Are we are all curators?

Week 4 - reactions to Google Reader and Social Bookmarking

I’ve tried a number of ways to “file” or “store” or keep track of articles and websites that I want to access again.  It’s important because either I need more time to read or reflect on the content, or because I want to use the article/site for a future project. It's a challenge. Google Reader and Diigo have helped.

In thinking about Google Reader and Diigo, I like to explore them through the concept of curation. Both function for me as tools that I use to curate information, both for myself and for others with whom I have a teaching/learning relationship.  These curation tools help me sort through and organize information I have found and want to find again.  I’m still deciding exactly how to best use both tools, but I’ve gotten better at defining what I want to include in my RSS feed and Diigo lists. 

Intuitively I like the concept of curation, which I mentioned in an earlier blog post, and which struck a chord when I first heard it.  I first heard the term when it was used by more tech-savvy colleagues, and have since seen it used in blogs about “working differently” as educators or teaching and learning.  Wikipedia officially defines the term digital curation as the “selection, preservation, maintenance, collection and archiving of digital assets.”  In two blogs called “Students Becoming Curators of Information” and “Who are Your Curators?” the writers discuss the value of curating in the context of classroom experiences. In the second blog, Jeff Cobb talks about the potential of curation for lifelong learners: first to find great curators, follow them, and learn; and second to be a curator, and learn as much as possible. 

We all have the potential to be curators of information.  It may be the best way to teach and learn in this age of so much information.

A whole new world

Week 4 Digital Media- New Learners of the 21^st Century

Two things struck me about the video. First was what we were all supposed to notice – kids involved in learning with technology. There were obvious innovative ideas and exciting things going on. Kids were using technology to engage in new ways with art and documents and each other. They were using games to take problems and find solutions, think creatively, and look at things in a different way.

The second reaction that struck me was the passion with which the professionals interviewed have embraced digital media, and the degree to which each sees the potential for learning.  This was across the age span and across subject areas. Granted, all of these professionals were in situations in which they have been part of change, but each was able to give rich profound reasons for interest in digital media and learning.  In my work I have heard a great deal only about Internet safety and causes for concern with kids and social media.  Now I’m hearing other professionals talk about what digital media has to offer kids, the advantages of using it in education. And they are doing so with passion and excitement and presenting fascinating ideas.  In my experience, I’ve come to a new understanding in interacting with the digital world.

Some specific thoughts resonated with me. First the concept expressed by one educator about the love of embracing change was key.  As professionals, we have to think about education and interact with teaching and learning differently. Second, I enjoyed hearing about what you learn from designing a game, because I was asking myself that question. What are the “take-aways” of this? Third, I’ve heard this before but loved it in this context: kids need a passion, whatever passion, to get them to become learners.  Our kids are facing a world that will be constantly changing. What do they learn that will help them adjust to that reality?  

A view through the portal

Week 3: Thoughts on a Portal to Media Literacy Video

In the video A Portal to Media Literacy, Dr. Michael Wesch discusses the messages of the typical classroom in the context of a “crisis of significance.” In short, college students are not finding anything of significance in their education, beyond their grades.  Classrooms are designed to get students to “obey authority” and “follow along.”  Wesch finds the messages of classrooms to be concerning, a context in which the expert in the front of the room dumps information in the name of education. His own interactions with students have left him with the opinion that students aren’t engaged in learning or content in such traditional classroom experiences. 

Wesch has analyzed the messages of the classroom and the traditional interaction between “expert” and student, to find that technology offers an opportunity to change the context of learning.  In fact, information doesn’t have to be produced by experts; anyone can be an information producer.  Delicious and diigo allow information to be organized without folders; RSS brings selected content to us.  Wikipedia allows anyone to see the discussion behind the scenes of how specific information is produced.  Technology and media allow us all to be learners and connect to information and content on our own terms and with our own goals for learning.

Wesch has drawn some conclusions that I find especially meaningful. First and foremost, learning relies on the creation of meaningful connections with others, a network of connections, not an expert.  Second, the classroom using technology can be a place to experiment and try new things; it’s new to all of us and constantly changing.  No one is stupid and no one is truly the expert.  Third, as educators we can’t assume that our students are media literate.  We can guide them in learning and using the tools available.

