Quote: “Unlike a classroom where a teacher controls the lecture, the organic communities that emerge through collectives produce meaningful learning because the inquiry that arises comes from the collective itself.” This quote summarizes the concept of learning in a collective. A collective isn’t structured or monitored and all “participants stand on equal ground.” The participants of a collective are the ones that create the learning.
Question: How do I introduce the concept of learning in a collective to a teacher or administrator? I personally see the infinite possibilities, but unfortunately, the absence of structure and monitoring will be something very difficult for many of my colleagues to accept.
Connection: I made a strong connection between this chapter and this class, EDL 680-Seminar in Personalized Learning & Leading with Technology and EDL 600-Principles of Educational Administration. Although they might not be a collective as Douglas and Brown describe, yet, there are many elements present. We are encouraged to work collectively with our peers, we are all on equal ground, and we all are at different levels of knowledge and experience. Personally speaking, I have learned from all my professors, but I have also learned and gained a vast amount of knowledge from my peers, from their blogs, online discussions and online meetings. It has been an amazing experience, that is a bit overwhelming, because I am still a novice to this type of learning environment.
Epiphany/Aha: Aha! This can work! I’m currently teaching summer school and piloting a blended reading curriculum. This is the first time I have a class in which the students are working daily with a device. All my new learning has me more observant of my students than ever before. I watch how quickly they learned how to use a chromebook,navigate through the curriculum and how many of them quickly turn to the internet for answers and don’t wait to get the answers from a teacher. There were also a few that seemed to be afraid or hesitant about going online to research information. So I made it clear that since they have a tool to their disposal, they can use it. Learning in the collective is possible.
CHAPTER 5 The Personal with the Collective
Quote: “We see collectives as the creations of play and imagination in an era of digital media. They are, in that sense, a product of a changing world that can no longer focus on a single, national sense of community. But collectives are also a nearly infinite set of resources that any individual can selectively tap into and participate in as part of his or her own identity.” After closely reading and rereading certain parts of this chapter, I’m still grappling with the idea of the personal with the collective. Douglas and Brown state that “almost every difficult issue we face today is a collective, rather than a personal , problem.” Then, they continue to present other examples such as the one of the nonprofit organization, Kiva and using Facebook for having an online study group that helped me put it into perspective.
Question: How can we show teachers the “infinite set of resources” that are available for anyone that wants to participate and how these resources can “amplify” learning? This is definitely going to be a book that I recommend to all teachers that are ready for the change, but there has to be a more effective way to communicate this information.
Connection: It has me thinking about how ready students are for this being part of a collective. I used to be an ASB Coordinator and many of our brainstorming sessions about how to increase communication with students always led to social media and the internet. At the beginning, I didn’t want to go that route out of fear and to avoid privacy issues; however towards the end, we started using Facebook and immediately saw the difference and how our school wide participation grew significantly. I also remember when I started using Edmodo and how it increased students’ interest in what their peers had to share and their engagement with the content.
Epiphany/Aha: Aha! This is a solution to teacher’s perceived problem that resources are limited. In today’s society, the concept of limited resources is hard to justify. The situation is just the opposite. Nowadays, it is a matter of searching the web, selecting a website, blog or other platform and becoming part of that collective by contributing, linking, sharing or just reading. At that point our personal interests and passions have led us to becoming part of a collective and by doing so, amplified our learning.
CHAPTER 6 We Know More Than We Can Say
Quote: “In fact, you can sometimes learn more from taking the wrong approach than you can from taking the right one.” This quote is found under the “Learning as Inquiry” subheading and part of the inquiry learning discussion. Douglas and Brown argues that, “the process of inquiry results in useful information regardless of the outcome.”
Question: What effective strategies/training can be used to help teachers understand the importance of creating safe environments, so that students are willing to take risks, in the classroom, without the fear of making a mistake or being wrong? Talking to many students, much of their focus in on getting the right answer to everything. They don’t value the inquiry process.
Connection: This reminds me of a conversation I had with a student. The class was taking an assessment and I was walking around, monitoring their progress. A student stopped me to ask me a question that was very closely related to a test question. I didn’t give him the answer. Instead, I asked him a question for the purpose of redirecting his thinking. He turned to look at me with a serious stare. Then he said, “you probably don’t ever know the answer.” At first, I took offense. At the end of the day, after reflecting on that incident, I knew I couldn’t be upset at the student.
Epiphany/Aha: The traditional school culture has to change. We have to create a culture that supports failure, provides multiple opportunities to master skills and content and promotes inquiry learning.