I+-+sections

I - How do (might) 21st century tools (Web 2.0) enable the quality of interaction and interactivity mandated in the 21st Century?

As the bandwidth to the desktop increases it allows more bandwidth intensive applications to be developed. These include video streaming, real-time collaborative tools, interactive flash activities, and simulations. These new applications provide increased interactivity for the student with instructors, with students, and with the "curriculum". This is effective if incorporated into the curriculum so that students while reading about a concept can then immediately see a video or complete a flash activity, run a simulation, and then using a collaborative tool discuss the concept. The quality of the application enhances the interaction by creating more meaningful experiences for students and with increased bandwidth at our disposal the applications are constantly improving.

If much of our learning is, “based on the premise that our //understanding// of content is socially constructed through conversations about that content and through grounded interactions, especially with others, around problems or actions. Brown and Adler contend that, “[t]he focus is not so much on //what// we are learning but on //how// we are learning” (//p. 2).// To this end, Brown and Adler have found that there is a second, perhaps more significant, aspect of social learning: Mastering a field of knowledge involves not only “learning about” the subject matter but also “learning to be” a full participant in the field or acculturating into a community of practice. Historically, apprenticeship programs and supervised graduate research have provided students with opportunities to observe and then to emulate how experts function. Apprentices traditionally begin learning by taking on simple tasks, under the watchful eye of a master, through a process that has been described as “legitimate peripheral participation”; they then progress to more demanding tasks as their skills improve (p. 3).

Educators have an obligation to engender citizenry of the 21st century. First and foremost in this quest must be a method of accessing, filtering and synthesizing vast amounts of information made available in a growing number of digital formats. James, Dewey, Wittgenstein and Heidegger aspired to construct a new view of learning and knowing, one that properly located it in the world of everyday affairs (Stahl 2006, p. 9). It is of utmost importance to identify what students are familiar with and to leverage that knowledge to support further learning. According to Stahl, Koschmann and Suthers (2006), “…collaborative learning involves individuals as group members, but also involves phenomena like the negotiation and sharing of meanings—including the construction and maintenance of shared conceptions of tasks—that are accomplished interactively in group processes. Collaborative learning involves individual learning, but is not reducible to it” (p.3). The task for any teacher should be to address the need for learning activities in which the, “participants do not go off to do things individually, but remain engaged with a shared task that is constructed and maintained by and for the group…” (p.3). Devising a method to allow for the students to construct and maintain the task would appear to be an insurmountable, and even foolhardy, challenge to any conscientious teacher. As crazy as seems, could there ultimately be value in allowing students to be the architects of their own learning experiences? Stahl, Koschmann, Suthers (2006) acknowledge: … a particularly important kind of social activity, the collaborative construction of new problem solving knowledge. Collaboration is a process by which individuals negotiate and share meanings relevant to the problem-solving task at hand… [c]ollaboration is a coordinated, synchronous activity that is the result of a continued attempt to construct and maintain a shared conception of a problem (p. 3). Technology allows this collaboration process to occur asynchronously, as well as providing a record of the interaction.

Connectivism: George Siemens references ‘participative pedagogy’ as the term to denote the process of allowing students’ ownership of their learning. He presents connectivism as a theory of learning that can bridge the rift between traditional and new educational approaches to prepare learners for the tomorrow they will inherit. Connectivism provides insight into learning skills and tasks needed for learners to flourish in a digital era. It’s primarily a theory about learning that draws on network theory, social networking, and social constructivism. A great deal of consideration is given to evaluating context in Connectivist learning theory. In his University of Manitoba wiki, Siemens (2007) contends that, Evaluating context requires consideration of numerous elements and environments, which influence both design, and delivery of a particular learning task, activity, or program… [e]ssentially, in instructional design, we need to make two substantial changes: 1. Stop seeing learning design as a task that occurs in advance of the intended learning, and begin to see it as a part of the learning process itself 2. Begin to focus more on the context of learning (designing environments of learning) and less so on the intended content of the learning activities (course, workshop, or program)

Writing for an authentic audience was the single most motivational push to write thoughtfully and persuasively. In a National Council of Teachers of English (2008) publication, teacher Dawn Hogue found that by employing Web 2.0, “students write frequently in class, they often don’t see it as writing, because it’s not the typical paper printed out and handed in to the teacher. Yet, they are more personally invested in the writing because of the wider audience” (p.3).