Source: https://mguhlin.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/pearls.gif?w=300

This evening, as I worked my way through a few blog entries in my RSS reader, I stumbled upon The Ethic of the Link by colleague and friend, Wes Fryer. These paragraphs jumped off the page to me:

One of the reasons our students and teachers need to be regularly blogging and creating hyperlinked content on wikis is to gain competency and understanding of the power of hyperlinked writing. . .Sharing knowledge digitally through hyperlinks and embedded media IS foreign to many, however. Hyperlinked writing is one of the most important topics we can address, share, and encourage educators to learn ABOUT and how to DO personally today.

There is a natural parallel to the behavior we have seen when it comes to mainstream media ‘repurposing content’ online and many school organizations and teachers who see the online world as merely a place to “do school” the same way we’ve done it for decades in face-to-face classes. This tendency is unfortunate and a mistake.

While we certainly can (as Marco Torres points out in some of his presentations) to simply ask students to read pages 1 – 10, and answer questions 1 – 10 at the end of the chapter using online websites and electronic whiteboards, such a use of technology fundamentally “misses” the transformative power of digital and social media. Blended learning is about knowledge CREATION and knowledge SHARING, not simply content consumption. We must encourage learners of all ages to become media PROSUMERS rather than simply consumers, to develop media literacy skills as well as a host of other dispositions and skills vital for success in the 21st century knowledge landscape.

I often encounter folks who just don’t get it. And, honestly, I ask myself whether it’s an act of casting pearls before swine. Then, I remember…once upon a time, I hadn’t a clue. I was swine. That’s the power of transformation, isn’t it?

“I am only a child playing on the beach, while vast oceans of truth lie undiscovered before me.”
— Isaac Newton

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Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure