World Without Walls: Learning Well with Others. How to teach when learning is everywhere. Fascinating article by
by Will Richardson Edutopia Magazine December 2008.
It begins: Earlier this year, as I was listening to a presentation by an eleven-year-old community volunteer and blogger named Laura Stockman about the service projects she carries out in her hometown outside Buffalo, New York, an audience member asked where she got her ideas for her good work. Her response blew me away. “I ask my readers,” she said. I doubt anyone in the room could have guessed that answer.
It ends: In our zeal to hold on to the old structures of teaching and learning and to protect students at all costs, we are not just leaving them ill prepared for the future, we are also missing an enormous opportunity for ourselves as learners. Regardless of the limits of technology or the culture of fear in our workplaces, almost every teacher I meet now has the ability to tap into these shifts in their personal practice should they choose to. They could start by browsing Classroom20.com or searching blogsearch.google.com for bloggers who share their interests. Anyone with a passion for something can connect to others with that same passion — and begin to co-create and colearn the same way many of our students already do.
I believe that is what educators must do now. We must engage with these new technologies and their potential to expand our own understanding and methods in this vastly different landscape. We must know for ourselves how to create, grow, and navigate these collaborative spaces in safe, effective, and ethical ways. And we must be able to model those shifts for our students and counsel them effectively when they run across problems with these tools.
Anything less is unacceptable for our kids, for my kids, for the Laura Stockmans of the world, who so far have been relegated to learning how to add dots to their maps on their own. The good news, for those willing to accept the challenge, is that we don’t have to do it alone
Read the full article at http://tinyurl.com/6y645y
