"I put forward formulas and unresolved notions… not to establish truth, but to seek it." -Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592)
SOUR '日々の音色 (Hibi no neiro)' = teachers, observe!
Kathy V., a colleague and instructional hero of mine, shared this example of the power of collaborative construction via web 2.0 tools and I’m very grateful.. The creators are all under 21.
Ask yourself as you watch it, educator: What corrollaries does it have for your instruction?
A corrolary I take? That teachers need to be blending more, as students so manifestly are.
How can a 20th century person not be amazed at what these kids are already beautifully, collaboratively, creating? Clearly, the makers have benefitted from instruction in basic literacy. They have learned linear, text-based narrative communication, as well as basic graphic design and aesthetic form. They preserve the forms, but they adapt them to the content provided by the new digital tools (in this case via their video web cams). It is a “blended” expression, blended literacy, for a global audience.
Why shouldn’t our teaching, like their active learning, be similarly blended–neither all online, as in games of Halo 3 and such interactive global projects such as rendered this video (untested) and the sit-in-your-assigned seat “present” protocol of a traditional K-12 classroom (tested) ?
“Studies of earlier generations of distance and online learning courses have concluded that they are usually as effective as classroom-based instruction,” said Marshall “Mike” Smith, a senior counselor to Education Secretary Arne Duncan.
He goes on, amazingly:
“The studies of more recent online instruction included in this meta-analysis found that, on average, online learning, at the post-secondary level, is not just as good as but more effective than conventional face-to-face instruction.” [emphasis added]
Kathy’s link suggests to me that we should move boldly forward as a school, recognizing and acting on our role as stewards of the next generation of learners, willing to blend what we do now so well with what kids do now so well.
Beautiful video! Of course it makes sense that each child learns differently, even each subject differently.I am surprised, however, to discover that online learning is more effective than face-to-face instruction. I guess that really depends on the face-to-face instruction.It is good that we are forever leaving behind the idea of training children to be good at sitting behind a desk for eight hours a day, something that made sense to higher ups way back at the beginning of the last century.We are all becoming more aware that we are all connected, and the technology our children use is bringing that awareness to them in an intimate, knowing way.
The Wikiness 
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