Yaël and I discussed the many aspects of the connected learning framework. Thankfully there are many resources related to this that we could reference and pull from. One thought that kept reoccurring as I read and annotated was that traditional public education no longer addresses the needs of its students (if it ever did.) More specifically, as we grow as a technology laden community it becomes more difficult to teach the skills needed to succeed in the classroom without overhauling the entire system. Connected learning allows for students to explore themselves and learn in environments that traditionally would not be supported by the school system.
One of the articles we discussed, Designing Connected Learning: Emerging learning systems in a craft teacher education course, directly addressed how teachers themselves can change instruction to meet the needs of their students. I love the concept of connected learning, however with the current state of education I have concerns about how to implement it in the classroom without having administration tell me it is not structured enough. The article stated that the “process is not scripted in detail in advance but has to be actively designed by the students themselves.” (Vartiaien, Pöllänen, Liljeström, Vanninen, & Enkenberg, 2016) This is almost impossible in the current public education setting. The framework speaks to me as an educator and I would love incorporating it into the classroom. The goal is not about grades or scores in school but it is about real-world contributions and achievement. From a teacher’s perspective this involves “weaving” or connecting ideas and knowledge across different pools of knowledge. (Cazden, 2006) Education needs to pull from this more often. It is not enough to have ‘book smarts’. Students must develop the tools to think critically and apply their knowledge into many different aspects of their lives outside of school. When I was in college this was called “funds of knowledge.” The idea was for students to use their own knowledge to make learning more concrete and work to embed the learning into a context the students understand. This also allows the students to learn how to challenge the status quo. Yaël and I have spoken at length about how society approaches learning and agree that steps should be taken to progress far beyond where we currently sit. There is an example in Cazden’s keynote address that discusses a Mother’s Day lesson. This lesson asks for students to bring in articles and catalogues for representations of mothers. Then the children participated in discussion to “identify gaps and suggest possible changes” (Cazden, 2006). This teaches students so many things but one of the most important aspects to me is that it teaches students to think critically about how the media represents people. By showing students that magazines and media are not always accurate it opens dialogue on what else may be misrepresented and how it can be changed. By accepting non-traditional media into the classroom teachers allow for their teaching to become more meaningful. This is very difficult because of the system currently in place. For connected learning teachers should not always give a “end result” or procedure and instead should have students come up with their own. (Vartiaien, Pöllänen, Liljeström, Vanninen, & Enkenberg, 2016) There is currently a paradox in public education. Teachers are asked to have students control their learning and manipulate their classroom environment but they are also asked to have clear end results and grading rubrics at every step of the lesson. It is impossible to do this and allow for students to make mistakes and reassess their learning within the road maps and time constraints permitted by the district. Having students bring in articles to allow for discourse about a current event sounds wonderful, but I am required to have a standard posted, a goal task, and how the student will know they have reached the desired “goal”. If students are practicing inquiry they need to follow their own path, not one set by the teacher. This is not to say that I believe rubrics should never be allowed in school or that planned out lessons are not useful. I understand that they have their place, but I wish that my students were given more freedom to explore their world and use their own motivation and interests to guide them. I hope to see more connected learning in mainstream schooling, but with the current school systems expectations I do not see it as part of a curriculum at any point soon. I believe that students learn better with a connected learning framework and I wish that I could encourage my students to take advantage of it more inside and outside of school. To use the students’ funds of knowledge and allow for exploration would be an ideal and very beneficial experience for both students and their teachers. Works CitedJones, J. (2007). Connected learning in co-operative education. International journal of teaching and learning in higher education, 263-273. Vartiaien, H., Pöllänen, S., Liljeström, A., Vanninen, P., & Enkenberg, J. (2016). Designing connected learning: emerging learning systms in a craft teacher education course. Design and Technology Education, 32-40. Williams, A. (2013, April 03). Connected learning: tying student passions to school subjects. MindShift. Retrieved October 15, 2017 from https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2013/04/03/connected-learning-tying-to-student-passions-to-school-subjects/ Cazden, C.B. (2006a) Connected Learning: ‘weaving’ in classroom lessons. Keynote address at Pedagogy in Practice conference, University of Newcastle, 18 January.
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AuthorEllie E. Archives
November 2017
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