I feel like I was all over the place this week in terms of learning. I’ll try to do some summarizing and synthesizing before I fill out the weekly check in:
Judi commented on my post Just Stop It:
“So ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äù isn?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t that part of constructionist learning, also? Think about what you?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢re doing in this 3-week unit. You?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢re constructing knowledge, for sure ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äù but just PART of your learning is ?¢‚Ǩ?ìconstructionist,?¢‚Ǩ? per se. And, if you were focusing on a different topic ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äù say, writing def poetry ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äù the process would probably be more constructionist than what you?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢re doing during this three-week unit. But constructionism (at least the way that Papert, Harel, and Resnick have demonstrated it) can be overdone, IMHO, and different learners probably respond very differently to it.”
She is absolutely right. I am constructing knowledge even though only part of my learning is purely
“constructionist.” And we’ve already determined that constructionism is different than constructivism. And I know from reading E.D. Hirsch, that there is controversy about what exactly constructivism is. (Actually, Hirsch would like the students of the teacher in Texas because he argues that students are always constructing knowledge for themselves even during direct instruction like a lecture. But the important part of your story for me is that the students were in a position to request how they wanted to learn. That doesn’t happen too often in public education.) But I think what draws me to constructionism is that too often making things is relegated to non-core classes or final projects. It’s the learners who like to make things that often don’t get a chance in school. In general, this brings me to a personal frustration with the “isms.” They can all be, to use Judi’s word, “overdone.” Reflective teachers will have a panoply of strategies and methods of organization. Rather than having any particular “ism” control what we do in our classrooms, we need to find ways to work across them.
Judi commented on my post That Tingly Feeling:
“For students aspiring to be teachers, why couldn?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t there be a MOO-like experience in which they (virtually) construct learning experiences online that allow them to experiment with ideas for technology integration ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äù perhaps from both the teachers and the (K-12) students?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢ points of view?”
Bingo…I’m not sure how to do it but now that the elementary ed tech course I teach is two credits, I want to do some serious rethinking. Can I set up a game like the one Judi shared in class? Or figure our the MOO (or find one that will let us add on)? Even though I’ve made some changes to the course since I first started teaching it, I still feel like it’s a very teacher-centered course so I’m not doing anything to really model the way technology can empower the students.
