From personal experience, I use the web as an "interest based" (Richardson, 288) function, I connect with those who share the same interests. I have learned and implemented countless activities in my daily instruction from other teachers insight. For example, I've watched youtube videos on how to make día de los muertos cake pops as skulls for a class activity!Network literate allows students to understand how to use global knowledge that is readily available.
As for Nelson's case, "the Web is no longer as "read only" technology, that we now have a read/write relationship with other users." (Richardson, p. 288). People, communities are connecting, sharing and collaborating, we are now participants. The web has turned this information exchange from a passive one to an active one. Richards states that we are are contributors who participate in this effort to make knowledge more readily available. We have to teach our students skills and strategies to digest the knowledge and synthesize it all so that they can learn from it.
Interestingly enough, Richardson states we must " look for those with whom we can learn and trust in the virtual sense absent the typical physical space cues and interactions to which we are accustomed. (p.292)
The web opens to doors to vast amounts of information where as in the past was only done through newspapers, currently we can tap into "the wisdom of the community" which are ways to retrieve more reliable and someone we can trust. Teachers could help students answer these questions, "when do we email someone instead of comment? Do we create a video response? How do we disagree in appropriate ways?"
Tom Carroll declares, "The stark differences between ways we approach the learning process inside the walls as compared to online are pushing schools and classrooms toward a sense of irrelevance....we must recognize that schools and classrooms are becoming nodes in networked learning communities." (2000).
This quote was 14 years ago, this quote clearly states the struggle for adjusting with the new and now. Gathering and sharing information has radically changed; we must adapt to ensure we are moving forward and not staying stagnant.
I think that it was Jeremy that stated, "We as humans don't like change" or something along those lines, so yes, I think it's going to be a huge and challenging adjustment for the older population to recognize learning in this way (I'm including myself in this!)
ReplyDeleteI find it quite interesting that the article states that this new way of learning is both at once individualized and more social. The idea of making vast amounts of connections in cyberspace is incredible! Although, personally I'm finding it difficult to adjust to this new of way of learning, I'm now beginning to truly realize how important it is for educators to become proficient in network literacies.