In a counter argument about the benefits of technology, MIT researcher Sherry Terkle published a book in 2011 called “Alone Together: WhyWe Expect More From Technology and Less From Each Other” in which she expresses her conclusions from 15 years of research that social media isolate us and allow us to disengage from true social relationships. While not focused on learning, she cautions about social media and its negative consequences on social connections. She summarized her opinions in a New York Times op-ed piece in early 2012. She also did a TED talk called “Connected, but alone?” on the subject.  Her warnings make for an interesting perspective but they are in sharp contract to the videos Dr. Wesch included in his presentation showing students actively engaged with each other and technology in his classroom game. Perhaps Turkle’s beliefs, while reacting too negatively to the use of social media, can be seen as further reinforcement for Wesch’s advice that we cannot assume students’ media literacy. Technology offers tools but they need to be used with respect and thought.  

Together to Learn

 Week 3: Thoughts on Virtual Learning Community Chapters

I can relate to “community” as a metaphor for an online learning group, as Schwier proposes, as a group of people bound together to learn.  I’ve seen learning communities evolve online among geographically-dispersed professionals who start to share articles, perspectives and resources that enable them to learn from each other and literally change the way each person works.  I have online “relationships” with colleagues in Alabama, Minnesota, and Ohio whom I have never met and probably never will. But despite not really knowing each other, we share learning and informally point each other in new directions to learn more.  We are bound together loosely but use each other to enhance our own learning.

I also like Schwier’s sense that learning communities are everywhere we look.  They aren’t all online; they can be book clubs, fishing groups, quilting bees and survivor support groups.  They are all communities of interest and provide informal learning opportunities.  They offer social connections and often rich learning through social engagement (and Schwier reminds us, intimidation through social engagement, sometimes).  But technology can bring together learners who would not have connected through any other means.  New online collaborators offer different perspectives and an opportunity to access new information and ideas. 

But the jury is still out on participation in communities or online environments, as Schwier also calls them.  In fact, he asks whether online environments promote social engagement or social isolation before pointing to research from Canada that online networking can increase participation in communities and social organizations.  He concludes that online learning communities may be engaging and/or isolating, depending on the participants and their agendas. In the end, technology, as we all know, has advantages and disadvantages, but also presents new opportunities in connecting and learning. 

Eureka!

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Week 2 – Initial thoughts about chapters 1 and 2

The phrase “Do-It-Yourself Learning” (p. 11) in The Connected Educator  resonates. The fact that we each have the ability to design and pursue our own learning plan and opportunities is librating. First, I get to make decisions about my own learning; I get to look for ways to expand what I know into the many areas in which I want to know more. But, better, and even more liberating, is the fact that as an educator, I am no longer the expert who makes decisions about what someone else needs to know. 

All right, true confession: I’m struggling with that last statement. Where does my responsibility as an educator begin and end in terms of teaching and learning? What do I decide about others’ learning, and what do they decide?  As someone who teaches adults in the community, this line may be a easier for me than if I taught in a traditional classroom.  The reality is that my students decide whether to show up or not, and if they don’t find it personally relevant at the time, they walk, most of the time with few measurable consequences.  What I teach is specifically related to life skills – managing money, reducing debt, developing more effective parenting strategies.  What I teach has to be relevant to someone’s specific day-to-day life; my students have to see a need and experience a benefit.  Also, my overall goal is to empower people to know they can change the way they do things; ultimately it is their decision about what and how to change.  I’m there to provide information they may require and/or desire, but they have to run with it.  I’m giving them new tools and resources and hopefully a new perspective (and often a pep talk).  But, at the end of the day, they, as learners, have to do it for themselves.  As this idea has evolved in my personal teaching philosophy, I’ve even found that I’m not completely comfortable with using the term “teaching” because it changes the focus from “learning.”

That brings me to collaboration and connected learning communities (chapter 2).  In my own organization we have started to collaborate in such communities.  As a follow-up to professional development on adult learning and technology, a group of my colleagues and I decided to form a Community of Practice within Cooperative Extension to study the subject of adult learning or andragogy.  We met and formed a loose structure and a plan. There would be no chairperson of the group, no one leader; rather, we would all contribute to the group’s knowledge.  Coming to consensus in a group of strong-minded independent thinkers was a challenge in itself, but finally we chose a book to guide our discussions.  Each of us volunteered for a specific week in which to post a summary of one of the book chapters using Google+; other members would post comments and discussions.  Going forward we will meet via Google+ Hangout once a month to discuss the book as a group.  The book we chose was The Adult Learner.  It’s been bumpy and may not last, but it’s an attempt to address a real learning issue that we’re facing as education professionals and address it for ourselves; we’ve taken ownership of our own learning.

Back to my learners: I’ve noticed that somehow they’re getting the message about taking ownership of their learning.  They also collaborate together in their learning, without my orchestrating it.  They share ideas and stories and frustrations.  They support each other. They realize that others have the same challenges they do. I see the light bulbs go off.  I hear people get excited, because they understand through the process of learning that they can do things differently and get different results.  The “eureka” doesn’t happen all the time, but when it does happen, it’s a pretty amazing feeling.  As it turns out, I do make my own contribution to their learning, but the group together is what makes it work best.  Eureka!

Don't let the butterflies get you down

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 Week 2:  My first thoughts about the class

My initial reaction to this course is anxiety.  My stomach gets butterflies every time I click on the assignment page, and my first thought is “yikes!” It’s not that I’m overwhelmed by the technology or the actual assignments. In fact, I’ve embraced technology in my teaching and personal learning.  I have four different social media accounts for different purposes.  I search out innovative thinkers on Google+ and Twitter, to the point that, on some days, I feel like a groupie rather than a follower. Specifically, I use two Twitter accounts (@sharoncowen and @unhce_fcr make it easy and fast to post information for other learners with similar interests) and a Google+ account (+Sharon Cowen helps to collaborate with and post information for colleagues); recently, I’ve started using LinkedIn (to connect with former colleagues and friends and new people I meet).  Each of these avenues has a different purpose for me, but all incorporate teaching and learning about something as a goal in posting information.  I’ve established relationships with colleagues in other states and found fascinating information that I would never have found without social media. I’ve “met” people who have interesting perspectives on subjects I’m interested in (can people you’ve not actually met face-to-face be considered friends?).

No, my reasons for the ”yikes” response to the assignment page are more basic. One of the biggest reasons for taking this course is to provide myself with a structured place in which I have to commit to learning and using new technology more effectively as a tool.  I love reading about technology; hence, my groupie behavior when using Twitter and Google+.  But reading is relatively passive. Twitter and Google+ are easy to use, and you can get involved in them as much or as little as you want. There’s even a term for “passive” involvement: lurking. I lurk well and post fast.  But I’ve been trying to go to the next level and use more technology in new ways to reach new learners.  So, “yikes” is because now I have to do the work of learning new ways, and all those reasons for putting it off have risen to the surface in the form of butterflies and anxiety.  

Specifically, I’ve been thinking about doing a blog for 3 or 4 years; it makes sense in the type of teaching I do.  But I keep postponing that endeavor. It will take time I don’t have.  I’m not creative. I’m not funny. There are literally millions of blogs out there already; what more can I add?  It takes courage to put ideas out there; someone might take issue with something I say.  I keep reading that blogs are outdated.  Then, there’s the learning curve.  I know I can figure stuff out, but I do so by trial and error, and I’m not patient.  I get frustrated.  I mutter under my breath.

So, now I’ve taken the step to writing a blog because it’s an assignment.  I still have to figure out the answers to the questions I’ve asked.  But, this wasn’t too hard.  I liked the blog post “Why Do I Bother” by Steve Wheeler. That might help with answering my concerns about blogging.

Something specific I want to learn: there is lots of information on the web about using social media and technology for education, which translates to grades K-12 or even college.  I want to figure out how to use it for more informal learning situations for non-traditional students.  I work with adults.  I’m hoping to make the jump from learning about technology and education to using it for teaching and learning in much more unstructured and non-traditional situations. 

I posted a link to an article this week on Google+ that received much interest from my colleagues in Extension, so I will share it here. It’s more related to workplace learning than teaching students, but it could translate to a traditional education situation also and certainly professional development for teachers. It’s an article in  Learning Solutions Magazine called "How Important is Informal Learning" by Patti Shank about the importance of informal learning, based on research, I might add.

To wrap up, I have questions:

What exactly is Creative Commons?

What’s the difference between an article and a blog?

Timm, how did you get the robots for your blog (the mechanics of it)?