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Growing Tention in the UK
- What tended to happen in tradition classrooms
- What tendes to happen when people interact with digital technologies
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barriers
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Most of us think it is
- not enough traing for teachers
- Teachers aren't good with technology
- The assessment is all wrong
- Not enough money, enough technology
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But its really a lack of vision
- bold
- coherrent
- inspiring
- but realistic view
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Myth
- if we leave children with the technology they will learn "teachers have to get out of the way."
- This is not true
- Most of us are doing what we do because somebody helped us.
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There is a prediction that computers will change everything
- We have been disappointed for the last 20 years and if not careful, the same will be the case for the next 20 years
- The missconception is that learning is deliverable
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Learning must be construtivist
- Angela confesses to being a constructivist
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Impact study was the biggest study to measure the benefits of technology
- The IMPACT Model
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Findings
- We've taken traditional ICT skills and expected teachers to bring them into some activity
- The problem is that we have done nothing to change the curriculum
- But expected the same expectations
- Absolutely no indication that technology is helping
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Problem
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We haven't reached the threshold -- need more tech
- If this is true and we pour more money and it works, education will change in the wrong direction.
- They are learning things that aren't being tested
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What's really happening is that kids are learning to learn at the computer without knowing it.
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In western culture we give our children a great deal of autonomy
- A lot of choice
- We listen to them
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But not in school
- Some are having great experiences
- But most of what they are doing is benal and trivial.
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A lot of research on learning done with video games
- Most kids who said they were good at games were really not so good at them
- The learning is not achieved by most kids
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meaningful learning empowers people
- When people are empowered, they become antsy and that is disruptive
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But we have to have content
- Learning to think, you have to have something to think about.
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Do you have a framework, do you have a pedagogy?
- We have pedgogic models, we just don't use them
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Choices for continued discussion
- A. Handheld device using students project
- B. Looking at variety of learning communities that form spontaneously online
- C. University of Santeogo social software to help kids learn negotiation skills
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B. Looking at spontaneous learning communities
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Fan Fiction Sites
- Classic 2.0
- Many are centered on games
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But just as many sites about books
- Not all about Harry Potter
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There is no evidence that digital will end books
- Cultural practices rarely erase others completely
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Talks about Palunion Site (Chinese Language) based on Paladin games.
- Similar to the Authurian Ledgends (but much older)
- Many users of the Fanfiction .75 million postings.
- From single entries to entire novels & novels are not unusual
- Very conservative, must be true to the culture of the game
- Posting tende to be serialized and the build up a very demanding readership
- How many 15 year-olds have people clammering for the next chapter...
- Negative and unhelpful comments are stamped on by the community
- Lots of comments that are detailed feedback, as well as the more shallow ones.
- Reader imput informs the final outcome of the novel
- Genuinely collaborative activity
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Communities
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Minister of education in Singapore wrote a paper about the instructional potential of blogs
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Blogging
- Most people who blog do not get comments
- Tend to think of blogs as solatary, but it doesn't have to
- Rich conntent (anything that is digital)
- Searchable (good search engines)
- Very flexible
- Good platform for the exchange of ideas...
- Community
- It's hard
- Rare
- Must interact in a common problem or interest space
- Can be the kernal of the problem
- We talk about collaborative learning
- But we only credit the individual
- Mostly collaboration is copying and we penalized
- Children are neverous about collaborations
- They done want others taking their ideas
- They don't want to be thought of as copying others' work
- We must overcome the tendency to put place the individual over the group
- MacFarlin has had students beg her not to make them use collaborative site
- Collaboration/community
- Requires more than infrastructure
- Requires cultural change
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We have completly lost site of formal education as a process of personal enrichment -- and that's criminal!
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Parents
- Want their children to be happy
- Also want their children to be successful
- People who love what they make a living doing are incredibly lucky
- Vast majoriety do not!
- We do not educate kids any more. We are training them
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We need to educate kids to ask good questions...
- Lots of questions happen in interest communities
- Best online sites are those that enable commenting directly to the creative work
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You give students access to good commiunity environments and they'll be fine
- Some will
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Many will not:
- They do not have good filtering of information
- They are easily influenced by production quality
- They're not good at drilling through the content
- Cut & paste is problematic
- Not that Cut and Paste is bad...
- Do not question the authority of information
- And there is no evidence that schools are teaching these things
- Their vocabulary is less than previous generations
- Bright kids can't explain "what they think," because they do not have the vocabulary
- Teachers say that their students "Don't like to think!"
- Because we overtest, and there is evidence
- Look "Assessment reform group web site."
- Paper on testing and learner motivation
- We are turning out a generation of children who can test but can't learn
- The only difference between the rich kids and the poor kids, is that we give the rich kids certificates for not being able to learn.