Weekly Tech Tip - Self Organizing Learning Environments in the 3rd Grade (inspired by Sugata Mitra's TED Talk)

Weekly Tech Tip:



Related Links:

• Sugata Mitra's TED Talk: The Child-Driven Education
• Sugata Mitra's Newcastle University Faculty Website
• Sugata Mitra's Blog
• Sugata Mitra's Wiki

Video Festival:

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• Dr. Tae — Building A New Culture Of Teaching And Learning from Dr. Tae on Vimeo.

• REEP, KIPP and TFA Lecture Series from Jon Paul Estrada on Vimeo.

• Google For Educators on Prezi

• Schooling the World: The White Man's Last Burden trailer from lost people films on Vimeo.

Link Stew:

• Great Glogster resources with lots of examples
• What is the purpose of school survey by Bill Genereux
• Q&A: Diane Ravitch Skewers Every Education Reform Sacred Cow
• The Attention-Span Myth (NYTimes)
• The New Normal: Doing More with Less -- Secretary Arne Duncan's Remarks at the American Enterprise Institute
• 2010 Global Education Conference Session Recordings (Tons of Free Conference Session Recordings Here, TONS!)
• Skype in the classroom (beta) - A free directory that connects teachers and helps them use Skype to enrich students' educational experience.
• The Digital Access Project supports technology access and digital literacy efforts in the Twin Cities.
• EduCon 2.3 Philadelphia — January 28–30, 2011
• TweetTree - Great tool for monitoring your Twitterstream. Displays images and videos, not just links. Also shows replies to posts in your stream as a threaded discussion.
• MeetingWords: Realtime Collaborative Text Editing - Etherpad clone that supports up to 32 simultaneous collaborators.
  

Blog Carnival:

• Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Joe Bower on for the love of learning
• How I Planned a Successful Unconference in 6 hours - and You Can Too on ReadWriteHack
• What was school like 80 years ago? by Joe Bower on for the love of learning
• Lessons to Be Learned From Paulo Freire as Education Is Being Taken Over by the Mega Rich by Henry A. Giroux on truthout
• Educators need learning advocacy, not technology advocacy by Scott McLeod on Dangerously Irrelevant
• Faux Nostalgia and the Damage it does to Education by Ira Socol on SpeEdChange
• Why? by Aaron Grimm on Grimm Adventures
• The Best Articles & Posts On Education Policy — 2010 by Larry Ferlazzo on Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day
• Being a "tech" advocate is meaningless By Doug Johnson on The Blue Skunk
• When it comes to ed tech, we're cutting off our noses to spite our faces by Scott McLeod on Mind Dump
  

On November 22nd tons of education bloggers blogged their ideas for real education reform. Paula White has published a huge list of those who participated in this event here: You Want Ideas? We Have Ideas!

Neil Postman & Charles Weingartner (1969) Teaching as a Subversive Activity - Chapter 13

Strategies for Survival

"The basic function of all education, even in the most traditional sense, is to increase the survival (cont) http://tl.gd/777il2less than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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"The tendency seems to be for most 'educational' systems, from patterns of training in 'primitive' tribal (cont) http://tl.gd/777k3jless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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@anderscj but tell Postman et.al that educational tendency about which they speak is a problem for western society: what does that tell us?less than a minute ago via webDeborah Rockstroh
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"a paradoxical situation develops when change becomes the primary characteristic of the (cont) http://tl.gd/777lekless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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"What we are saying is that 'selective forgetting' is necessary for survival." Postman & Weingartnerless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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"students [of the old education] who endure it come out as passive, acquiescent, dogmatic, intolerant, (cont) http://tl.gd/7786eiless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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Neil Postman & Charles Weingartner (1969) Teaching as a Subversive Activity - Chapter 12

So What Do You Do Now?

"write on a scrap of paper these questions:

1. What am I going to have my students do today?

2. What's (cont) http://tl.gd/76naleless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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"In the end, it all may cost you your job, or lead you to seek another position, or drive you out of (cont) http://tl.gd/76nc2cless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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For me, in the end it has cost me at least two jobs, led me to seek two different positions, and has nearly driven me out of the classroom. Problem is, I have this extremely strong desire to take the classroom with me.

