11 posts tagged “elearing”
Google recently bought Jaiku, a micro-moblogging site (that's micro-blogging like twitter + mobile blogging) that also keeps track of when you post to your blog (via an RSS feed) and when you post to your flickr. It also posts a timestamped record of what you listened to on iTunes or Last.fm and what you last bookmarked on Del.icio.us. So they take all that info and put it into a feed or "lifestream."
Now, I teach 2d Foundations and Drawing... which aren't necessarily heavy on computer use (all my students keep blogs, use a textbook wiki, photoshop, that's about it). But I was thinking about how great it would be if I did have a feed, or if we all had access, to a "classroom feed" or Classstream that would work something like this:
10:14pm Allison finished 15 thumbnails for homework
1:42am Anthony posted link to article on Fred Wilson
9:37am Bob posted to blog: Principles of Gestalt
12:00pm Johnny needs feedback on sketch for assignment - visit blog
3:30pm Anthony posts picture from Toledo Museum of Art
and so on...
How could you see this useful in your class? In an online class?
Passively Multiplayer or PMOG
The PMOG Research paper
A while back I heard about Justin Hall's idea for a Passively Multiplayer Online Game that would track your web surfing and give you points. An idea based off of the leveling system used in MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games).
It has occurred to me that much of what has been established as regular practice in e-learning could easily be tracked with such "myware" (spyware that consicoulsy tracks the data your computer generates for personal benefit) and later reported to the teacher in terms of stats and points.
Currently, PMOG only tracks the sites you frequent. Passively, you don't have to do anything to "play" but go about your normal online lives. However "quests" can be created so that you may actively choose to explore what others have. Further improvements to the game are in development, such as tracking how often/much you contribute to peer production sites like Wikipedia, Flickr, YouTube, etc...
Imagine being able to track a student's involvement in class by the number of 
"quests" they complete... quests that the educator, or better yet, the students create. These quests can be based on research, blogging, editing or gathering information, collaboration, or communication.
Also, a fictitious element has been added that divides players (by the data of course) into a certain archetype of internet personality. See pic at left for more info.
There is still a lot of work to be done in the way the system works (it doesn't actually track how often you blog, post picks, or edit wiki's at this time). But I see great potential here for:
- engaging the student through competition in rank
- identification of study habits (good or bad)
- easily tracking what materials are most attractive vs. beneficial
- and what Hall calls "Literacy for Personal Data Control" or actively tracking one's own digital paper trail
Interview with (me) Anthony Fontana, about art, technology, online teaching, and the classroom of the future. Anthony Fontana is an Instructor for the School of Art.
Scroll half way down.
A recent interview I had with the IDEAL Distance Learning Center at Bowling Green State University.
After attending the FATE, Foundations in Art: Theory and Education conference this last week I returned home with four resounding words in my head: Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. Marc Prensky's idea (found here) was repeated at many of the session presentations as a standard for what is happening in today's classrooms. However, there were many, including myself, who found these terms to be dated, negative, and off the mark.
Examining Prensky's original paper, you'll find he was speaking the message of the Polychronic Classroom long before I was:
"instructors, who speak an outdated language (that of the pre-digital age), are struggling to teach a population that speaks an entirely new language."
So remember as you read this that, above all, Prensky is on our team.
However, the term "Digital Native" should actually be "Polychronic". In his 2001 paper, he clearly defines a digital native as a polychronic person. Polychrons have been traditionally defined by culture (Asia, Middle East) and are now being defined (or created) by technology. There is no reason though that any American above the age of 30 could not be a Polychron. And this is where Prensky's idea of digital foreigners is wrong.
Likewise, today's students that have never worked with a computer (or much technology) before reaching college, are more likely to be Monochrons; or the same type of personality that Pensky describes as digital immigrant. They have grown up reading, writing, thinking logically, etc...
I suggest we work to change these terms from words like "native" or "immigrant", which carry negative connotations of being foreign, naive, unaware, and not in control, to terms more akin to what they describe: Polychronic or Monochronic.
After all, aren't we all pioneers and conquerors in some way.? Aren't we driving this boat? Sure, some of my students don't know a world other than the new digital millennium but, that does not mean they will understand the iPhone better than I.
