Can Somebody Explain This?
Maybe I just don't understand.
At the heart of the Deuce (that would be Anything 2.0) is participation. Not lurking. Doing. We have (as of a few minutes ago) just under 180 members here. I think about eight of us have contributed anything here. Maybe it's ten. I didn't count -- and I didn't count the "Introduce Yourself Icebreaker Assignment." (Hi, nice to meet you. Now? What do you think?)
Ya, I know it was the weekend. But if you're too busy at work and have other priorities on the weekend then what and how are you planning on actually getting into anything involving the Deuce?
Maybe you did something over on the Stop Cyberbullying -- I'm not a member over there -- I haven't looked.
Maybe you're just here to get The Answer. The problem, of course, is that without your voices, we aren't going to come up with any. Personally, I'm of the mind that Classroom 2.0 will not be a room and it won't be in a school. It'll be a place we each establish for ourselves. I'm in my classroom (and my pajamas) as I write this.
How is that going to shake out for - say K-4 kids? Personally, I see a pretty big widening of the gap between the haves and the have-nots. Nobody seems to want to address that one either, except by adopting a kind of No Child Gets Ahead mentality in order to make sure that No Child's Left Behind. It's a good strategy for keeping everybody together, but a miserable approach to expanding knowledge.
So? You people out there! Not Steve. Not Sharon. Not Barbara or Tom. Somebody else. One of you who hasn't said anything yet. Somebody who's been here for a few days and done nothing but read.
Are you out there?
Are you listening?
Are you thinking?
Do you just not understand that lurking is not a viable strategy in the Deuce?
Anyone?
Anyone?
Beuller?
At the heart of the Deuce (that would be Anything 2.0) is participation. Not lurking. Doing. We have (as of a few minutes ago) just under 180 members here. I think about eight of us have contributed anything here. Maybe it's ten. I didn't count -- and I didn't count the "Introduce Yourself Icebreaker Assignment." (Hi, nice to meet you. Now? What do you think?)
Ya, I know it was the weekend. But if you're too busy at work and have other priorities on the weekend then what and how are you planning on actually getting into anything involving the Deuce?
Maybe you did something over on the Stop Cyberbullying -- I'm not a member over there -- I haven't looked.
Maybe you're just here to get The Answer. The problem, of course, is that without your voices, we aren't going to come up with any. Personally, I'm of the mind that Classroom 2.0 will not be a room and it won't be in a school. It'll be a place we each establish for ourselves. I'm in my classroom (and my pajamas) as I write this.
How is that going to shake out for - say K-4 kids? Personally, I see a pretty big widening of the gap between the haves and the have-nots. Nobody seems to want to address that one either, except by adopting a kind of No Child Gets Ahead mentality in order to make sure that No Child's Left Behind. It's a good strategy for keeping everybody together, but a miserable approach to expanding knowledge.
So? You people out there! Not Steve. Not Sharon. Not Barbara or Tom. Somebody else. One of you who hasn't said anything yet. Somebody who's been here for a few days and done nothing but read.
Are you out there?
Are you listening?
Are you thinking?
Do you just not understand that lurking is not a viable strategy in the Deuce?
Anyone?
Anyone?
Beuller?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Barbara on
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Okay, I know am not supposed to answer...but that is what I do in the morning... check in while I drink my coffee before work. I have to say I had made the same observation about participation. I figured most folks are watching to see the conversations that develop. Maybe they are even looking for something a little more classroom specific because some of our conversations have verged on school 2.0 not classroom 2.0. I will do my part and think about a new thread to post.
To all of you reading..I invite you to jump in...the water is fine and there is room for everybody. If there is a topic you are looking for post it...your voice, your questions, your ideas are valuable.
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Permalink Reply by nlowell on -
Nope. You're raising a good point! Being aware and lurking is better than not being aware.
I'm participating in several discussions outside here, as well. There's no shame in being a lurker at all. The problem is that everybody's a lurker, then there's nothing to lurk and the space becomes educational instead of interesting.
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Permalink Reply by Chris Craft on -
I have been watching this discussion via my RSS feed (which is tough to do).
You say you need my voice to help come up with an answer, yet most of what I see is opinionated statement, not discussion-provoking questions.
You are trying to encourage me to respond by nearly berating me for doing more reading than writing. I've heard that in order to learn one must read copious amounts, and so I have been doing so...
Don't fuss at me for reading, reading is not akin to lurking. If you really want my opinion, ask me. Post thought-provoking posts and ask questions that will make me think and offer me the chance to offer my opinion.
Just noteworthy that your format is not conducive to anything other than a defensive response, which I imagine is not what you intended...
Chris
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Permalink Reply by nlowell on
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Excellent point! And I'm guilty as charged. I've posted a lot of opinionated statements.
But I'll defend it as the nature of discussion.
I've staked out a couple of positions. "Deck Chairs on Titanic 2.0" is one ... this post is another. There are a few scattered about. What I anticipated was some back and forth about what might be more realistic (not unlike this response actually.) A few people have risen to the bait -- um -- that is .. challenge but my concern is that we have 200 people in a room staring at each other and not talking. I've been in those classes before and I don't like 'em.
Personally, I'm getting bored with checking and checking and checking and finding nothing here. So ya, I appreciate that you're expecting some kind of polite, moderated, "Now class, let's consider ..." question. But that's not MY idea of what the Duece is about. That makes it a very odd place for people used to being in well-defined thought spaces to be.
Now, we can have the kind of "Everybody wait for the teacher to ask a good question" discussion here or we can roll up our sleeves and get 2.0 on our bad selves.
What I'm trying to do here is establish which it's going to be. If you think I'm out of line, say so, and post the question you want to explore. Model the behaviour you think I should be using.
