Monday, August 12, 2019

will this blog see tomorrow?

It's an open question.  Think about our first in-class discussion, ask yourself what you really want out of this semester, and then comment to this post with your decision and at least one reason for it.  (NOTE: As Benjamin Franklin famously observed, "We all hang together or we all hang separately." We won't move forward unless all of us participate.

I've created an approach to learning in which students use 2.0 tools to create their online identities, express themselves, and show the public what they can do. 

I call the model Open-Source Learning and I define it with a mouthful: "A guided learning process that combines timeless best practices with today's tools in a way that empowers learners to create interdisciplinary paths of inquiry, communities of interest and critique, and a portfolio of knowledge capital that is directly transferable to the marketplace."

Students use Open-Source Learning to create a wild variety of personal goals, Big Questions, Collaborative Working Groups, and online portfolios of work that they can use for personal curiosity, self-improvement, or as a competitive advantage in applying for jobs, scholarships, and admission to colleges and universities.  You can see a sample course blog here, some member blogs here, and sample masterpieces here and here

Several members of the first Open Source Learning cohort made this video about the experience:



In an era when it seems like all you hear about school is how much it sucks, it's nice to see student achievement make positive waves.  Check out this Open-Source Learning interview with students and Howard Rheingold, the man who literally wrote the book on The Virtual Community 20 years ago. 

The defining characteristic of Open-Source Learning is that there is no chief; all of us are members of a network that is constantly evolving.  Another key element is transparency.  What we learn and how well we learn it, how we respond to setbacks, and even some of our favorite inspirations and habits of mind are right out there in public for everyone to see.  Readers will rightly perceive what we curate as the best we have to offer.

And all this is Open.  In thermodynamics, an open system exchanges substance, not just light and heat.  To us, the important idea is that the network can change in composition and purpose.  Every time you meet someone new and exchange ideas, you're not only enriching each other, you're changing your minds and contributing opportunities for others to do the same.  In other words, you're learning and teaching* (*one of the most effective ways to learn).

We're not limited to one source for curriculum or instruction.  We have a full slate of online conferences scheduled this year including authors, authorities on the Internet and social media, entrepreneurs, and others.  A few years ago a mother/daughter team presented a lesson on class distinctions in Dickens & Dr. Seuss online.  Ricky Luna invited a champion drummer to talk with students online about music and its connections to literature and life.  If we read something that makes an impression we can reach out to the author.    As you get the hang of this you'll come up with your own ideas.  Testing them will give you a better sense of how to use the experience to your greatest advantage.

No one knows how learning actually works--what IS that little voice that tells you what you should've said 15 minutes after you should've said it?  How does a subneuronal lightning storm somehow account for our experience of being conscious?  We are not sure how to account for the individual experience and demonstration of learning.  We are also not sure what exactly the individual should be learning about at a time when factoids are a search click away and the economy, the environment, and the future are all increasingly complex and uncertain.

Maybe this is why learning still seems magical.  Maybe it shouldn't be.  Maybe if we learned more about how we think we'd be better off.  After all, how we think is a powerful influence on how we act.  If you think of your blog work as a list of traditional school assignments/chores, you will treat it that way and it will show.   Your friends will miss your posts and worry that you've moved to The House Beyond the Internet-- or that you're still at your place but trapped under something heavy.  At any rate you'll be missing the whole point.  This work should help you connect the dots between the interests that drive you, an academic course that derives its title from words hardly anyone uses in casual conversation, and practical tasks like applying for scholarships and college admissions.  The general idea is for you to: do your best at something personally meaningful; learn about how you and others learn while you're in the act; and fine-tune your life accordingly.  In addition to mastering the core curriculum, improving your own mind is the highest form of success in this course of study.

As you well know (Put that phone away or I'll confiscate it!), many people are worried about the use of technology in education.  They are rightly concerned about safety, propriety, and focus: will learners benefit or will they put themselves at risk?  The only way to conclusively prove that the benefits far outweigh the risks is to establish your identities and show yourselves great, both online and in meatspace.  As we move forward you will learn how the Internet works, how you can be an effective online citizen, and how you can use 2.0 and 3.0 tools to achieve your personal and professional goals.  You'll also learn a lot about writing and the habits of mind that make readers and writers successful communicators. 

Because Open-Source Learning is a team sport, this is all your call.  You have to decide if you want to pursue this new direction, or if you want to invent another possibility with or without digital and social media, or if you prefer the familiarity of the traditional approach.  There is admittedly something comforting about the smell of an old book, even if it's a thirty-pound textbook that spent the summer in a pile of lost-and-found P.E. clothes.  My perspective may be obvious but I'm just one voice.  Please add yours with a comment below. 

48 comments:

  1. I think that being able to talk and write about thing that actually interests us students is far better than to just do book work. I don’t really care if it’s going to be public to the whole world.

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  2. I feel like doing the blog will give us as students a chance to do something different than just simple book work like the past years

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  3. This blog is way better than using the book Because we use our phones every 10 sec and the book is boring

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  4. It think doing blogs would be so much more fun than just reading and writing on paper. It'll be a better experience.

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  5. this blog will be a new thing for most people because most teachers are always asking for all of our work done on paper

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  6. This just in from Cris: Most people would agree with me that having the vlog would be much better than the text books we have

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    1. I published this for Cris because every time he tried, the page refreshed and his comment disappeared. I'm trying to find a solution for this -- for now, if this happens to you, please email your comment to me and I'll publish.

