apcampbell

My good buddy, Bee, was just interviewed by Julian Wing of the British Council in Brazil. After talking a bit about her own history with computers and the internet, she had a lot to say about the use of blogs and social networking tools in educational settings. When asked about the future of blogging, she had this to say:

Based on what I see happening on the net today and what I have experienced, I´d say there is a shift from timed, isolated and fragmented learning activities inside content delivery systems, towards more open-ended instructional methods and more dynamic ways of learning through collaborative and interactive projects.

For teachers, professional communities of practice have been growing in popularity in the last few years. They provide a more fluid, organic space for dialogue and collaboration than traditional top-down structured learning workshops and courses.

Yes, and that presents major challenges when it comes to dealing with things like curriculum, school calendars, administrative policies, quantitative evaluation, etc., all of which were designed with what Bee rightly calls, ‘the traditional top-down strucutured learning’ mindset. Read more of the interview.