"In class, try to avoid telling your students any answers, if only for a few lessons or days. Do not (cont) http://tl.gd/76nfr4less than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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I am going to repeat this quote here in its entirety because I think it is extremely important and relevant:

"In class, try to avoid telling your students any answers, if only for a few lessons or days. Do not prepare a lesson plan. Instead, confront your students with some sort of problem which might interest them. Then, allow them to work the problem through without your advice or counsel. Your talk should consist of questions directed at particular students, based on remarks made by those students. If a student asks you a question, tell him that you don't know the answer, even if you do. Don't be frightened by long stretches of silence that might occur. Silence may mean that the students are thinking. Or it may mean that they are growing hostile. The hostility signifies that the students resent the fact that you have shifted the burden of intellectual activity from you to them. Thought is often painful even if you are accustomed to it. If you are not, it can be unbearable." Postman & Weingartner

How many people, if you told them you were doing this in your classroom, would think this kind of pedagogy is akin to a teacher not doing their job? How many of those people are fellow teachers? How many of them administrators? I suspect many. Of course, they would be wrong. It is very difficult to do this mindfully. Teachers have to train themselves to hold back. As an undergrad I was always told to give 30 seconds wait time after asking a question. In graduate school I was told to try 2-3 minutes and see what happens. 30 seconds is hard enough when you are leading a class discussion but 2 or 3 minutes feels like a lifetime but almost always produces amazing results. Try it sometime. Then, when you get used to trying 2-3 minute wait times try what Postman and Weingartner suggest here.

"The only way for you to know where a student is 'at' is to listen to what he is saying. You can't do this (cont) http://tl.gd/76nhisless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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"Invite another teacher to observe your class when you are experimenting with listening. After the lesson, (cont) http://tl.gd/76no65less than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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I love this suggestion! Everyone needs a partner, especially if you are going to try to subvert the system. You do something that looks and sounds crazy to others and they are likely to write you off as a liability. If you and a partner do it in unison it can cause people to think twice about the logic in what you are doing.

"A grade is as much a product of the teacher's characteristics, ability, and behavior as of the student's." Postman & Weingartnerless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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"What would you do differently if you acted as if your students were capable of great achievements?" Postman & Weingartnerless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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"You might bear in mind that your students are quite likely more perceptive and even more knowledgeable (cont) http://tl.gd/76o087less than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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"A good primary grade teacher as well as a good graduate-student adviser operate largely on the same (cont) http://tl.gd/76o2adless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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This quote makes me smile. It reminds me of a conversation I had with my daughter's kindergarten teacher just a couple weeks ago.

"Ask yourself how you came to know whatever things you feel are worth knowing. This may sound like a rather (cont) http://tl.gd/76o45uless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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Neil Postman & Charles Weingartner (1969) Teaching as a Subversive Activity - Chapter 11

Two Alternatives

"If more and more students became less interested in what we have to offer them, we will, I believe, begin (cont) http://tl.gd/76mq3pless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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"Equally worrisome is the heavy emphasis placed on winning, which may mislead the player as to the real (cont) http://tl.gd/76n7bgless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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Why do we in the western world place so much emphasis on winning? Why do we think learning situations have to have winners and losers? This is what struck me the most about this video of a teacher who after seeing Sugata Mitra's TED Talk about self-organizing learning environments decided to try a similar strategy in his class. In none of the examples Mitra gives is there any mention of competition. But, somehow the "American" version displayed here seems to assume that student-centered learning must be structured as a game:

Neil Postman & Charles Weingartner (1969) Teaching as a Subversive Activity - Chapter 10

New Languages: The Media

"The fact that the new media are inseparable from the changes occurring in the environment requires that (cont) http://tl.gd/76634nless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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I believe the authors were speaking primarily about television, film, and radio here given the date of publication but this ought to extend exponentially to today's connective digital media. How anyone can still ignore it is beyond me.

