(my blog posts are like buses - none for ages then 2 come along at once)
Teacher in your network
Year 2~Day 207 +178/366: Learning about Geometry
Originally uploaded by Old Shoe Woman
George Siemens asked this question at at the Networked Learning Conference hot seat that I missed last week.
Can learning networks (partly) replace the teacher?
The slightly ambiguous posing of the question avoided straight yes/no answers and generated some interesting responses, it’s worth checking out the link above. Suifaijohnmak also posted his ideas. This really made me think about learning networks and students. I was thinking about younger learners (but it could also apply to other learners). I thought of a really good teacher who would be a very important part of a student’s learning (network) but would be actively working to become less important over time. Look at the picture and imagine the teacher wanting herself to disappear over time - as the Cheshire Cat disappears only its smile remains. So the confident learner who has had a satisfying and productive experience with a teacher will replace him/her in their network with books, web sites, fellow learners, other teachers, etc.
I can remember returning to a school where I had been happy, and feeling slightly disclocated. This helped me realise that I had moved on, and was a different person in a different place on my journey. So what I believe is that good teachers are important parts of learners networks whose roles have built-in obsolescence. Good teachers know when to intervene and guide, and when to step back and let learners learn only from experience. They have smiles and encouraging words to reinforce achievement and good-natured re-direction when a learner is getting stuck. They can also offer the gift of acknowledging when they have learned from their students to show the bi-directional nature of networks; and encourage a love of texts, images, films, etc. to show that learning networks contains people and things.
So in answering Yes to George’s question, I want to qualify it as Yes over time, and to wholeheartedly endorse the role of the teacher in learners’ experiences.
4 responses so far ↓
1 mlrearick // Nov 1, 2009 at 3:12 pm
Hi Francis.
Love the photo! Perfect one for Halloween!
Good points, too.
It seems that questions like these have been asked and answered before…
“Where have all the learners gone?”
“Is there a teacher in the room?”
“Do we need a teacher to learn?
From a situated sociocultural perspective, learning is about becoming proficient enough to participate competently in a context. From the perspective of activity theory, the learner learns through processes like guided apprenticeship, guided participation, and participatory appropriation (Rogoff, 1995). Gee (1996:138) explains learning as a process of subconsciously acquiring skills, data, ideas… by exposure to models, trial and error, and practice within the group, while learning is the process of consciously using the knowledge… to teach or explain to someone else what one has learned.
An important skill to acquire within discourse communities, one which is often, but not always associated with formal learning… systematic, deliberative, contextualized, ongoing practical and scholarly inquiry, is the ability to consciously evaluate the information has been gathered and organized by an individual within a group context.
I am smiling… as a learner and as a teacher… I am learning/teaching in face-to-face, professional, or network communities of practice…
I am pretty sure that learners/teachers have an intuitive sense of when they need to play the believing game and when they need to play the doubting game. I also believe that good learners seek out good teachers who seek out good learners.
Learning is a Interculturalhistoricalmodaltechnologicaldisciplinary practice and I don’t see the demand for good teachers/learners going down anytime soon.
2 Frances Bell // Nov 1, 2009 at 4:44 pm
You said it mlrearick . It’s about the learners but let’s not ignore what ‘good’ teachers can do.
3 Frances Bell // Nov 1, 2009 at 4:56 pm
OMG. there was a split infinitive in my post - will me psyche survive the shame?
4 Mary // Nov 1, 2009 at 7:05 pm
Hi Francis,
I just finished listening to Richard Schweir’s talk to EC&I 831 about patterns of participation in nonformal and and formal learning communities. Did you hear it?
Schweir discussed his research into intensity, density, and sustainability of learning in those three contexts. Interesting.
Schweir is an excellent teacher. The listener gets a clear idea of his research agenda, his findings. If the presentation is an indication of how he teaches, then one could infer that he is an excellent teacher. Does he ever split infinitives? Probably. Perhaps intentionally. He tips his hat to Alec Couros, his former student, who is also described as an excellent teacher. Alec has the good sense to connect with people, to provide scaffolding and links to content that will enable credit and noncred students to establish their personal learning networks and connect with each other, yet also blaze their own trail. George and Stephen are also described as inspiring teachers–teachers with their ‘hair on fire’ and teachers ‘on steroids’.
I came away from the session thinking….
Good teachers are excellent communicators.
Good teachers design environments, instruction, and assessments that help learners become inspiring teachers.
Good teachers inspire learners to engage in formal, informal and nonforal learning.
This post is limited to the discussion of the comments made in the presentation: PursuingthecommunitymetaphorEC&I831
http://educationaltechnology.ca/couros/1687
What do you think a good teacher does?
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