Will,

I, too, grow tired of the “stuckness” of the conversations about social tools and learning in schools. It’s amazing how slow others are to embrace a change that is literally enveloping everything about the learning lives of our students.

Which is why the “immersion” in tools approach to PD that you are pushing is so important. Maybe—just maybe—teachers who embrace digital tools for their own learning will finally see its value in their classrooms.

I only seek out digital learning opportunities for my students because they have changed who I am as a learner. Once I find a tool that facilitates my own personal and professional growth, I look for ways to incorporate that tool into the learning of my students.

I end up being their digital yoda—showing them how to use the tools they’ve embraced to learn more.

Anyway…thanks for a great post. It’s got me thinking this morning…

Bill

Nicole’s comment about teachers acting as ethnographers in the classroom is a great point as well. Ethnographers, of course, talk about being “participant-observers” in the community or society the study. Thinking about being a “participant-observer” in my own classroom is great food for thought not only in reframing or retooling content, but also strategizing more critically about assessment.

Could not help but think of a world where education funding supplanted military funding. Teachers, students and parents could be immersed in real situations around the globe. Not virtual but real. That is something to dream about.

So, yes, to answer your question, we were invited to respond to RIchardson during class. I can’t speak for my whole class, but I feel as though I am rarely required to do anything as an “assignment.” We are typically invited to partake in some form of cognitive development. Our interest in Richardson stretches beyond a class assignment.

Thanks again for your response!

Here he was acquiring knowledge for use, like learning a language by growing up in its country — an experience quite unlike learning a language in order to pass a test. Those high-tech computerized model cars are so rich in principles of mathematics (and the same goes for other domains of knowledge) that one could well think of the experience of their builders as learning math by living in mathland — a place that is to mathematics as France is to French. And the success of students like Bill in these environments shows that just as all children — and not only those who “have a head for French” — learn French if they live to France, so, too, all children learn mathematics if they meet it in a context that is more alive than the ordinary curriculum.

Computers in the Classroom: Agents of Change By Seymour Papert

The Washington Post Education Review Sunday, October 27, 1996

If your child were to spend some time in France, it is likely he or she will pick up quite a bit of French. “What would happen,” asked Papert, “if children who can’t do math grew up in Mathland, a place that is to math what France is to French?”… A key component of Papert’s educational philosophy is self-directed learning. As kids build cool things in Mathland, they naturally encounter problems which require creative mathematical solutions. As a result, formerly abstract mathematical concepts take on a real meaning, and there are tangible rewards for tinkering with these concepts.

Origins of Mindstorms (Wired.com) http://blog.wired.com/geekdad/2007/03/the_origins_of_.html

Of course, you could read the original source – http://astore.amazon.com/constructivistconsortium-20/detail/0465046746/002-7519795-5263203

There are other types of reading and writing available in this technology rich world described in Seely Brown’s quote, and though much has changed (technology-wise) in the 7 years since I was in secondary school, there is still a problem with paying mind to student interest. The question for educators turns to how we can take Gil’s turntablism and Tucker’s fascination with Spore and use these discourses as tools to help young minds develop.

It seems that the upcoming election offers some hope, especially with Obama’s stance on education. If we allow a fresh mind like that into the White House, instead of McCain who has no agenda whatsoever for educational reform (as far as I can tell), we may finally be able to develop these discourses in our classrooms when the time comes. Then maybe we can be the Yodas or ethnographers that are so desperately needed.