"One of the facts that invariably emerges from any study of human communication is that anxiety, suspicion, (cont) http://tl.gd/766655less than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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"The invention of writing produced a chain of more or less radical reactions at almost every level of society." Postman & Weingartnerless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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"Resistance to [print media] came largely from those who had collected expansive libraries of manuscripts (cont) http://tl.gd/766g3pless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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Sounds like history is repeating itself. Web 2.0 in conjunction with open and wide access to information online is undercutting the need for textbooks in schools or even for schools to be places where students come to get information. It is also undermining the television broadcast business, the newspaper business, and every other institution that has any claim to be a publisher or broadcaster of some sort. We see this with the "To Catch A Predator" scare tactics used by NBC. We see this with the Texas Board of Education in their decisions about curriculum. We see this with Pearson and other textbook publishers who see the writing on the wall and their eminent demise. This is why there is a push by telecom companies to push for elimination of net neutrality. This very issue is at the heart of so much debate in education today. I've used this clip before but it applies here as well. What the powerful information peddlers like the textbook companies, schools that are heavily knowledge-centered, broadcasters, and print publishers are afraid you will find out is that what they sell--indeed what they have can provide--is nothing more than an illusion caused by a fixed perception. They wish to make an open system closed.


Since I began teaching ten years ago I have almost always run into students who like to call me "Mister Anderson" referring to the way Agent Smith addresses Neo in the Matrix.



I am going to be bold here and say that in some ways this may be a slightly self-fulfilling prophecy. While Neo liberated people from a world that was not real, a world comprised of only digital illusion, I aim to liberate people from the illusion of the propriety of information. It has always been my purpose and the reason I continue to work so hard. It is the reason I do Twitter Book Club. It is the reason I do Weekly Tech Tips. It is the reason behind most of my interactions with teachers both in the schools where I work and at conferences where I speak. My work is not as theatrical as The Matrix but it is a fun personal imagination adventure to use Neo as a metaphor for what I aim to do. Essentially, this is what the aim of progressive educators out to be. Wesley Fryer always cites his friend Marco Torres as using the phrase, "Who are your Yoda's?" I am more interested in who are your Neo's?

"Once they have become literate, most people have intellectual and emotional powers that are irrevocable." Postman & Weingartnerless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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I believe this is true about critical thinking skills as well. Once someone is taught how to be mindfully skeptical it is a skill that cannot be revoked.

"The way to be liberated from the constraining effects of any medium is to develop a perspective on (cont) http://tl.gd/766ldsless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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"Being literate in the process of any medium (language) leaves one at the mercy of those who control it." Postman & Weingartnerless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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Which is why it is critical for our students to learn how to take control of and be able to produce their own digital media.

Neil Postman & Charles Weingartner (1969) Teaching as a Subversive Activity - Chapter 9

City Schools

"At present, the conventional school is a hostile place, especially to urban 'disadvantaged' children. They (cont) http://tl.gd/765ovcless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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"The cost—just in dollars—we pay for dealing with these drop- or push-outs far exceeds virtually (cont) http://tl.gd/765qgnless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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"Whatever the reasons were for the present form of public schools, they have little or nothing to do with (cont) http://tl.gd/76607lless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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Neil Postman & Charles Weingartner (1969) Teaching as a Subversive Activity - Chapter 8

New Teachers

"in order for a perception to change one must be frustrated in one's actions or change one's purpose." Postman & Weingartnerless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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This is why it is so hard to be a change agent in a school (or other established system). Agents of change are the ones who rock the boat, they are the ones that point out (and sometimes create) frustration in another person's actions that requires this perception change. This change agent can be a teacher, principal, student, parent, or community member--really anyone can be a change agent. Problem is, if this is your job you are going to make a lot of people angry if you are successful. But, it is a catch 22. You may be ridden out of town for bringing this frustration upon the people you work with. The same is true of students. How many students are transferred to an other school for being disruptive? How often does that student force a teacher to reconsider why there was disruption in their classroom? How often, when seeing teacher perception as part of the problem, has a progressive administrator acted in a way that was simply perceived as "coddling the bad kids?"