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  7. I have done this before and it was really worth it. I think that the people that havent done this before will really enjoy this.

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  8. doing blogs i feel like will make me feel more involved and feel like i am participating.

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  9. I really feel that if we do this blog we will learn way more than doing the text book because if it’s something we enjoy we will actually try to learn it and memorize it better.

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  10. I think doing this blog would be a good idea because it’s something different that has good potential and it’s more fun and exciting than just reading books

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  11. I think this is better than the traditional teaching.

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  12. I feel that doing the blog and the OSL will really help us. Never before have we been given choices, or been able to use electronics in our work.

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  14. I have a feeling of trust that this blog will be a great thing to use even though i don't have experience with it

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  15. I think this will be good for us because I enjoy doing stuff on the computers instead of the books I also think this is better because it’s like we are our own bosses

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  16. I like to do the online version with Dr. Preston because it helps us learn about things that we might not ever think about studying during high school like flying a plane or writing stories for people and getting the opportunity to get it published and becoming a real book.

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  17. I feel that this blog is a fresh and welcoming way to teach or learn from as it utilizes sources from peoples life experiences.

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  18. I think that doing book work will just bore us as students. Making a blog keeps things interesting and exciting. It also introduces a new way to learn and understand the text.

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  19. I feel that doing the blog will be easier. It make students, more interested in doing there work.

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  20. I feel like doing a blog is better because students get to express themselves and learn something unique and different. I think this is very inspiring

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  21. I feel like doing this blog will be fun and very interesting. In my opinion it's better than doing book work because you know your self more than a random book. lol

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  22. I feel that doing this blog will be fun and interesting because it is not something I have done before so it’s different. Another thought I would like to add is doing this blog will be good for us because other people can give us feed back so we will get more than one person’s opinion.

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  23. I feel like making a blog will be beneficial overall with it not only being beneficial but it also allows us to express ourselves and it would be something different compare to previous learning experiences in English classes personally .

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  24. I feel like this open source learning will catch the eyes of students who get tired of learning with books and are interested in learning a different way to express themselves more.

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  26. I prefer open source learning because it looks interesting and it might help in a way in my future goals.I like the way that we could see other people perspective and learn from them.

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  27. I never done a blog before but this might be something that might be better than just having a text book in front of you the whole time..

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  28. i have never even heard of a blog but i feel like it will be a good experience. I also feel that it will be worth choosing this over than reading off a textbook.

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  29. Blogging my learning has never even crossed my mind before. Since most teachers teach with the same method of having a book in front of your face, blogging will definitely be a new different and interesting experience.

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  30. I believe that blogging would actually be a good way of learning, also enthralling because teachers don't give us the option of learning how we want to learn. Although I am a fan of reading books, blogging seems slightly more appealing to me.

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  31. I think that this way of learning will be more effective and fun for us students because we won’t always be look at a boring book instead we will learn in a way we haven’t

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  32. I think it’s better doing blogs than using textbooks because using textbooks overtime get old and boring.

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  33. I feel like doing a blog would be a positive change to how english is taught. The idea of letting us have the option to choose our way of learning is refreshing and an interesting way to keep our attention. Although I'm a fan of learning through textbooks and writing on paper, i find the idea of a blog exciting and a good way to see my progression throughout the year.

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  34. This just in from Alex Montgomery:
    I feel like doing a blog is better then doing traditional book work because it opens a door for a new type of learning and it gives us an opportunity to learn about things want to learn about and gives us many options to learn about and explore

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  35. I think doing blogs is going to be fun because its something that i have never done. Using textbooks is really boring and at the end of the day i dont remember anythin.

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  36. I think that doing this blog will be very fun, since i haven't done anything like this before.Using textbooks is not going to be as fun as doing a blog.

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  37. Dr. Preston certainly knows how to appeal to his audience ,so I trust him he will lead me down the path of pursuing my own education instead of random, dusty textbooks that are outdated for anyone's sake.

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  38. I think that this idea will be good because it is different and might make people like learning. I personally want to get better at writing essays.

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  39. I feel like making a blog will make teens and adults ,kids, express there self in a way.

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  40. This just in from Soledad Mena:
    I feel like making a blog will be much more fun then from textbooks I am actually very excited to try blogging it’s something new to me and I think it’s something that will be really fun

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  41. This just in from Noemi Ortiz:
    I believe that this online blog will help us in the future of our generation since our community is already filled with electronics, computers & etc. I am sure that this blog will shows us how to do things in the real world & getting us prepared for what’s to come our way. I believe that our English class will be differently than going to in a book and being bored, I strongly believe that doing this blog will be more exciting & fun learning English in a different type of way that we never done & I’m so excited for this experience.

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  42. I think that doing bogs is better than just reading out of a book so yeah thanks DR.Preston very cool.

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  43. I think that the open source learning is a great way to not only learn about the subject but many other things that intrest us and not what the course wants us to learn in a not boring way.

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  44. This just in from Joannes Gonzalez:
    This blog would be inspiring to other people who hate reading books and writing on paper that they prefer typing instead and having fun blogging about their stuff.

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  45. I feel like doing the blog instead of actual English work will help us learn something new.

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  46. I feel like doing this blog will be a new experience for us students

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  47. I think doing blogs on subjects we love will make subjects we love even more better and if we can't find what we love to do and focus on it,looking at other blog can be of big help too

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