e-poche.net

James Farmer just published his presentation entitled, Using Weblogs in Education, for the Learning Technologies User Group Workshop.  On the subject of the successful use of weblogs in educational settings, he says (mp3):

The only way that weblogs will work is if we start looking at teaching
and learning as communication, and if we start re-considering our
assessable outcomes.  And we have to pay significant attention, I
think, to these realities before we really get going.

This reminds me of an earlier discussion that Barbara Ganley had started about whether the pedagogy or technology comes first.  What she was suggesting, as Will pointed out,
is that the technology we’re using has the potential to transform the
pedagogy through its very structure, similar to the way James wrote about how the structure of the learning environment will strongly influence the type of communication that takes place.

In the institutional setting, however, it is the teacher who largely
determines the degree to which such a transformation can be
successful.  Teachers who aren’t willing to re-examine and change
their approach, who have students simply post homework to blogs for
grade, will stiffle the growth of communication and learning in the
same way a gardener would to that of a houseplant by placing it under a
table.  I just don’t think that we’re going to make much progress
with blogs in institutional settings until teachers understand this
very important point. 

On the difference between the traditional Learning Management System
(LMS) and the Weblog-based Learning Environment, James has this to say (mp3):

(The LMS)…environment is controlled entirely from above.  People
go to the source, where they then request a discussion board, which
they then put onto students, and so on. It’s extremely
centralized.  However, in a weblog environment, then, it is the
actual students and the teachers who are participating, if you will,
the ’small pieces’ that make up the whole…in a loosely joined
way.  And this is a very, very significant difference to me. 
The first environment is centered around the organization, centered
around the system; and the second is centered around the
individual.  And in
my opinion, to have a successful communication environment, a
successful online environment, one which is motivating, one where
networks can form, one where people can communicate easily with each
other, it has to be centered around their presence as
individuals.  And I think weblogs and aggregators can do this.

This
is an ideal toward which we ought to strive.  We should
remember though, that simply placing students, many of  whom -
bless their souls - are strongly conditioned to the top-down model,
into a position of self-control in a peer-to-peer learning environment
can be equally stiffling; kind of like putting a goldfish, who has spent
her entire life in a small bowl, directly into a giant
lake with all its diversities and dangers.   Confusion and anxiety is bound to ensue.

A transition is necessary; some training if you
will.  Teachers must have some understanding of the value of a
learner-centered approach and the potential harm of a teacher-centered
environment so that they can model how best to use weblogs to encourage
connection, communication, and sharing.  Technology on its own is
not going to transform learning in institutional settings.  It is,
rather, the teachers who must make a shift in their pedagogical practice.