Lots of "Whys"
Last week, I wrote in TechLearning that the "Why" question is been answered (The Question has Changed). "Why do we need to rethink education in our school districts, states, and nations?" In my opinion, the answer has three elements,
- The economic environment has changed and continues to change.
- Our students are different, being accustomed to a rich and dynamic information experience.
- The information landscape has changed (a case we're still making, to be honest).
Reading this article, Susan, a teacher at the Franklin Learning Center in Philadelphia, commented about the "why" in her blog, Susan On-line... . In doing so, she referenced The Empty Space: A Book about Theatre (1969).
..Peter Brook suggests that each act of staging start with the "Why?" Why this? Why costume? Why each detail and any one thing and the whole? I think the empty space metaphor works well in the Web2.0 discussion, as we try to find the life in each new production/site. (Susan)
What remains is LOTS of little "whys," and one hit me last week. I have long utilized wikis in my presentations. I use PMWiki, an open source wiki engine from my online handouts. I wrote a hack that enabled participants in my sessions to create their own wiki pages on the fly and to use them for their notes, enabling participants to keep notes and then share them with other participants. In the end, it was a fabulous demonstration of wikis that resulted in almost no practical value, as rarely did attendees enter any notes. With a few exceptions, they would usually write a line, save it, and then write nothing else.
Over the past couple of weeks, I have started using an open source chat program, called AjaxChat. With it, participants could engage in Twitter-like chat exchanges, commenting on what I was saying, or what was being discussed, and then branch out into other parallel conversations.
I find it interesting that the chat has been used much more by the participants than the wikis. They write more, and generate much more original ideas -- from which I have learned. As an example, in Irving, Texas, a group of teachers discussed how Walt Whitman might have enjoyed Web 2.0.
So, Why? What's the difference? As a source for the answer, I'd like to suggest a list that was generated by that Irving, Texas group in a wiki, that one attendee volunteered to maintain. We'd looked at a number of Web 2.0 applications, and I had suggested ways that our classrooms have become flat, borrowing the metaphor from Thomas Friedman. Then I asked, "Where do we get the energy to drive learning in a flat classroom?"
The group, through a conversation, suggested that energy come from our students need to..
- Work in responsive environments
- Communicate
- Share personal experience and identity
- Ask questions
- Accomplish
- Form communities
- Invest themselves
- Safely make mistakes
- Have/Earn audience and attention
How much of this was happening in these chats?
What do you think?
Susan. "Using all the questions at once." [Weblog Susan On-line: Web 2.0 in Eng. 2 and 3] 7 Aug 2007. 11 Aug 2007 <http://susan-on-line.blogspot.com/2007/08/using-all-questions-at-once.html>.
Comments
I think that the use of any kind of tool for a conversation during a presentation has a great deal of potential for improving the learning experience that happens there. First, I think many are tired of the sit-and-get routine that they experience all too frequently; having a conversation in a chat client turns the experience into a participatory one that is dynamic and energizing. This type of experience also honors the expertise in the room and enables many to contribute their ideas, and amplify those of the presenter, and not listen to a single voice. In effect, you have one formal presenter and many informal ones. I find it interesting that when reflecting on the presentation and the chat, I often remember much more about what was said during the chat rather than what the speaker said. While this is certainly dependent upon the quality of the speaker, it also speaks towards the value of the interaction between the multiple talented individuals present in the audience. It will be interesting to see how the use of a backchannel chat during a presentation will grow, improve, and be structured so that it is indeed a valuable component of presentations, that improves the learning experience. More importantly, it will also be interesting to see if this technique migrates to classrooms, and becomes important to learning in the same context it has become important to conference participants, who now can finally be called participants.
Posted by: David Jakes | August 14, 2007 12:20 AM