May 3, 2007
Today my train of thought started with technology transforming schools and ended with Socrates ... made perfect sense to me!
Today, I studied.
I did not set out to study. Rather, as usual, I began my day by opening my e-mail, going about my business, expecting to get some work done. But the commentary in the latest issue of Edweek caught my eye: Technology Can Transform Schools. Underwhelmed upon reading it, I moved on to Noah's blog, and noticed a link to the conversation economy which Noah had annotated with "As consumer markets fragment, marketers and designers must understand how platforms evolve and influence human behavior"..
I clicked on it, and made a note in an e-mail to myself to write something comparing and contrasting these two essays and how far apart business and education were today. But a comment on David Armano's article referenced the cluetrain manifesto, basically saying that, 'we said all this in the early 90's.' That got me thinking about the use of the word 'conversation' and my mind leaped to another related word: dialogue. Now there's a word that came up quite some time ago!
I couldn't help myself. I googled "principles underlying Platonic dialogue" and came up with a truly fascinating lecture by Heinrich Bluecher, delivered at the New School For Social Research in 1954, part of a two-part series on Socrates.
This, of course, is an intersection I'm fascinated by: the link between the human conversation facilitated by technology and the purpose and potential of dialogue that Socrates embraced when he raised his essential questions on the nature of man "He just wanted to discover the principle of action in man, what is the source of this creative principle, and how we can use it? This is the central question of pure philosophy ..." ( p.4)
This is what I found: "So the power of reasoned judgment (what Heraclitus called the infinite logos that is in man) is Socrates' formula, and it is this infinite logos which he tries to analyze and move towards step by step in philosophical practice. To "practice" is one of his main terms. To have telos, to set possible aims and to be able to reason out these possible aims in community with other human minds. Never alone, never trying to be the big shot over everybody, the expert, but always trying it out. " (p.4, underline emphasis is the author's, bold is mine)
There it is! There is the link! For Socrates, the unending search for wisdom was always meant to be a community practice. He may never have envisioned the extraordinary scope of the community the internet would allow, but he knew full well that the dialogue that took place in one circle would find its way to another and that understanding would grow as different discussions, interpretations and reflections flowed from group to group, ever-enriching this conversational search for 'truth'.
And I realized that as I sat recording these thoughts, my pulse had quickened. That when I was not actually writing, I was gesturing with my hands -- alone in the room -- talking to myself -- thinking about the significance of these connections.
That is why I'm here. Here, starting a blog at the ripe old age of 55. Here, in a second career, trying desperately to bring education into the 21st Century. Because making these connections is exciting. If I am learning I feel alive, motivated to learn more -- and motivated to share.
As I write that, I realize that that is what I want for the children in our schools, to be motivated by the pure excitement of learning. That, I believe, is truly how technology can transform education. The question is, will we allow it to happen?
join the conversation
#1 Elenor
said . . .
May 3, 2007
Hmm - it seems that some folks thrive on the group learning/thinking/sharing more than others. Scientists, for example, work together in labs and try to understand their results jointly. Book clubs are another way to expand understanding of literary intent by exploring conclusions in dialogue with others. But its my impression that others, perhaps artists, are more apt to go-it-alone ... is that true?
#2 Barbara Storace
said . . .
May 3, 2007
You go Barbara!!!
May 3, 2007
But the process of the search is different now, I think, as evidenced in the earlier part of your story. Learning was once linear; certainly, it was for Socrates, whose method proceeded step by step by step in a sequential logic. With the internet, however, we graze, links taking us every which way. Whether the change in process effects a change in results, I leave to the educational consultants among us...
#4 Randie Denker
said . . .
May 3, 2007
I am not a huge fan of technology in education in the younger years. While I am not unaware that the technologically illiterate are at a huge disadvantage in later life, I believe that children learn best in their younger years from people, not computers.
The reasons why so many children are "left behind" (I reluctantly quote our semi-literate president here) are myriad. Obviously, many children have a home environment that is not conducive to learning and they arrive in the school system already handicapped and behind the curve.
My experiences in the educational system consist of having put a child through the public school system, having been actively involved in her schools for 18 years and having volunteered to teach various programs in the public schools over the years. I have also read extensively and observed successful and unsuccessful experiments in education.
