Information Overloaded

In 1991 I took a course called “Sociology of Communications”. We studied Marshall McLuhan, a Canadian Professor of English who was interested in media and communication and coined the well-known phrase – “the medium is the message” .

Ironically enough, I typed my Marshall McLuhan essay about the need to be producers and creators of media for that course on my Smith Corona electric typewriter (while wishing I could afford a Mac Classic like my roomate).

My audience for my labors was Professor Peter Weeks and the blue plastic storage box in my garage where those papers currently reside. My typewriter became my message; I got an A and passed the course and my ideas….well they are still in my garage.

I guess the point in all my ramblings is this–now when I write, I have the potential to have a real global audience. I write for more than my plastic storage bin and the professor that will give me marks.

The same can be said for the students we teach… and the same can be said for Mr McLuhan.

I can’t help wondering what he would think of his own interviews being on Youtube. No longer do you have to sit in a university course and buy a $150 text book to learn about Marshall McLuhan. I can google his name and read about him on a website; I can watch his interviews on youtube, and I can even hear his radio interviews.

The participatory nature of our changing Web would really have him saying, “I told you so”. (Check out the video below)

I have found an excellent document written by a teacher in the US by the name of Mr. Ben Wilkoff entitled, “101 Tools and Resources For Authentic Learning Environments.”

At a first glance, I was immediately struck by all the great sites and tools listed for teaching and learning. We have already been using some of the resources listed here in our own District: things like Skype, Audacity, Wikispaces, Teachertube and Smartboard Applications, to name a few.

However, the best part of the document, for me, was found on page 3, when Mr. Wilkoff writes about an authentic learning environment:

An authentic learning environment is anywhere that asks students to create products and learning processes with real purpose and real audience. Purposes outside of getting a grade and pleasing the teacher increase ownership of learning. This means that teachers should create activities…based upon the idea that all learning can and should last longer than the course. (I love that last line).

Making learning last beyond the scope of the course! That is what teaching is all about! It’s not about the technology at all. He goes on to explain how he has differentiated between “Tools” and “Resources”. “Tools are not something that challenge thinking. It is something to use within the authentic environment, but it cannot become the reason to do an assignment.”

See, he’s right. We can have all the tools and equipment we want in classroom, but authentic learning is not going to occur merely with these things alone. Good lessons have always been about so much more than that.

Resources [he continues] are places you keep coming back to because there is frequently updated content. They are works that challenge you to think differently and teach differently. They are places that ask you for contribution to the conversation.

In his “Resources” section, he lists ePals, School 2.o, Ted, and various blogs, such as David Warlick’s 2Cents Worth, his own “Discourse about Discourse”, and Vicki Davis’ Cool Cat Teacher. Things that you read and think about, and revise your own methods because of it……

So much good stuff. Thanks Ben! This will Overload my brain for many weeks to come.