Week 1 - Blog Posting #2 - Learning 2.0

When I think about Learning 2.0, I think initially about what learning is in the first place. I believe that learning has happened when a person can take the knowledge or skill they have learned and apply it elsewhere when needed. I’m reminded of what’s called the Cone of Learning, first developed by Edgar Dale in 1946. This has been a controversial idea due to the fact that some things have appeared on the cone that are not credited to him, and know one knows where the additional facts came from. But when I look at what the cone says, from my observations in the classroom, it makes sense. Notice how the doing (application) is at the highest level of remembering.





Now when you apply what this shows to learning 2.0 and what is happening on the web it meshes. This is exactly how learning is taking place on the web at the highest level (doing). You can find this cone at http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/agexed/sae/ppt1/sld012.htm.

A research paper dealing with Learning 2.0 published in
EDUCAUSE Review, vol. 43, no. 1 (January/February 2008) by John Seely Brown and Richard P. Adler called Minds on Fire: Open Education, the Long Tail,
and Learning 2.0 makes some great points. They talk about the Cartesian view of knowledge and learning that has been around in education for the last 100 years. I quote: “The Cartesian perspective assumes that knowledge is a kind of substance and that pedagogy concerns the best way to transfer this substance from teachers to students. By contrast, instead of starting from the Cartesian premise of “I think, therefore I am,” and from the assumption that knowledge is something that is transferred to the student via various pedagogical strategies, the social view of learning says, “We participate, therefore we are.” This is certainly what we are seeing when it comes to Learning 2.0 and how people are operating. Another idea they put forth is that fact that and again I quote: “We now need a new approach to learning—one characterized by a demand-pull rather than the traditional supply-push mode of building up an inventory of knowledge in students’ heads.”

My goal in my classroom is to continue to use web 2.0 more and more. I already use Google Docs, Voice Thread, blogmeister, and epals. I plan on using wikis and xtranormal. I’m also going to continue to work with my new principal to get my school up to speed.

I really like the video Learning to Change-Changing to Learn located at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tahTKdEUAPk. This was a call for change by people who are out in the real world. These are CEO’s and leaders of education that know what’s going on and why we need to change our model of learning.

We have the tools, now it’s time for the administration, teachers, and government leaders to get a clue as to why No Child Left Behind doesn’t work and make the changes, no matter how uncomfortable they are. Let’s all step out of our comfort zone, the web is waiting, but the students aren’t.