"no one can force anyone else to change his perception." Postman & Weingartnerless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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"Why, one asks, if these teachers know their students' problems can they not help them? Perhaps because (cont) http://tl.gd/754uejless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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In my first full-time teaching position I had a lot of students who tended to become "art students" because they found the learning environment in my class one of the only ones where they were not constantly viewed as being the "disruptive jerk." This didn't mean that I was necessarily any better than anyone else with classroom management (in fact, to the vocal majority at that school who viewed any classroom noise a sign of misbehavior a weakness I was definitely perceived as having serious deficiencies in this area). I eventually left that position for a number of reasons but one big reason was this issue. Teachers who had these "jerks" in their classrooms who always saw them as needing "punishment" saw me as being easy on them because I never wrote detentions for them and never sent them to the office for discipline. I didn't think that was what they needed. These kids were smart kids, just had the wrong environment for them 6/7 hours of the day. But no, something must have been wrong with my classroom management style because I didn't discipline these kids. In fact, I never saw the need to discipline kids so long as we established a mutually open and honest relationship with each other. I left that school when in a meeting with the principal, he told me, "There is no one school that can possibly serve the needs of all students. Some students we just have to let go as lost causes." This has stuck with me and probably will stay with me for the remainder of my career. While what he said was probably true for most schools, making this kind of declaration means giving up on our obligation to serve all who wish a public education. I have always found this attitude rather negligent albeit practical. That principal had accepted the system as unalterable for these "problem" students. While I believe he felt the first part of this statement to be true he also felt it was impossible to change the perception of the other teachers, to convince them to listen to their students and know what their needs were.

"We know from the available research that sometimes perceptions can be changed if the point of view of the (cont) http://tl.gd/754v3gless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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"There should be a general prohibition against the use of the following words and phrases: teach, syllabus, (cont) http://tl.gd/7553rcless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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"It is astonishing that so many people do not recognize the extent to which hypocrisy and drivel poison the (cont) http://tl.gd/75556dless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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"There are teachers—some of whom have been at it for ten or 15 years—who know how desperately change is (cont) http://tl.gd/7556huless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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"In their anxiety at having their academic Linus blanket taken away, their first response is to attack us (cont) http://tl.gd/755aakless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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"A woman loses her virtue by doing something she shouldn't a student becomes a good teacher by doing (cont) http://tl.gd/755hg7less than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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"It is quite probable that the most original 'problem solving' activity students engage in in school is (cont) http://tl.gd/755jk8less than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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I have often thought this myself. In fact. I think we should reward students who find clever ways to cheat the system. First, it points out flaws in the system, and second, it surely demonstrates a highly sophisticated ability. I also suspect that a lot of students who do find clever ways to cheat do so not so much because the content is too hard for them but because it is the only way to make it interesting. Either way, cheating ought to be seen as an indicator of a failure on the teacher's part as much as a misbehavior of the student.

RT @anderscj: It is quite probable that the most original 'problem solving' activity students engage in in school is http://tl.gd/755jk8less than a minute ago via webKay Endriss
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"Administrators are another curious consequence of a bureaucracy which has forgotten its reason for being." Postman & Weingartnerless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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"The idea that the school should consist of procedures specifically intended to help learners learn strikes (cont) http://tl.gd/755m4nless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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This why bureaucracies create content standards.

"The developments in 'educational technology' are intended to do all of the old school stuff better—and (cont) http://tl.gd/755nnaless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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@anderscj are you quoting "teaching as a subversive activity"? so sad so little has changed since it was written so long ago.less than a minute ago via webDebby Kurti
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Neil Postman & Charles Weingartner (1969) Teaching as a Subversive Activity - Chapter 7

Language

"It is not too uncommon in the history of the human group for a simple idea to change the entire direction (cont) http://tl.gd/743u5hless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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@anderscj that was exactly what I needed to hear at the exact moment I needed to hear it. Thank you!less than a minute ago via webheidi
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"the medium (in this case, one's language) not only structures what one will see and believe, but is, in (cont) http://tl.gd/74421sless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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"the study of language is the study of our ways of living, which is to say our ways of perceiving reality." Postman & Weingartnerless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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"The history of science is a chronicle of the unhappy responses that have occurred when someone, somewhere, (cont) http://tl.gd/7447agless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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I think this is a rather funny way to view the history of science. True but still funny.