Here's what I would do if I were installed as the "benevolent despot" in charge of education in the US:
For starters, I would do away with all edu-speak. It makes the silver in my teeth vibrate like that awful sensation that you get when you accidentally chomp down on aluminum foil. If the administrators and teachers can't speak coherent meaningful English, how can they expect the children to use the language to express clear intelligible ideas?
The second thing that I would do is stop glorifying competitive sports and star athletes and start glorifying high academic achievers and creative thinkers.
The third thing that I would do is to drastically reduce class size in the lower grades and assign one-on-one tutors to stay with under-achieving students full-time UNTIL THEY ARE BROUGHT UP TO GRADE EXPECTATIONS. Ideally, these tutors would even go into the students' homes after school. Although it might not be popular to use this this as an exemplum, the Cuban literacy experience is, in my opinion, worth emulating. When Castro came into power, literacy in Cuba was very low. Castro created the Literacy Brigade. Thousands of literacy teachers went door-to-door around the entire country. Whenever they found someone (adult or otherwise) who could not read, they stayed with that person until they could. When they were finished, each newly literate person had to write an essay about their experiences and what learning to read meant to them. The essays and pictures taken of each newly literate person are compiled in a Literacy Museum in Havana. Cuba, for all its other faults, has a higher literacy rate now than the United States of America. One-on-one teaching works! Yes, it's expensive, but I know of no other way to insure success in reading, writing, math, science and other subjects. A teacher with a large classroom full of boisterous children cannot accomplish the same results.
And finally, fourth on my list is starting times for schools. Many studies have shown that young children and teenagers have differing sleep requirements and differing circadian rhythms. I would start and end school times to coincide with each group's optimum learning times, EVEN IF THIS INTERFERED WITH AFTER-SCHOOL SPORTS PRACTICE, HEAVEN FORBID!!
Okay, that's my two cents.
May 3, 2007
Thank you all so much for coming, reading and commenting! This dialogue has just begun, yet I can already begin to see my future website graph .
Ellie -- I think you're right, different people learn in different ways; team learning and problem-solving are certainly common in the sciences, as they are in many other pursuits, like book clubs. Perhaps ironically, these collaborative learning activities are historically uncommon in education which generally remains highly hierarchical in structure.
Barb -- I love you too!
Susanna -- the internet does indeed give us a process option that is dramatically different than Socrates'. But that certainly doesn't preclude his more linear, scientific methodology. By the same token, if Socrates had had a blog, as opposed to the presumably far smaller forums for discussion available to him, he'd have had the opportunity to be inspired by a far larger circle of thinkers and questioners, leading to who know what. The media IS the message here, and it has profoundly changed the learning possibilities.
Randie -- I have to disagree with you about technology in the early years. Children certainly learn many, many vital things from other people, but given the current reality of the average classroom and the ever-increasing quality of early-learning literacy and numeracy programs, I believe technology provides the greater opportunity for personalized instruction based on each child's learning style and pace. I can't disagree with any of your other ideas; you would be in a very long line of others anxious to impose them, particularly reducing class size. (Though in all fairness, there are also a lot of people who feel their children learn more through team sports than they do in the classroom.) Finally, you might be interested in a post I wrote as guest blogger on Noah's site a couple of years ago, relative to the importance of teacher/student relationships.
#6 Esther
said . . .
May 4, 2007
Very cool! Thanks for sharing!
May 4, 2007
Great, another Brier blog that will routinely be over my pilsner-addled head.
#8 Jarrett
said . . .
May 4, 2007
Congratulations on the new blog. I'm very excited to read all the thoughts and ideas that will be posted here.
#9 Andrea Nugent
said . . .
May 4, 2007
Congrats on the new blog!! I've subscribed so I won't miss a thing!
#10 liz
said . . .
May 4, 2007
Welcome to the big world of blogging. I started mine about 3 months ago and was inspired by Noah's blog. After reading your blog I can see where he inherited the capacity for complex thinking and the passion for connecting and communicating with people.
Nicely designed blog - clever Noah.
I've subscribed so I can enjoy your writing and thinking on a regular basis.
Liz
#11 Bonnie in Albuquerque
said . . .
May 4, 2007
Love your blog already Barbara :) Very interesting post. Being in education myself and a huge Noah fan, I often think about the differences in business and education. I have used a lot of his ideas and links with my colleagues and students.