Some of you still have reading to do. Some are still working out the mechanics. Some (David, Will, Andy) are just watching to see if anything will happen here. That's fine. It's why I didn't get too crazed when we only had 50 or 100 people here. But we're approaching the critical mass and if this community doesn't ignite soon, it's going no where.
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Permalink Reply by Chris Craft on
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Again I wonder as to the purpose of us tossing statements back at each other. You said it yourself, that you have "staked out" a few positions, which I view as a very proactive attack stance.
When folks are standing around in a room not talking it doesn't do much good to shout at someone else in the hopes that they will shout back with their own opinion.
Nor am I saying that we should throw out "polite, moderated questions".
Quite simply, it's a matter of expressing the inner workings of the heart and mind, and yours has been notably expressed. I'm a guy who likes to talk in different terms.
I don't want to get defensive about my lack of participation, but as it boils down, so far, there hasn't really been anything worth participating in that would show my students a beneficial change in my pedagogy.
After all, this is about the kids sitting in my classroom right now, and what is best for them, where best is defined as supported by research, best practice, etc.
If you want me to regularly participate in this, tell me what you're doing in your classroom that is working wonders on your kids, tell me why, and tell me how.
Then I'll consider really jumping in, because it puts the perspective back on the kids, not on what I think about participation.
Back to them, their group projects need attention...
Incidentally, you mention that some folks are waiting to see if anything will happen here...does it really matter? If we get thousands of posts going but little changes in the classroom? Most of us are already walking down the road to change, and I am not sure if this medium will reach anyone else.
No disrespect to any of the three you mention, and I am sure they have quite an impact on teaching and learning, but I am worried about my own students, not impressing the big names (not saying you are) and that cannot be the purpose of the space we have here.
Chris
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Permalink Reply by nlowell on
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Chris said, "[S]o far, there hasn't really been anything worth participating in that would show my students a beneficial change in my pedagogy."
Bingo!
I'll sit down and shut up if somebody else will carry the ball.
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Permalink Reply by nlowell on
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Chris also said, "[T]ell me what you're doing in your classroom that is working wonders on your kids, tell me why, and tell me how."
My "kids" are grad students. I wish I could teach K-12, but they don't let me. The only "under 18s" that I'm allowed to teach are my own (8 and 11).
But in response:
In my classes, tho, the first week consists of
- set up a blog
- set up an aggregator
- link everybody's blog to everybody's aggregator
- get an IM client
- connect to at least two other people on IM
- visit TappedIn, set up your office, and leave me a message.
- stop thinking like a student.
- start thinking like a learner.
the problem is that I couldn't do this in K-12. School firewall policies would shut me down. Heck, the university goes nuts when I tell 'em that 90% of the course happens in the student controlled spaces. so i don't tell 'em.
And my students (who are teachers) learn that learning is more important than grading.
how sad is it that I have to teach that to teachers?
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Permalink Reply by Bud Hunt on
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Thanks for sharing this. Have you any student links? I'm curious to know how many of your learners are still blogging/aggregating/im'ing at the completion of your course. If it's higher than 10%, I want to know lots more about how you facilitate those classes. And if you'd like, I'd be happy to show you how to set up a high school classroom like this. It's completely doable -- except we wouldn't and don't use TappedIn.
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Permalink Reply by nlowell on
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Unfortunately, none of them is still blogging. The teachers who got them after me didn't promote the use of the tools and they didn't continue. It wasn't QUITE long enough to get them fully indoctrinated :)
They are still on IM, tho, and I talk to them occasionally. They tell me they're still reading their 'gators and they talk to each other about current courses that way as well.
Did I mention that I live in Colorado and my students are all in Kentucky?
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Interesting questions. Alja expressed this pretty well -- but I'll give it a whirl, too, if only for validation. I certainly "lurk" here, if it can be called that. But I'm not a lurker. I'm guessing that I'm not alone -- I'm curious about Ning but I'm having some difficulty connecting the closed groups of Ning into the open system of networks that I've created for myself via RSS and my aggregator. Am I still a lurker if you take into account my blog and commenting done across multiple other sites?
Or, does it only count if I write here?
There're a multitude of conversations occurring in a multitude of places -- I wonder if there would be more value in aggregating the existing ones rather that starting more. What happens if 100 percent of people are writing all the time? Who reads? Who listens? Who contemplates? Who cares?
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Permalink Reply by nlowell on
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Hey, Bud.
My point about this space is that if we're not using it, I'm gonna pull it from my feedlist and go to where the conversations are happening. Like Barbara's discussion on textbooks.
I agree with you about aggregating current content. (Disclaimer: Bud's already in my 'gator.)
Steve? You had the answer to "Why Ning?" earlier...
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Permalink Reply by Chris Craft on
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As usual, Bud does a better job of expressing worthy thoughts in less space than I.
I would quibble only with how to define open versus closed networks. I really can't participate in your network, Bud, unless I "earn" my way in with good writing, etc. At least here everyone is on the same playing field, in theory. Now there is a clear heirarchy emerging, which I am not sure I like...
I have to admit, I cannot answer your question as you articulate, "There's a multitude of conversations occurring in a multitude of places -- I wonder if there would be more value in aggregating the existing ones rather that starting more. What happens if 100 percent of people are writing all the time? Who reads? Who listens? Who contemplates? Who cares?".
Seems like a lot of folks want to start something new, like this.
Is it beneficial? I dunno. I'm not convinced yet. Hence the reason I'd love to talk about real classroom best practice. I wish you'd blog more about that, Bud. I'd love to hear more about the "paper" you guys publish...but that's just me.
Chris
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