In one of online courses–actually, An Introduction to Online Learning–someone wrote something that spurred me to respond:
One way I think we can teach our students to be open-minded and to look past what ever feelings they might have about specific people and their response, might be to have students respond to questions on post-it notes. Then have them place their post-it note responses on a sheet of chart paper. The students could then have a gallery type walk so students can read their classmates responses. This might be the beginning step that will allow students to see their classmates thought process maybe similar to theirs. As well as, find responses that they might find interesting or may not have thought of initially but was written by another student. Doing an activity will allow students see are other great ideas out there without having to initially attach a person to those response per say.
While a part of me hates the fact that these conversations happen “behind closed doors,” I am thrilled that the conversations are taking place…so, here is my response:
What an excellent point! This really reminds me of (dare I say it) Literacy with an Attitude (Patrick Finn), and the concept of learning to use more explicit language. Here’s the point that’s made:
Where individuals rarely have occasion to deal with strangers, they tend to rely on allusion to shared experience for communication; where individuals must communicate with strangers frequently, they learn they cannot rely on shared experience; they cannot be sure of what the other person knows or thinks. . .In communities where people feel powerful, they get a lot of practice in using explicit language; they get into the habit of using it, and they come to expect it of others.
This is the difference between implicit and explicit language. How do children develop this? Per Finn, they have to communicate with strangers more frequently.
As a teacher who used technology to extend learning beyond the classroom walls, I see our ability to use blogs and wikis as a way to externalize our learning, allow students to manifest their creativity in ways that do not rely on implicit language, on shared experience. Instead, students are expected to be explicit about what they know, how they know, what they feel about what they know or don’t know while sharing that under the “objective” eye of strangers.
Here is one example of many of how blogs can be used to build student learning communities that help them feel powerful, provide practice in using explicit language, and extend learning beyond the classroom walls through the use of technology.
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