A Portal To Authentic Learning
July 19, 2008
Watching Michael Wesch’s A Portal to Media Literacy you tube video was not my first exposure to his work. Last semester I viewed A Vision of Students Today, and was intrigued by the perspectives of college students and the statistics college students presented in regards to their education and use of technology. I was taken back by the information that was given such as the average college class size, the cost of a college education, the amount of students that read their assigned books in comparison to reading emails and face-book profiles. The statistics were outrageous, and considering this video was created in October of 2007, this information is quite dated.
The you tube video A Portal to Media Literacy was very informative. Michael Wesch discussed the importance and impact that technology has in our classrooms. He referred back to some of the studies and statistics that were presented in A Vision of Students Today, however he discussed the study he conducted in great detail.
One of the points that Wesch made was that students love to learn, but do not effectively learn in a traditional classroom where the teacher is at the front of the room and dumps information onto their students, information that is only worth knowing to write a paper or pass a test. Wesch poses the question “how can we create students who can create meaningful connections?” This question made me think about my own instruction and how I implement lessons to encourage students to internalize meaning and think critically rather than just learn the material to pass a test.
In my face to face classroom creating authentic lessons which focus on a skill but encourages students to engage in a higher level of thinking is challenging. It is challenging because more thought and planning go into these lessons. It seems as though teaching from a textbook and dumping information on my students would be straightforward and trouble-free, but what is actually being learned? What are the students internalizing besides me being an “authoritarian” and that they must “obey” what I say. I remember learning in this type of environment, which is why I wanted to become a teacher. I wanted to give my students more than what was given to me.
In an online learning environment, we are at the peak of our instruction and learning. We have an abundant amount of information and tools at our fingertips. As educators it is our job to learn about these new tools and incorporate them into our authentic learning environments. It is our responsibility to introduce these tools to students so that they can create meaning in their learning. By showing students how to learn in a meaningful manner, they will internalize what they are learning and bring themselves to a higher level of learning rather then being told what and how they should learn. Through exploring technology based tools and resources, taking part in group discussions, and engaging in the natural sense on inquiry, students will be brought to a advanced level of thinking and learning.
I found a great resource for educators entitled Children, On-Line Learning and Authentic Teaching Skills in Primary Education. This website examines education as a whole with a focus on ICT (Information and Communication Technology). This website explores how teachers create and implement lessons that allow their students to gather, process, store, and present information using technology based tools in a face to face and online learning environment. Some of the models shown on this website put into perspective the teacher’s role as facilitator and mediator in instruction but put students in the center as the reciprocator of authentic learning.
(4)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o. Retrieved July 18th, 2008.
Wesch, Michael. A Portal to Media Literacy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4yApagnr0s. Retrieved July 15th, 2008.
Children, On-Line Learning and Authentic Teaching Skills in Primary Education.
http://www.educ.utas.edu.au/users/ilwebb/research/authentic_teaching.htm
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1.
bikerlibrarian | July 21st, 2008 at 1:18 pm
Amy (4),
I also reflected on Dr. Michael Wesch’s video, “A Portal to Media Literacy”. You mentioned the part where he spoke about the teacher being in the front of the room and just dumping information onto the students and how that way of teaching is outdated. In an online library skills course that I teach, I feel guilty now because I just give a lecture, it is an information dump. Then the students go get an assignment and complete it where they have the freedom to look up sources on their topic. Do you think my lecture is really an information dump, or rather a bit like “direct instruction”? Is direct instruction considered an information dump like Dr. Wesch points out?
–Geralynn (3)
_________
Wesch, Michael. A Portal to Media Literacy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4yApagnr0s
2.
amy | July 21st, 2008 at 5:32 pm
Hello Geralynn (3),
You posed a great question, is all lectures an information dump, or is it direction instruction?
From what I understood from Michael Wesch’s presentation A Portal to Media Literacy, an information dump is when the teacher is placed at the front of the room as an authoritarian and the information that they are relaying is just information that the students are expected to grasp. For the student, listening to this information requires no critical thinking but rather memorization and retaining the information long enough to pass a test or write a paper. Wesch’s mission is to take students away from this traditional classroom environment and bring the joy of learning back to the classroom and the student. Wesch plans to do this by engaging them in meaningful discourse and hands on activities that bring them to a higher level of thinking.
In your classroom, if you are lecturing and providing your students with information that is going to help them on their quest to complete their hands on project, then I would say that you are teaching directly as opposed to an “information dump”. So don’t feel guilty
I think the main thing Dr. Wesch wanted us to take from this part of his presentation is “How can we create students who can create meaningful connections?” What I took from this part of his presentation is that in order to develop our student’s ability to think critically, problem solve, and create meaning from what we aspire to teach, we need to do this in an engaging manner that personalizes each student’s learning experience and draws them in by talking to them on their level, and relating our course material to things that interest our students such as technology. One thing I was taken back by in Dr. Wesch’s presentation is that in the course he has instructed, on his main platform students are presented with wikis, google news, twitter, digo, and FACEBOOK! I thought this was amazing that he incorporating facebook into his course. To me, I thought facebook is a social web based tool, however he incorporated this program into his instructional design and it was a successful learning tool. As his presentation goes on, it is remarkable to see the discourse and activities the students engage in. As an instructor, Dr. Wesch mentioned the concept of learning with his students. He discussed how his students developed ideas and arguments in their discussion that he couldn’t fathom as an instructor. This made me realize that each student is a valuable part of their classroom community and they have so much to offer when placed in a classroom setting such as the one Dr. Wesch has developed (and that I aspire to create).
Do you think students would be brought to this higher level of thinking and learning if they were sitting in a seat within a traditional classroom receiving information from their teacher?
~Amy (4)
Wesch, Michael. A Portal To Media Literacy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4yApagnr0s