A New Language

Several weeks ago Julie Lindsey wrote an excellent post about being a globally connected educator in which she simply outlines her day for us. From an international spate of blogging and email, using Google Docs to collaborate internationally with a colleague, to bringing Skype into play to continue the connections she has been supprting throughout the day, Julie's entire day was a whiz of activity and it is a must read post.

This got me thinking about how different the entire experience of learning and teaching are for those of us involved with these technologies from those who aren't. As Julie outlined, we have globally connected days where we may be using a variety of tools either for ourselves or with the kids in our classrooms to organize and plan learning experiences. But it also has me thinking about how we are creating a new language and a new form or learning.

I first want to argue that the learning of a student in a globally connected educator's classroom is both quantitatively and qualitatively different from the learning of a student in a different classroom. Not only do I believe that these two students would obviously be learning very different things, but that the actual structure of their learning is different. They have a different experience of what learning is, of what counts as knowledge, and of how learning happens.

The same is true for the teachers themselves. Globally connected educators believe that different kinds of things count as knowledge and are important enough for kids to know. Globally connected educators believe that learning happens in different ways, using different tools, and in different spaces and times that teachers not involved in learning in these ways may not see.

So this is bringing on a split, a new kind of digital divide.

These two hypothetical teachers mean very different things when they talk about information, about research, about communities of learners, and even about basic ideas such as reading and writing. They will have a hard time discussing the tools they use in their classrooms. One teacher may talk about textbooks and workbooks while the other wants to ask about VOIP, IM, and Moodle. Their technical language is certainly different, but so is their perception and understanding of much more basic terms.

Are we speaking a new language of learning? What is the effect of this divide on our practice, on our students, on the perceptions of others such as our administrators and our parents? What happens three and five years from now when newly developed tools and pedagogies are that much further developed? Will we be able to talk to our colleagues across the hall?

technorati tags:julie, lindsey, pedagogy, connections, change, education

Comments

[Julie Lindsay]

Clarence, thank you for your kind words about my recent post about being globally connected. Your comments here have really hit a nerve with me as I firmly believe this is a new language and a new approach to learning. What we are doing is taking the best pedagogical constructivist approach, wrapping it in holistic, multicultural and global learning and tying a neat Web 2.0 bow around it.
You are right, I am having more difficulty discussing this with my fellow face-to-face colleagues and finding the 'new language' I speak a barrier. I am looking for solutions to this dilemma as being a 'technology leader' I want to be innovative and creative but at the same time accessible and not alienate others.

[Miss Profe]

The fundamental dilemma that all of the discussion re: Web 2.0 creates for me is, does it really elevate the cognitive discourse in our classrooms? My issue at the present time with my students is that many of them do not take the necessary intellectual leaps in their thinking, and make the connections that I believe that they should be making at 9th and 10th graders. Wikis, podcasts and blogs don't create students who can think critically and creatively. This needs to happen early on in their education. Provided that students are taught how to think, the applications of emerging technologies makes more sense to me. I just get the feeling that if I as an educator roll in on Monday morning tricked out in Web 2.0 fashion, that somehow intellectual curiosity and spark will burgeon amongst my students. A teacher who uses textbooks and worksheets may be creating real learning opportunities in her classroom, and to suggest that because her neighbor is using Web 2.0 is somehow providing his students with a more phenomenal learning experience. I think we need to be careful with this type of thinking.

[Clarence Fisher]

Julie:

This: "What we are doing is taking the best pedagogical constructivist approach, wrapping it in holistic, multicultural and global learning and tying a neat Web 2.0 bow around it," is the most succint, total, one sentence description I have seen of what we are trying to do. Not so simple sounding though is it....?

Miss Profe;

Granted and agreed. But, I do believe that I have a much greater opportunity of creating learning experiences that are meaningful, connected, and authentic using these tools than I do without them.