Quote: “Any effort to define or direct collectives would destroy the very thing that is unique and innovative about them,” (Brown 54). Running an online learning environment should be less about numbers and more about fostering ideas, so requiring a fixed number of posts or replies is harmful to creating a learning environment.
Question: How do we define “active engagement,” when it can take different forms for different individuals?
Connection: This chapter touches on the idea of collaborative work and study groups. Our collaborative projects in EDSS 541 and EDSS 546B worked in this way; yes, we did have face-to-face time to work on it together but we did most of it digitally.
Epiphany: When students have a role in generating content, teachers do not have to scramble for content as often as they do now.
Quote: “each collective has the potential to make learning fun and easy and allow people to follow their desires and passions in productive an\d fruitful ways” (Brown 72). Learning should be fun and easy.
Question: How can digital collectives be implemented without damaging vital interpersonal skills?
Connection: Annette Lareau’s findings on low-income students, summarized on pages 71 and 72, connects to a lot of what I have read during my research.
Epiphany: Collective learning is nothing new; they’re just easier to form with technology.
Chapter 6: Quote: “most teachers know that when students feel passion for a topic, they will seek out the tough problems rather than the easy ones, and work harder to solve them” (Brown 80). This quote illustrates my feelings about history, and how some of my peers feel about their respective subject areas. Question: Inquiry is a strong learning tool, but how do we extract inquiry from students who lack it? Connection: The summary of inquiry and how collectives can form in this chapter connects to the collectives formed in EDSS 530; however, the book seems to imply that the most productive collectives form naturally, not from decree. Epiphany: “Gamer dispositions” are becoming the norm and more suitable to the learning process as technology progresses. |
Thomas, D., & Brown, J. (2011). A new culture of learning: Cultivating the imagination for a world of constant change. Lexington, Ky.: [CreateSpace?].