On the Cuban literacy project, a lot was based on Freire, who is my absolute favorite... I wonder how Freire would approach his ideas of dialogue and praxis would be different with the internet...????? Maybe when I finish my dissertation that would be a good paper to write :)
looking forward to more of your posts!
Bonnie
#12 barbara
said . . .
May 4, 2007
I am absolutely blown away by everyone's attention and thoughtfulness. I sincerely hope I can live up to your expectations, let alone the standard Noah has set! Thank you all for your support -- words can't express how much it means to me.
#13
said . . .
May 5, 2007
Technology brought me here! congrats brb! Keep blogging.
#14 Toby
said . . .
May 7, 2007
Hi Barbara, looking forward to reading your future blogs.
I came across an article recently that really resonated with me and which brought to life the concepts of technology and learning and how the two are no longer mutually exclusive.
To quote:
“For technology to play a full and meaningful role there needs to be reduction in emphasis on targets, prescriptive practice, standards and ‘content delivery’.
The challenge to teachers is about the way they engage with learners and the role they play in stimulating communities of learning, and in co-creating with them, rather than just imparting information.
New forms of online collaboration can support a wide range of behaviors that are needed to survive and thrive in the modern world, and therefore in theory at least, help develop the kinds of skills that education should aim to provide.”
It goes on to talk about how technology is taking the socialization of learning to another level and how educationalists need to learn from those they are trying to educate to fully understand this rapidly shifting landscape.
Check out Ewan Mcintosh's blog www.edu.blogs.com for some practical case studies of how emerging technologies are being used in schools in Scotland - really fascinating stuff.
#15 David
said . . .
May 10, 2007
I'd be interested in your thoughts about how computer/internet technology might support within-school communities -- teacher communities, or kid communities, or mixed communities -- where the result was that the participants felt the satisfaction of accomplishing shared goals in the Socratic step-by-step way you described.
Maybe it is supported by a blog that structures a dialog more than typical blog software does. Perhaps the dialog is focused first on building consensus on a shared goal -- then documenting the goal in a way visible to the community; then focused on discussion to arrive at shared methods to achieve the goal -- and documenting these in a visible way; then recording progress toward the goal (e.g. the fund-raising thermometer).
Is there a way to integrate what is known about (a) energizing school communities, (b) using technology in a clever way, and (c) applying Socratic ideas that has some motivational potential in schools?
#16 barbara
said . . .
May 10, 2007
Funny you should ask ... back when I was managing my first educational undertaking, I worked very hard at organizing regular meetings of the 12 teachers implementing the performance assessment project at Ponus and then giving them regular feedback in the form of a monthly newsletter, which we reviewed during one meeting a month.
This was my effort to encourage reflective practice through feedback loops and the meetings were incredibly successful, we almost always left feeling energized by the process. But ironically, when I surveyed the group at the end of the project (for my thesis) they valued the meetings highly, but did not particularly value the newsletters.
It took me a long time to figure out that they simply didn't want to have to read something we were going to discuss anyway. I still needed to provide the 'summary' of what we'd learned in the past month, just not in writing.
This has basically been my experience with professional development in education too. Most teachers seem to love the opportunity to work and/or learn together -- perhaps because they so rarely get the opportunity. But would they be as energized by a blogged conversation? I'm not sure.
For most, I think they'd be better off with a real-time, podcast format -- something that made them feel more physically connected. Now maybe that's because most of the teachers I know are older -- really young teachers, who grew up with technology, might be different, as, I'd suspect, students would be.
There are a number of people who have been quite successful with blogging in the classroom (Will Richardson springs immediately to mind) and I think in some ways, it's just a matter of what you're used to. They whole IMing thing kids are into these days -- carrying on several conversations at once (something I'm awful at, btw!) suggests to me, at least, that most kids would be quite receptive to working together, online, on shared goals of all sorts.
For the adult part of the education community, I do think you're going in the right direction with the idea of framing some sort of problem-solving process that demonstrated gains in a highly visual way. I'm always surprised at how unfamiliar educators are with the basics of long range and strategic planning, yet they're increasingly being called on to create such plans. Perhaps that's a place to start.
I'm not sure if that actually answers your questions -- which are excellent and very challenging :) -- but hopefully it's a start.