Blog Post 7

The Networked Student

This week Dr. Strange had us watch a video entitled The Networked Student by Wendy and Alex Drexler. The video tells a story about a student who is taking a class that is different than any other he had ever taken. There is no textbook. There are very few lectures. The teacher is a student of "connectivism." The video says that "connectivism" is "a theory that presumes that learning occurs as a part of a social network of many diverse connections and ties." It talked about how the student starts this new experience by collecting the necessary virtual tools to make connections a primary aspect of his learning environment. Once his Personal Learning Network has grown enough to start blossoming, blogging becomes the order of the day. Commenting and posting on blogs is absolutely necessary in a class designed around connective learning.

The video then asks the viewer a question.  If students will be teaching themselves using the vast resources of the world wide web, why do we need teachers? It explains that teachers will show students how to build their networks and take advantage of all the learning opportunities the web can offer. They will offer guidance when a student gets stuck, and teach students about etiquette and ethics in terms of web usage.  They will teach kids to turn their research into an exciting adventure and how to differentiate between good information and propaganda or unscholarly resources.  Finally, they will help students organize the mass amounts of information they find into a piece of work they can be proud of and excited about.  

Many "old school" contemporary teachers worry that this new kind of classroom will require an entirely new kind of teacher, and that the new kind of teacher will lack in factual scholarly knowledge.  I agree that the new classroom will require a new kind of teacher, but I would be inclined to say that the teacher of tomorrow may be more endowed with this kind of knowledge, especially in terms of elaboration and cross topics.  Personally, I love the model of the classroom provided in the video about The Networked Student. In my experience as the student in that model, learning is unavoidable if you follow directions and work hard.