons. And sometimes I work with (often older) students (and staff) who are genuinely scared about the range of things out there, and the extra learning curve that they are going to have to climb, so that they just feel so much safer in Blackboard with the things that they already know. I guess the point that I'm making is that just because it's a commercial VLE doesn't mean that it's all bad - it's how it's used that makes it succesful or not.
I also have the problem that, having persuaded the university to invest heavily in Blackboard (with the huge investment in staff development alongside it), my team isn't in a position to tell them to ditch it for something else, which may or may not change for something else in a year or two's time
Great debate though - thanks for the blog - best wishes, Alan
Dear Alan,
Thank you for your interesting, relevant insight.
I understand your point of view and can relate to it. Here in Salford, Bb is almost a classic. We have been using it for a couple of years now and it is hard to tell people we are going to get away from it. And Bb, as other VLEs being used in the HE sector, has its value, but sometimes it limits the possibilities of what can be done online too. The gated VLE can be the main quarters for any course/session being offered by a University, but I would also like to see it being complemented with other tools and strategies that would reflect the new tools and the reality of our students. At home, and independently of the University, students are able to create their own blogs, wikis, join MUVE’s, take part in international forums, etc… being in touch with a much diverse and wider community of learners, whereas at their educational settings they are many times confined to a closed space, where there is frequently a lack of interactivy and socialization. And isn’t that the whole purpose of the web (2.0)? Collaboration, interaction, communication, sharing, access to different perspectives, etc ...
I think the University of Brighton is working on a solution to accommodate both worlds, by using Elgg: http://community.brighton.ac.uk/e10/profile/
I sure want to know more about it.
I am only worried that there is still this persisting idea that you can just transfer your classroom notes to the online learning environment and everyone will be happy with it. That’s not the way it works. But there are also great examples out there, where the efficient use of technologies are concerned and those are the cases we ought to be looking at.
Hi Alan,
I tried to have a look at it but apparently it is a total closed area...
How are teachers and students getting along with the Bb's Blogs and wikis? Any feedback yet? I share the opinion that tools like these should be placed outsite...like Warwick so successfully is doing: http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/showall
I find their approach very cutting edge and innovative.