Quote: "In communities, people learn in order to belong. In a collective, people belong in order to learn. Communities derive their strength from creating a sense of belonging, while collectives derive theirs from participation." Here, what is emphasized is that the best type of learning is through peer-to-peer interactions that happen on a neutral foundation; where skills and talents are shared on common grounds. Additionally, the level of participation does not require specific expectations of involvement.
Question: The problem is, figuring out the balance of all types of learning, in the collective and as an independent. How do we teach students the proper skills to be able to actively succeed in these collective environments?
Connection: This chapter really hits home on this exact website, my Weebly blogs, and my intentions for it. Not only is this a space to record my assignments, but I am hoping, that this will help me continue to keep me connected to others who share similar career goals beyond this course. "The power of a blog, for example, rests in part with the author or authors who start it [myself]; in part with the readers who leave comments [my cohort peers]; in part with those who link to, cite, reference, or respond to it; and in part with the readers, who may do nothing more than have their presence recorded by a web server [everyone else including those connected through my peers, "friends of friends," and even those who follow me on twitter]." I would like to keep learning by investment into these spaces.
Epiphany/Aha: What appears to be successful in these collective learning environments are the empowerment participants must feel, to be able to "take on the role of mentor at any time" in subject areas of their passion and interest. As well, there are no tests or evaluations monitoring their efforts, hence no right or wrong answer. I've tried a number of times to provide my students with the opportunity to be empowered and responsible for their own learning. Now I can understand how unnatural it is to nearly force these "expectations" on my students without taking away the evaluation aspect, and why instead I receive results of inert attitudes.
CHAPTER 5: THE PERSONAL WITH THE COLLECTIVE
Quote: "Adding one's personal perspective to the mix, and allowing the personal to be addressed and transformed through interaction with others, puts identity in play. The collective is, in the most basic sense, a group constantly playing with and reimagining its own identity." In determining the understanding of what the collective is, the personal contribution of every individual needs to be recognized as part of its establishment. Both personal and collective are "intertwin[ed] and remix[ed]" together as a whole, allowing all participants who interact to benefit.
Question: How do we reach out to families, parents, to support their child(ren)'s with networking as a means to learn and grow outside the classroom, and to eliminate the stigmatism that they are just wasting time?
Connection: Networking activities occurring amongst students are recognized by law, and the "California law is strongly protective of all forms of student free speech," so long as the content does not "create a risk of substantial disruption within the school environment" even outside of school (Kemerer & Sansom, 2013, Ch. 6). Henceforth, it is the educators that need to enforce the same expectations and respectable behaviour, that is established by the school, to be student responsibility. By leading by example, and allowing opportunities for "practice" in a controlled setting, students can learn how to learn on their own.
Epiphany/Aha: I have had great difficulty in evaluating group projects, even when groups are selected by students, or managed by myself, or a bit of both. "[Their] personal sense of identity and agency" does not match with their assigned collective, something non-personal, makes complete sense. The trouble is finding middle ground, where all participants could contribute the way they would online. However, because the subject matter is unfamiliar and new, there will always be students reluctant to be involved. So then what? I really need to consider how to blend students' interest and passion with new material within an assignment; and not simply create an assignment by first expressing new material, then adding in aspects of possible student interest.
CHAPTER 6: WE KNOW MORE THAN WE CAN SAY
Quote: "With just a small shift, from answering questions to asking them, inquiry emerges as a tool for harnessing not only the passion of students but also the stockpile of tacit knowledge that comes form a lifetime of experience doing the things that have become second nature to them." There are a couple of ways to categorize knowledge, as explicit or tacit; stable information that are "easily identified, articulated, transferred, and testable" or experiential "through all our senses" and non-transferrable. Both affect how each person learns according to their gained interest and flexibility, followed by the boundaries they are placed in. The important factor here is realizing that asking questions requires the test of their imagination and thus provokes a "style of learning inquiry."
Question: As educators, how do we gauge how much and how long of an experience is required for learning to succeed, and how could it then be evaluated if each person learns differently?
Connection: Through my 20% Time Project, I had created 10 Inquiry Questions that I used as steps to proceed. Honestly, they have been useful in guiding my learning experience and forced me to explore areas that are unfamiliar.
Epiphany/Aha: The example provided by the text, shows how teaching physics by using the student's interest in basketball as the content had only "[cloaked] a typical physics problem with a basketball theme." The problem I face, is asking a more open ended question, like "What is the best way to shoot a basketball," and hope the students use physics as part of their answer, or worse find that they've only conveyed what they know and failed to explore the variety of answers possible. The challenge then is to really understand how my 20% Time Project is teaching me, and adapt the use of inquiry to the classroom under a different context.
Reference:
Thomas, D. & Brown, J. (2011). A New Culture of Learning: Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant Change (Kindle Ed.). CreateSpace.