Rethinking education

As I was pondering what to write for this week's blog, a flood of student faces, both past and present, flashed before me, and I caught myself smiling as I so many times do when I think of the amazing privilege to affect, inspire and develop these students' potential. I am even more painfully aware of not only the privilege, but also the responsibility that comes with it (you probably think 'the responsibility talk again?', but in my defense, I am the oldest child and apparently being aware of responsibilities is in the oldest child's genes....although, I'd much rather refer to myself as a rebel with a cause, and what a cause it is).

Anyway, back to the point, the talk below is a bit long (18 minutes or so), and I therefore thought that it might be a good idea to just highlight some of the main points in the speech, although I'd recommend watching the talk, if you have a few minutes spare.

Sir Ken Robinson delivered the talk entitled Bring on the revolution and emphasizes the following ideas:



As a human race, we make very little use of our human resources, i.e. our talents. He mentions that "very many people go through their whole lives having no real sense of what their talents may be or if they have any to speak of". Robinson continues to explain that several reasons for this exists and one of these primary reasons is education. It is further argued that talents are often buried very deep and that if educators do not create circumstances where they can be explored and developed, they will often remain dormant.

For this purpose then, the speaker argues that a need for not just a reformation of the education system, but a revolution of it exists. "Reform is no use anymore, because that's simply improving a broken model". This is clearly easier said than done and Robinson argues that "one of the real challenges is to innovate fundamentally in education", and this in most part means rethinking things that we just take for granted. With this statement, Robinson argues that many of the principles, theories and methodologies that are used in the classroom (and education system as a whole), is designed for earlier decades, for a society with very different needs than the one we and the students in our class find ourselves in.

(Side note, what would this blog be without a quote and amazingly enough, Sir Robinson used one in his speech that is very fitting). Abraham Lincoln once said that:


"The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves and then we shall save our country".


Robinson argues that linearity (the idea of going through a line of tasks and then going off to college or getting a job) and conformity (with outcomes, curriculums and methodologies being standardized) are challenges that still remain in education today. In addition, Robinson blames the lack of awakening passion in our students as a main cause for students rather opting out of education as opposed to actively engage in the learning process.

In conclusion, Robinson summarizes his arguments by stating that:

"It's about customizing to your circumstances, and personalizing education to the people you're actually teaching. And doing that, I think is the answer to the future because it's not about scaling a new solution; it's about creating a movement in education in which people develop their own solutions, but with external support based on a personalized curriculum".

So apart from playing devil's advocate on the subject of education, for I know that it is almost an impossible task to have a personalized curriculum for each student and that plenty of what we are told to do in the classroom is standardized, Sir Robinson's arguments have reference to the following:

1. We do need to rethink how and what we teach students. They grow up in an era where gaming, having access to a world of information in an instant, and television, etc. are the norms (taken for granted). If the teacher does not keep up with what is happening or what defines the students' world, we cannot possibly educate and prepare them effectively for the world outside the classroom.
2. To develop talents and ignite passion is a huge honor, and even though the language arts teacher has a set curriculum with clearly defined outcomes, this probably still remains one of the most accommodating classrooms for development of that which makes us...us...our talents, character and passion.
3. With the world of information (external teachers) available at the click of a button, for example having search engines, YouTube and the list is really long, students can learn about anything they want, whenever they want. No wonder so many of them do not like school. We as educators need to acknowledge that the external educators are most probably cooler than we are (ouch...sorry...I know!), but perhaps we should form alliances with them and incorporate this into our classroom.

I realize that I have probably just listed a number of arguments that you are way too familiar with, ... that I am preaching to the choir, ...but I have witnessed too many language classes at both schools and universities where a TPACK approach, no!, not even a technocentric approach exists, and the learners in these classes, sat there totally uninvolved, uninspired and not learning at all. The teachers are evidently not familiar with the needs of their target audience.

(Thanks to CI556, I am now a rebel with a newly found cause, and it is what? week six of the semester...watch out world!). (Side note 2: World, as I read my classmates' blogs, I feel it is only fair to warn you that we are an army of students having our views on language teaching altered...hope you are ready for us).

'With great power comes great responsibility'

I have made it my mission this week to decide on a thesis topic for my M.A., and although no progress can be noticed, I am thankful that it is still relatively the beginning of the week. Well, as I was pondering the effects of virtual worlds on language teaching and learning, I am reminded of a blog post by one of my fellow classmates who addressed the use of Facebook in the language classroom. Perhaps to more clearly illustrate where this introduction is supposed to take us, the following quote by Henry Brooks Adams will be more fitting:

"A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops".

I am convinced that Adams intended this quote to be inspiring and motivating for educators and amen to that, but as any story has at least two sides, I do too believe that this quote carries a word of caution as well. Perhaps eternity here does not affect the human race in totality, but an individual's future. Just bear with me a bit longer, my point will become clear in a few moments.

