The Pedagogy of Blogs -- Redux
In his UBC Google Scholar Blog, Dean raised the issue of the pedagogy of blogs to which I replied briefly. I’d like to come back to some educational theory that could be used to support the use of blogs.
Earlier models of education often saw it as a transfer of information from the teacher/expert to the student/novices. This view still holds in some parts of the world, but in North America it has largely been replaced by constructivism. The constructivist epistemology maintains that while there is a real external world, individuals construct their own knowledge of the world and attach meaning to it. The implications of this theory for education are important because constructivist teachers do not view education as merely imparting information from themselves to their students. Rather education is the teacher and students working together to construct knowledge and information based on the knowledge and experiences they bring to the class (This is even more important in the education of adults who bring large amounts of experience to the classroom and who tend to want to tie new things they learn to what they already know). Constructivism also attempts to situate the learning in real-world scenarios. This is one reason why I’ve chosen to blog about my experiences at the reference desk. It gives me a chance to apply what I’m learning in class to what I encounter in the real world.
Blogs fit well into the constructivist view of education. In Roger Schank's blog the link to which I posted a few days ago http://www.districtadministration.com/pulse/commentpost.aspx?news=no&postid=16909 is a good example. Schank discusses a metaphor of libraries, knowledge and education, which he feels is outdated and then proposes a different model. He seems to have a considerable following of intelligent readers who take his proposed model and from their own knowledge, experience, and beliefs, propose a number of refinements. The dialog that ensues produces a much better model than he originally proposed.
The caveat in all of this is if no one responds to what someone writes, the educational value, although still present, is somewhat diminished.
Earlier models of education often saw it as a transfer of information from the teacher/expert to the student/novices. This view still holds in some parts of the world, but in North America it has largely been replaced by constructivism. The constructivist epistemology maintains that while there is a real external world, individuals construct their own knowledge of the world and attach meaning to it. The implications of this theory for education are important because constructivist teachers do not view education as merely imparting information from themselves to their students. Rather education is the teacher and students working together to construct knowledge and information based on the knowledge and experiences they bring to the class (This is even more important in the education of adults who bring large amounts of experience to the classroom and who tend to want to tie new things they learn to what they already know). Constructivism also attempts to situate the learning in real-world scenarios. This is one reason why I’ve chosen to blog about my experiences at the reference desk. It gives me a chance to apply what I’m learning in class to what I encounter in the real world.
Blogs fit well into the constructivist view of education. In Roger Schank's blog the link to which I posted a few days ago http://www.districtadministration.com/pulse/commentpost.aspx?news=no&postid=16909 is a good example. Schank discusses a metaphor of libraries, knowledge and education, which he feels is outdated and then proposes a different model. He seems to have a considerable following of intelligent readers who take his proposed model and from their own knowledge, experience, and beliefs, propose a number of refinements. The dialog that ensues produces a much better model than he originally proposed.
The caveat in all of this is if no one responds to what someone writes, the educational value, although still present, is somewhat diminished.
posted by InfoLit Librarian at 9:19 a.m.
3 Comments:
Thank you for this thoughtful, and interesting post on constructivist theories in education. My intuition is that we are still in a period of experimentation with social software, but the fundamental issue for me is that our forays are productive.
So, far I am pleased. I'll be very interested how the School views this experimentation. Dean
Thanks, Dean. For me one of the attractions about LIBR 534 is that both you and Greg are experiementing with new technologies, or new applications of old technologies. While there's no guarantee that everything (or anything -- heaven forbid) works as you plan, at least you're not churning out the same old lessons that you did last time you offered the course. It also allows us to think through how we'll use technology when we become librarians.
As a student, I find that even if something teachers try doesn't work, trying and finding it doesn't work is a lot more educational than being bored silly by a 120 PowerPoint slides in 3 hours.
I couldn't agree more.
This is why Greg and I will try to get through the entire term with NO ppts. Amazing, given last time we had ppts for every class.
Dean
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