I have also changed the definition off to the side of this blog to include: "that optimize learning outcomes by providing channels of content transfer most familiar to the student."
Individual Learning Plans and Learning Agreements could be the most effective form of assessment in a structure like The Polychronic Classroom.
From the wonderful SLED listserve:
We use an model for assessment that utilises something we call a ‘Learning Agreement’
which is a combination of dissertation and personal development document.
> • an individual creative approach to study as described in and
> negotiated through the Learning Agreement.
> • the demonstration of a consolidated ability to research and
> produce visual outcomes which reflect the approach to study and
> which are capable of functioning within the context of graphic arts
> and design practice.
> • the demonstration of a developed utilisation of appropriate
> technical and practical skills in the mediation of ideas and
> intentions
> • through the Learning Agreement the demonstration of an
> informed capacity for self-critical reflection.
> • through the Learning Agreement the demonstration of the
> ability to situate the practice within the wider technical, social
> and cultural contexts of graphic arts and design
> • the ability to effectively articulate and communicate
> intentions and outcomes to others within appropriate academic and
> professional contexts."
A recent article at NYmag.com hits the nail on the head with:
A) what we're up against
B) the headache we don't see coming
or
C) the real reason we became educators!
Comment an answer if you wish. Personally, that sort of article is the reason I believe pedogical practices need prepare for Polychronic learners.
How the Polychronic Classroom fits into Piaget's theory of cognitive development.
This online resource, which uses many outdated pre-web 2.0 examples, is a wonderful primer for the idea Polychronic learning. (Examples near bottom of page.)
I have finished my paper for the 2007 Foundations in Art Theory and Education Conference.
I will be using the blog to do my presentation so... Slide shows will be added soon.
Also, I will record the paper as an mp3 podcast and post it there as well.
A recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education entitled, Distractions in the Wireless Classroom led to a post on the blog Ed Tech Journeys titled "Polychrons and Our Classrooms" and my response (see comments at the Ed Tech blog link) .
My post on the SLED listserv in its entirety:
K.Becker wrote:Read this and you see how easily technology fits in a lecture… let alone a polychronic classroom.
>Again, the skill of being able to listen to music, surf the
web, IM to
friends and talk on the phone and do some homework all at the
same time
does not automatically translate into group presentation skills.
Perhaps
they are nervous. Perhaps they have not seen the desired
behaviour
modeled. <
They are not nervous... The correct term is "Polychron".
Related links here and here.
Developed from Edward Hall's theory of Polychronic Time here.
The idea of education as Entertainment is now dated. This
generation of students IS the Gamer Generation, the Live Net
Generation... whatever you'd like to call it, it is highly interactive.
At home on their phones and computers and gaming platforms they are
learning new ways to network, collaborate, and research without even
knowing it. MMO's, Xbox, and text messaging (even MySpace now) have
synchronous forms of communication often with high-context relationships
and may require a great deal of multi-tasking.
Replace "entertain the student" with Engage the Student.
Beck and Wade talk about this in [their book] Got Game.
Give them strategy guides, clear and achievable goals, a reward
system that appeals to their sense of reputation. Give them passion and
energy and yes, real world application. Entertainment is passive.
Engagment is interactive.
If I've had to change something... it's an expectation that the
"desired" behavior was Monochronic.
I am very interested in anyone doing research in this area. I
work in the Studio Art discipline, which in many ways can be a platform
for new methodology (although consistently uses convergent thinking at
the lower levels).
I want to know... what does a polychronic classroom look like?
Is it completely digital? With SL, IM, Sype, and Google all open and
working? Is it class that does not have a set time to meet, but rather a
specific set of goals that must be accomplished using a highly networked
collaboration of students with the teacher as 'game master'? Can the
monochron, or normative student, work asynchonously contributing at
regularly scheduled times while the polychron is always interacting but
not always contributing?
Personally I believe myself to be somewhere between these two
ends as I'm sure many of you are. I believe, the key to the polychronic
classroom is a highly motivated individual with an ability for both
modes of operation. Otherwise, we'd have to identify and seperate each
type of student.
And I think they saying goes, "Don't put all your polychrons in
one basket."
