http://www.speedofcreativity.org/2008/02/25/knowledge-and-learning-require-both-transmission-and-construction/ Mon, 06 Oct 2008 18:49:47 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 http://www.speedofcreativity.org/2008/02/25/knowledge-and-learning-require-both-transmission-and-construction/#comment-49286 Wesley Fryer Tue, 26 Feb 2008 04:44:28 +0000 http://www.speedofcreativity.org/2008/02/25/knowledge-and-learning-require-both-transmission-and-construction/#comment-49286 Sarah: While I am an advocate for blended learning and generally more permissive access to technology and the Internet for students than we see in many of our midwestern public schools, I certainly AM also an advocate for limits and boundaries when it comes to technology and learning. I am not an instructional anarchist! Sometimes constructivists and followers of Dewey are mis-branded this way. Certainly students do and can be expected to misuse technologies and generally test the limits/boundaries of adult rules in virtually all contexts. I'm an advocate for accountability and digital citizenship, which goes beyond simply blocking technologies and imagining that students will cultivate the capacity for ethical decisionmaking by the imposition of rules by adults. I advocate for safe "sand-boxes" where students can engage in social networking, with the involvement of adults. Most of these proposals are radically "out of the box" in the public school districts where I work now in Oklahoma. We've got a long way to go..... Sarah: While I am an advocate for blended learning and generally more permissive access to technology and the Internet for students than we see in many of our midwestern public schools, I certainly AM also an advocate for limits and boundaries when it comes to technology and learning. I am not an instructional anarchist! Sometimes constructivists and followers of Dewey are mis-branded this way. Certainly students do and can be expected to misuse technologies and generally test the limits/boundaries of adult rules in virtually all contexts. I’m an advocate for accountability and digital citizenship, which goes beyond simply blocking technologies and imagining that students will cultivate the capacity for ethical decisionmaking by the imposition of rules by adults. I advocate for safe “sand-boxes” where students can engage in social networking, with the involvement of adults. Most of these proposals are radically “out of the box” in the public school districts where I work now in Oklahoma. We’ve got a long way to go…..

]]> http://www.speedofcreativity.org/2008/02/25/knowledge-and-learning-require-both-transmission-and-construction/#comment-49284 Sarah Kaminski Tue, 26 Feb 2008 04:33:31 +0000 http://www.speedofcreativity.org/2008/02/25/knowledge-and-learning-require-both-transmission-and-construction/#comment-49284 I appreciate that you push for a ‘blended learning’ style. The fact that teachers can still just lecture at students and cut them off from technology just doesn’t seem right. Technology has improved and broadened so much that it seems silly that it isn’t incorporated into the classroom. I read your other article blocking all social networking sites in schools, and was dully impressed. I believe that you have some wonderful points. I believe that it isn’t the technology that is bad, but that students are the ones who are misusing it. I believe that teaching students appropriate behavior is essential to using these new technologies. Isn’t online networking and social networks just like networking face to face? We prepare our students so well for working face to face, why can’t we do the same for the web? Or could this all be part of the older generation still resisting the shift in technologies? However, though all of this may be well and good, do you think that all technologies should be allowed, and all networks accessible? While I think that using all the technological advancements we can is a good thing, by opening the gates to all technologies, wouldn’t we be encouraging misuse? There are some interesting things that can be done with cell phones, but if a student had access to it all class long and was allowed to use it, wouldn’t they misuse the privilege? Or is misbehavior just a lack of teacher’s disciplining their students on appropriate use of technologies? I appreciate that you push for a ‘blended learning’ style. The fact that teachers can still just lecture at students and cut them off from technology just doesn’t seem right. Technology has improved and broadened so much that it seems silly that it isn’t incorporated into the classroom.
I read your other article blocking all social networking sites in schools, and was dully impressed. I believe that you have some wonderful points. I believe that it isn’t the technology that is bad, but that students are the ones who are misusing it. I believe that teaching students appropriate behavior is essential to using these new technologies. Isn’t online networking and social networks just like networking face to face? We prepare our students so well for working face to face, why can’t we do the same for the web? Or could this all be part of the older generation still resisting the shift in technologies? However, though all of this may be well and good, do you think that all technologies should be allowed, and all networks accessible? While I think that using all the technological advancements we can is a good thing, by opening the gates to all technologies, wouldn’t we be encouraging misuse? There are some interesting things that can be done with cell phones, but if a student had access to it all class long and was allowed to use it, wouldn’t they misuse the privilege? Or is misbehavior just a lack of teacher’s disciplining their students on appropriate use of technologies?

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