Response to Chapter 6

In the opening of the chapter, Scardamalia and Bereiter note that “schools inhibit rather than support knowledge building by focusing on individual students’ abilities and learning; requiring only demonstrable knowledge, activities, and skills as evidence of learning; and teacher hoarding wisdom and expertise” (101). This point struck me at first. I thought that it was a very negative assumption and did not want to feed into the statement, however, after taking some time to analyze what they were trying to communicate, I realize that they made a very profound, and sadly true point. Schools have been and are continually being built on the premise that teachers impart knowledge and students absorb. For centuries teachers have been the experts charged with imparting and assessing student knowledge. Education is in the midst of a heavy and challenging shift and looking to go towards a more constructivist prototype. Schools should be viewed as construction sites, rather than places of memorization. The opening section really intrigued me, leading to further questions within.

The “Knowledge Forums” created by Scardamalia and Bereiter are extremely interesting to me. These forums are based off of the assumption that “shared knowledge leads to innovation and growth” (102). I am becoming more and more convinced of this. Without the sharing of knowledge how is anyone able to ever grow? We need to bounce ideas off of each other and critique and share and summarize in order to see what needs to be developed further. In an individual context, it is very challenging to see from other perspectives. Therefore, using collaborative learning and sharing knowledge will push individuals to take their work to the next level. Going back to the idea of these “Knowledge Forums” I think that the implementation of these in schools is essential to the future. Students are able to create and critique and construct their own knowledge based on shared and collaborative knowledge. I am still slightly confused as to what this actually looks like however. I think that the concept is great and very helpful and should be utilized, but I do not understand how it is much different from a wiki. Is it just a different type of learning environment? Or is it a different program? Is web access available? After doing some research, I found the Knowledge Forum website where the product can be viewed. I realized that it is a program and relies less on the internet. I believe that this has both pros and cons. A pro is that if a school cannot afford to have internet all throughout the school then this program is still functioning. However, my guess is that if a school can’t afford internet than it cannot afford the program. Also, without internet access, students cannot access the program from anywhere and it also takes away the global perspective of the program. I think that it definitely could still be used in elementary classrooms but I would like to understand more about the actual environment of the program and how it differs from online and wiki type programs.

Wikis are a really cool tool that I believe should be implemented in the classroom. I think that it would be feasible for any student to create his or her own wiki when studying a certain topic. The book describes a wiki as website that allows people to add and edit content based on their needs. A wiki would be good to use when doing a research paper or project and students could compile their findings in one place and allow others to add or change things. I also believe that students could use wikis as search tools when looking for different materials. It would be important to note to them however, that wikis are not always reliable sites and it will be important to do other research. The collaborative aspect of the wiki is what makes it so appealing in an age of revolution within schools today. Another really cool facet of the wiki is the ability for students to add their ideas and thoughts to existing wikis. If a student is doing their own research and comes across a wiki that is similar in topic, they may be able to contribute further to an existing space. I believe that this would give students much more ownership over their work due to the fact that they know others will evaluate what they have contributed. In my own research I found a few sites that would be useful to use within the classroom:
Wiki Spaces: http://www.wikispaces.com/site/for/teachers

PB Works: http://pbworks.com/academic.wiki

Wetpaint: http://www.wetpaint.com/

WikiDot: http://www.wikidot.com/

All of these sites are free and are easy to use and can be accessed and effectively used within any classroom for many purposes. It is important to note the use of sites like Wikipedia within classrooms and their resourcefulness.

Moving on to Blogging. Blogs have quickly become one of my favorite tools. Using the blog in this class as our virtual learning environment has certainly warmed me up to the idea of blogging. Their utility and availability make them a great resource for any one person, especially teachers and students. I have really enjoyed submitting my work through the blog and feel like work could be effectively submitted in a similar manner within an elementary classroom. Something that I think is really neat about blogs is that everyone involved in a classroom has the ability to create one: students, teachers, whole classes, and even entire schools. Using blogs for educational purposes also gives learning a more global feel. Students’ work can be viewed, read, and commented on by people from all over the world who have access to the internet. This connection not only builds community like the chapter is trying to reinforce, but gives students a chance to see how their work is relative to the life of people all over. The ability to comment on blogs also adds the collaborative effect to blogs. I think that this is almost better than with wikis because someone could suggest a change or adaptation to be made but it is up to the owner to actually cause the change to occur. I think it gives the author more ownership. Another cool feature of blogs that is effective within the educational realm is that it is a publishing tool. Like we discussed back in chapter 4, publishing students work gives them an air of confidence and the motivation to strive to achieve high levels. When they know that their work is going to be viewed and commented on by others, they are going to work harder to ensure that they are producing quality work. Blogs can also be used by teachers to communicate with parents. Teachers could set up a class blog listing important contact information, a class calendar, assignment descriptions and due dates, sign ups for field trips and so on. Using this resource would eliminate the loss of translation that often occurs between parents and teachers when students are charged with referring messages back and forth. Also, parents would be able to comment and share with one another, which often is not an available option. Students can also utilize blogs as a resource when researching. Although this is an informal source, there are many benefits to using the information provided by experts within certain fields. For example, I hope to use blogs about digital citizenship in my efforts to complete the technology inquiry project. I also really like the thought of blogging for personal purposes. Over the summer, I went on a 10-week mission trip where I wanted to keep the people who supported me up to date on what was happening in my life and a blog was the easiest way to do so. Teachers should encourage students to use digital media such as this to express themselves and should model this same attitude. There are many websites out there that are free and available to all. Some examples are:
Blogger: http://www.blogger.com/home

Wordpress: http://wordpress.com/

Blog Spot: www.blogspot.com

Live Journal: www.livejournal.com

I have had experience with Blogger, Blog Spot, and Live Journal and all of these sites are very easy to use and easy to access. I would suggest any of these sites for students and classroom blogs.

The ideas of iEARN learning circles and Global Schoolhouse are essential in my opinion. With a continually growing diverse population, I think that it is imperative to connect students to other students around the globe. I really like the idea behind the iEARN learning circles where they are heavily focusing on learning through projects and activities. It is not just about the communication but the collaboration work as well. Using programs such as this exposes students to the opinions, ideas, customs, and thinkings of many different students from various cultures. I hope to employ these type programs, as a teacher because I feel like developing well-rounded and global citizens is a requirement for teachers.

Building community amongst other teachers, I believe, is essential to survive the classroom! Similar to the chapter, I feel that so often teachers feel that they are alone or no one understands quite what they are experiencing within their classroom. However, using programs such as Tapped In and Teacher Talk allow teachers to communicate and develop their own sense of community. Although, community can be built amongst teachers within a school or district, these programs open a lot more doors for teachers to communicate with teachers from all over the country and world. The Tapped In site seems very interesting, taking the virtual form of a campus. I think it seems more like a virtual world, similar to what we studied in chapter 3. I think that I like this idea more for communication purposes so I think I would lean more towards using blogs or programs like Teacher Talk. Teacher Talk is a simpler discussion forum where teachers can trade ideas, thoughts, or even give advice. I am so happy to know that technology is becoming more and more advanced day by day, for it is making it easier for me to become the most effective teacher I can be.

I really liked the elements in this chapter. I feel that I was familiar with a lot of the content but also really interested to find out more. I think that the global factor that this chapter focused on is extremely important and I hope to take what I learned here and apply it to my future classroom. Overall I really enjoyed this chapter and think that everything mentioned not only should but also needs to be included in the classrooms of today!!