"Language is our most profound and possibly least visible environment." Postman & Weingartnerless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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I think it is least visible when it is your native tongue, but when you are immersed in an environment where the language being spoken is not your own it is perhaps the most visible environment.

"What we abstract, i.e., "see," and how we abstract it, or see it or think about it, is for all (cont) http://tl.gd/744aunless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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What about the expression, "There just are no words to describe it?" Wouldn't the existence of this common phrase indicate that this statement is not entirely true? Sure our language has an enormous influence on how we perceive the world but this statement (along with the main thesis of this chapter) is meant to mean we have no perception or thought without language. I think this is not something we can make definitive statements like this about.

"there is no such thing as 'history,' only histories; that there is no such thing as 'objectivity,' only (cont) http://tl.gd/744jbiless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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I just love this quote. Reminds me of Howard Zinn.

"when we are trying to be open-minded, we are likely to say, 'Let's look at both sides of the question,' or (cont) http://tl.gd/74k7hpless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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This is a powerful argument about the power language has to influence our thoughts and perceptions. It is perhaps the reason why we have a two-party system of politics in the U.S. I think Bill Maher sums up the result of this quite nicely:

"Of course, if we do this with most questions, what we do in effect is to make closed systems of largely (cont) http://tl.gd/74k94eless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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Regarding language, I believe Postman and Weingartner are in this chapter making the relationship between thought and language a closed system when it should be an open one.

"Our students will need the most frequent opportunities to think about problems in an open way; that is, to (cont) http://tl.gd/74kff9less than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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"The ability to learn turns out to be a function of the extent to which one is capable of perception change." Postman & Weingartnerless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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"Meaning is in people. Without people there are no meanings." Postman & Weingartnerless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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Now we enter into a realm I am very familiar with. There are so many examples of aesthetic philosophy and critical theory regarding art appreciation that speak to this exact notion. Given this, one must ask, "Does it really matter what I meant to convey?" Statements like, "That's not what I meant!" are often made as a referendum on the misconceptions of others who interpret differently. However, "That's not what I meant" should be seen rather as an inability for the person to convey their or create a shared meaning. This then also brings into question the nature of reality. For instance, are you who you are or how people perceive you? Could there be two you's? The you who you know and the you who other people perceive may be two different people. Which one is the real you?

Ok, I was pretty much with Postman & Weingartner up until pages 122-132 which consist entirely of quote (cont) http://tl.gd/74kqr5less than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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I think it rather naive to think that something is not observable or knowable without a word to describe it. (in (cont) http://tl.gd/74ks69less than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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When I was a college sophomore I vividly remember getting into a heated argument with a philosophy professor who made these same statements about the nature of thought and language. He insisted that all thought is done in words and wanted us to establish that as a fact in order for him to move on to his next point which would build on that premise. This professor would come in to class each day, sit down in his chair, put his feet on his desk, and proceed to have a "conversation" with us about philosophy. This "conversation" almost always consisted of him talking to himself. He talked an awful lot, rarely gave any wait time, and quite frankly I don't think he cared about whatever responses we might have given to the questions he raised in his philosophical self discourse. When I stated that I would like to challenge the notion that all our thoughts are verbal he was inquisitive but noticeably agitated.

Take, for instance, music. How often do we get a tune stuck in our heads and think A, C sharp, B, etc. No, we think the sound. Now, you could say that this comprises a language of music but it also comprises simple sounds. The same could apply for other noises. It is not as if we don't hear sounds we have no names for or words to describe them. Having words to describe them makes it easier for us to identify them in our environment but their perception does not require a word for it's perception. The same is true for visuals. How often do we see a pattern or a color scheme and just get the visual thought? How often do we think in pictures?

If we have to have a language to think, how would anyone learn a language? Also, how do we describe the obvious behavior of infants or dogs? When I brought this up in college with my professor I remember him sitting and thinking for an uncomfortable length of time after which he dismissed the idea just by saying, "No, I think all thought is verbal." Then he went on with whatever self-talk he was going to have. While I disagree strongly with what Postman, Weingartner, and my former philosophy professor have to say about the nature of thought I completely agree that language has tremendous power to influence how we think. My objection to their "closed" view here by no means is meant to degrade their argument about the power of language to shape our perceptions.