Category Archive for ‘Engagement’ at melanie mcbride online

Archive for the 'Engagement' Category

Classroom2.0: Avoiding the “creepy treehouse”

Published on April 26, 2008 in Engagement, Teaching, Learning, Classroom2.0 and Social software. 2 Comments

As today’s wired learners become increasingly alienated from an education system that is 50 years out of date, innovative teachers are exploring ways to make learning more relevant to learner’s social and cultural identities.

In addition to making learning more meaningful, these explorations have the potential to revolutionize education and transform it into something that equips learners for the social, cultural, political and professional realities of a globalised world.

But there may be a downside. Ironically, the promise of social and participatory technologies may also lead to even greater alienation when approached without pedagogical reflexivity, responsibility and transparency.

The problem of coercion and inequity must be addressed if educators plan to engage in the use of social and participatory tools in a context of institutional power and assessment. Some have called this problem the “creepy treehouse.”

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Attention rabble-rousing with Wayne Macphail

Published on April 17, 2008 in Engagement, Social media, Motivation, Web2.0, Classroom2.0 and Announcements. 0 Comments

A couple of months ago I started experimenting with the use of Twitter and other social media in my wired college classrooms. Meanwhile, out in California, Howard Rheingold was exploring the question of wired attention spans with his UC Berkeley social media class. Rheingold turned these explorations into a series of compelling vlog posts called “Training Attention.”

All of this got me thinking about the nature of engagement in a wired world. It struck me that we’re in need of some form of scaffolding for particpatory and social media use. Specifically, the creation of some sort of attention scaffolding that transports the user beyond a state of random gratification and sensory overload.

These thoughts led to an inspiring conversation with fellow educator and webby Rabble.ca columnist Wayne Macphail. Macphail turned this dialogue into a Rabble column he called “May I halve your attention please?”

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Teaching and learning 2.0: Turn up the good, turn down the suck

Published on March 8, 2008 in Best practices, Engagement, Classroom2.0 and Education. 1 Comment

University of Texas professor David Parry is my idea of the future of education. According to Parry:

“The more we try to put those walls up, and say “I’m a professor, I only talk inside the class” the more irrelevant we become.”

I cannot agree more. This is what Paulo Freire was talking about when he talked about pedagogies of praxis (action v. theory). Especially in relation to the web. Continue reading ‘Teaching and learning 2.0: Turn up the good, turn down the suck’

Howard Rheingold: “Training attention” with wired learners

Published on February 25, 2008 in Engagement, Teaching, Learning, Classroom2.0 and Education. 0 Comments

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In his latest vlog post, Howard Rheingold addresses an increasingly difficult problem for educators: Attention in a hypermediated age. Rheingold takes things beyond the usual “let’s debate multitasking - good or bad?” to the real heart of the matter: How to focus the wired mind?

POST CONTINUATION:
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Classroom2.0: Twitter, del.icio.us and participatory learning

Published on February 10, 2008 in Engagement, Learning, Web2.0, Classroom2.0 and Education. 5 Comments

I do not use a textbook. It is not that I dislike textbooks. It is that my textbook is the web. My textbook is YOU and ME and NOW.

Instead of a book, I add all relevant readings, videos or examples to my course delicious bookmarks.

That’s my virtual, live, textbook - licensed under Creative Commons. And students don’t have to blow 60 bucks on it either. And they can subscribe to this textbook using their favourite feed reader.

Right now v. back then

As I explained to my class, the most important stuff to know about the web is what’s happening RIGHT NOW. I may share a video or article in a couple of weeks that has yet to be written. Course readings are not mandatory - because I share most of the stuff in-class but secondary. If students are confused or if they want to dig deeper, they’ve got Youtube tutorials, how to’s and hundreds of articles and research supporting everything I’m talking about in the course.

For example, this past week, we watched Howard Rheingold’s most recent Vlog post about social bookmarking in which Howard explains stuff I have been talking about (but with more pizazz). Howard is a great teacher. I think it’s because Howard is an artist at heart - artists explore and play. Traditional academia is still very non-creative and non-playful/exploratory - it’s still very much a closed system where things have to be proven and approved before they are anointed with merit (the very definition of laggard). Thankfully, as Howard’s example testifies, times are changing.

Twitter for teaching and learning

In the spirit of Right Now teaching and learning, I decided to try out Twitter this week as a means of offering the students a back channel as well as an opportunity to learn more about emergent content delivery systems and build on their developing knowledge of RSS, aggregation and microformats (all new to them).

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Students 2.0

Published on December 5, 2007 in Engagement, Classroom2.0 and Education. 0 Comments

Like I’ve said before, wired students need wired classrooms - and teachers. More evidence, courtesy of the students of Kansas State University and their wired professor Michael Wesch.Read more about the video here.

Teaching and learning: Diversity is key

Published on November 6, 2007 in Inspirations, Engagement, Learning and Education. 0 Comments

Traditionally, students with learning challenges are labeled, stigmatized and streamed. Difference gets defined as deficit, and deficit comes to define identity. In some schools, this is still the case.

One of the most inspiring figures I learned about at teacher’s college is pediatric professor Mel Levine, whose original research and approaches have helped to redefine what we mean by special education. Levine’s research draws attention to the way that learning differences are typically framed as deficits - a logic that obscured the learner’s strengths. Levine identified how our traditional education system privileges one type of mind over all others. From Levine’s interview with NPR:

“Levine delivers the same message, that all people — and especially students — are wired differently. He preaches the virtues of helping kids understand their strengths and weaknesses as part of understanding the way learning works.” (NPR)

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