Part of the language classroom (even with a sole focus on reading and writing) entails that a facilitation of pragmatic competence should be present. Students need to know when to respond and in which manner, they have to be taught how to be sensitive for contextual cues and to keep to Grice's maxims for communicating. In other words, students need to know when to say what and how. This pragmatic competence is more effectively developed when students are engaged in real-life communication. This highlights one purpose of Skype, virtual worlds (such as Second Life) and social forums such as Facebook in the language classrooms.

My question then and the purpose of this post is, when is a student mature or old enough to take responsibility for their own interactions in for example a virtual world such as Second Life? For both Facebook and Second Life, the teacher has only limited control over with whom the students interact. And we should not be oblivious, we all know that bad elements (i.e. people) are out there (even if it is in a virtual world). I understand the importance of equipping students with all the skills that we can, to enable them to be innovative and critical thinkers, to be the best that they could be, but allow me for a moment to voice my concern.

What if I warn the students of all the possible dangers and pitfalls when communicating with people that you do not know, and a student visits these virtual worlds outside of the classroom, on his or her own time and gets mixed up with bad people. Is the teacher responsible for this? After all, it was the teacher that equipped the student with the know-how of navigating in the virtual world? I further realize that we cannot protect our students from the dangers and bad elements of the real world, but when are the students old enough to be exposed to for example virtual worlds?

I found an article on Edutopia about Second Life (SL) and its use in schools, and although in SL there is something called Teen Second Life (TSL), which according to the article, is a "smaller version of SL that's restricted to youths ages 13-17 (and to select adults, after a background check conducted by Linden Lab)". Second Life thus recognize that a virtual world can be a rich and positive learning environment, but at the same time realizes that bad elements (i.e. drug use, exploitation of youths, etc.) are also present in this environment.

I am not trying to be cynical about the uses of said environments in the language classroom, in actual fact, I cannot wait to implement them. My concern relates more to the emotional and intellectual maturity required to effectively use and at the same time protect the students. Any thoughts? At what age would you introduce your students to virtual worlds and social forums?

The reading podcast

This week I caught myself thinking about home pretty often. Perhaps this is due to the fact that spring officially started over there or perhaps it is because Spring Break is approaching and everybody will be heading to the coast, while I try my utmost to come to terms with the fact that the tree in front of my house has decided that it is an excellent time to start to drop its leaves. Either way, I was lost countless times in the memory of spring on my southern continent. It is such a magical season (although my favorite is still summer). Everything seems to come alive, from the first birdsong to the night sky, all dancing to the rhythm of their own songs. So in celebration of the arrival of spring on my home soil, I turned up my iPod really loud and danced in celebration of life. It turns out that Plato (428 - 348 BC) was right when he said that "music and rhythm find their way into the secret places of the soul".

This made me think how almost all of my students, my younger siblings and all of their friends have iPods, and seeing as this is in essence a blog about integrating technology in the language arts classroom, what about the use of said device in a reading classroom? In 2007, Apple announced that they reached the 100 million iPod sales figure and the figures for 2010 so far indicate 275 million being sold.

This means that so many of our students have access to iTunes and should be familiar with podcasting. However, one does not need an iPod to use podcasting as a technological tool for teaching or learning. Perhaps it would be ideal to give a brief explanation of a podcast. A podcast consists of audio or video files that are periodically transmitted and downloaded to a personal device such as a computer or an iPod or another mobile device. These are downloaded automatically and stored on the device and can be watched or listened to anytime and anywhere.

Perhaps podcasts could be an effective tool to help, especially lower proficient students with their reading ability. The teacher can create a podcast, or a series of podcasts for free, on example PodOmatic, and can ask the students to listen to this while reading a text. Lower proficient students, especially ESL students, often struggle with reading information in chunks. By listening to a read-aloud, while following in the text, students are shown how chunks of information is created, how English has a natural rhythm to it (even when you read), and ultimately, this might enhance both reading fluency and comprehension. In addition, students can listen to this podcast as many times as they want, they can replay certain sections or sentences, they can skip to parts that they struggle with, etc. I realize that some students might just listen to the text as opposed to reading it for themselves, but I do believe that the more motivated students, could easily be helped through the use of podcasts.

In addition, students can create their own podcasts, listen to one another's views and ideas and respond to it (in verbal discussions, or written assignments). Rossell-Aguilar (2007), wrote an article in which the use and benefits of podcasting in the language classroom is highlighted. Some benefits that the author mentions include:

• The ease of publication
• The ease of subscription
• It is applicable to various environments
• It is popular
• It is line with the constructivist view of language learning, where language learning is viewed as an individual representation of knowledge that is constructed through active exploration, observation, processing and interpretation (p.477)
• Authentic materials are used
• Informal setting, creating a positive learning environment.

I am excited to incorporate the use of podcasting in my reading and writing classroom, as I see applications and uses for all levels of proficiency. I will be delighted to receive any more ideas on the use of podcasts in the reading and writing classroom.

Until next week, please excuse me, I have some dancing to do.

Reference:
Rosell-Aguilar, F. (2007). Top of the Pods - In Search of a Podcating "Podagogy" for Language Learning. In Computer Assisted Language Learning. Vol 20(5), pp. 471-492.

Embracing the blogosphere

For me, writing is exploration; and most of the time,

I'm surprised where the journey takes me. ~ Jack Dunn ~

As I was contemplating the role of blogging in the language classroom, my mind started off on a mission of its own (a frequent event... nothing to be surprised or alarmed about), and I wondered why the US flag has seven red and six white stripes and why not the other way around? Without wasting too much time, trying to come up with clever explanations, I just grabbed my computer, opened Google and voila... 'a world of information at my fingertips'. This in return, well not the stripes, but the ease of access, made me think back to my own school days. I remember a life that to a large extent was untouched by technology. And to imagine the integration of what we take for granted today (computers, the internet, iPods, etc.) into a classroom was unheard of. Just for the record...I am not that old...twenty-something...which just proves my point... how fast the world changed and continues to change with the arrival of new technologies. I found a few statistics on the good old web and although I cannot promise their accuracy, a few other sites did make mention of the same figures.

According to the website, Pingdom, there were 90 trillion emails sent in 2009, averaging 247 billion emails sent per day. In December 2009, 234 million websites existed with 47 million of those being added during the year of 2009. And if this still does not put the role of technology in our daily lives into perspective, then perhaps the following quote from http://econsultancy.com might:

"It took [the] radio 38 years to reach 50 million listeners. Terrestrial TV took 13 years to reach 50 million users. The internet took four years to reach 50 million people... [And] in less than nine months, Facebook added 100 million users".

It becomes thus very apparent that the language classroom needs to incorporate technology to capture the attention and the passion of a generation of world citizens. This blog, as mentioned before, will aim to highlight the role of some of the available technologies in the reading and writing classroom. Blogging is one such a technological tool. Several websites mention that the current number of active blogs is at 133 million blogs (http://thefuturebuzz.com/2009/12/10/blogging_stats_facts_data). The authors do not state whether they count Facebook and Twitter accounts as part of the blogosphere, but according to Facebook statistics, they have more than 500 million users, which far exceeds the 133 million blogs, thus allowing us to assume that those 133 million blogs are online journal type blogs.

Ferdig and Trammell (2004), argue that this "intellectual cyberspace that bloggers occupy" provide what Winer (2003) notes, a space for the "unedited, published voice of the people". When blogging is introduced in the language classroom, students are provided with a space to "reflect and publish their thoughts and understandings" (Ferdig and Trammell, 2004).

Ferdig and Trammell (2004) make mention of some other benefits of blogging in the classroom, which include the potential to promote interactivity, an increase in higher-order skills and an opportunity for active learning. Having students blog in a reading and writing classroom provides them with a chance to become experts in a given subject matter and as Ferdig and Trammell (2004) further state, "increase their interests and ownership in the learning process".

Enabling our students to develop their voice, is such a powerful and important task and blogging surely provides one such a platform to do so.

Reference:

Ferdig, R.E., Trammell, K.D. (2004). Content Delivery in the 'Blogosphere'. The Journal Online: Technological Horizons in Education.

A quick hi

The art of writing, anything other than research papers and birthday cards, has always been an intimidating experience to me...especially the first step of putting pen to paper. This in itself is ironic as I am schooled to be a reading and writing instructor. This daunting experience once again found its way into my life, in the form of this blog...a requirement for one of my Fall 2010 courses. And may I at this point just mention that I never thought that I would EVER have to write a blog, thank you Prof. X. Definitely a first for me, but you have to try most things in life at least once, right? I remembered a quote I read by Darwin P. Kingsley and thought...blogging, I can do this! Part of the quote with particular reference to my situation reads:

"You can do things that you never thought you could do. There are no limitations in what you can do except the limitations of your own mind" (Darwin P. Kingsley, http://thinkexist.com/quotes/Darwin_P._Kingsley).

So with that, welcome to my blog!

Essentially, this blog will contain ideas, debates, hesitations and (more importantly) excitement about various technologies and their role in the reading and writing classroom. Perhaps then, it would be fitting to talk about the first week of class. In the course that requires this blog, we used Wordle as part of an introductory activity. Although this was a fun and creative activity, I could easily envisage using Wordle in my writing classroom. Wordle rearranges the key words of a text in a random, colorful and creative way (well, actually it provides you with options such as font, color, direction, etc.). Apart from its potential uses in vocabulary building exercises, one could ask students to recreate a text using the key words, placing emphasis on coherence and cohesion. Another potential use of Wordle is that it can be used in a brainstorming session, where students are presented with a topic and as a class they brainstorm ideas. The teacher then enters these ideas into Wordle, and the program generates a visual representation of the key words entered. This can then be given to the students to activate background knowledge before writing or to help them get started with providing some ideas.

That's it for this week. I look forward to sharing my discoveries with you on this new adventure!