Well, Tuesday January 14th was like old home week as the ETMOOCers gathered around our twitter feed (#etmchat/#etmooc) and chatted about what we had accomplished since starting ETMOOC. Quite a buzz! Some people described it as a high school reunion! As always it was a pleasure to share and discuss different ideas.
After the chat, I was energized as I always am after an ETMOOC exchange of ideas. I am currently reading Noam Chomsky's "Chomsky on Mis Education" and after the twitter chat several of the ideas he was discussing really struck a chord with me. They explain why the ETMOOC community is so strong and why we all feel that it has been such a powerful learning tool. Chomsky mentioned, while writing about John Dewey and his approach to education that, "education is not to be viewed as something like filling a vessel with water but, rather, assisting a flower to grow in its own way...In other words, providing the circumstances in which the normal creative patterns will flourish." (pg 38)
Everyone learnt that one in teacher's college, right, but how often do we see it happen? Well, it happened in ETMOOC and it happens in DS106 everyday. So using social media tools to connect, share and collaborate allows for the 'normal creative patterns' to flourish. What connected communities like ETMOOC and DS106 allow to happen is for us, as academics, teachers, administrators and trainers is to throw off the shackles of curriculum, 'what you should learn/do/know' and actually play and make our own meaning without fear of judgement. It allows us to grow in our own way.
The other interesting aspect of ETMOOC and other connected learning I've participated in (CLMOOC, Open Spokes, Headless13, etc.) is that it promotes a "free association on terms of equality and sharing and cooperation, participating on equal terms to achieve common goals that were democratically conceived." (pg 39) ETMOOC had us working, playing and learning on the same level. The hierarchy of the school structure vanished and we all worked together for both common goals (lipdub) as well as our own personal learning goals. According to Chomsky this produces "free human beings." Certainly I feel as if I've been released from bondage. I may never go back to regular school again! (Oh well, no PhD for me!) I wonder what elementary school would look like if we approached education in this manner? And would society be willing to let children play their way to learning?
Thursday, 16 January 2014
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mdvfunes 15p · 596 weeks ago
"it promotes a "free association on terms of equality and sharing and cooperation, participating on equal terms to achieve common goals that were democratically conceived."
Awesome reflections, Karen. My highlights from your post above and wanted to engage with the ideas here. But first I have to pull out something else: your reflection of 'I may never go back to regular school again'. My version is: I may never go back to being a regular academic again! Once you see the potential, you see the joy and the output that working in this self-directed free-association without covert power plays brings - what would keep me slogging away to be part of the academic mainstream? Why would I want to go back to teaching in that way? I don't. I thought I would be able to involve my academic network in #opened, I cannot. There is a question as to why I feel I need to change them rather than just change myself. There is much personal work still to do as the trappings are to do with status and recognition, if I am honest.
The draw of actually playing and making our own meaning, is significant as you suggest - I do think this is what makes us work so hard to get 'the best answer' by collaborating rather than just get a better answer than the rest. And then we add to that, losing the fear of being judged and you have a magic recipe. We saw that in DS106 project work, didn't we?
It was not until I made the choice to do this immersion experiment, took the sabbatical and became an open education student that I saw the rigidity of my thinking vis-a-vis academia and opened up to new possibilities. I am learning that being in the system had blinded me - and I have always thought of myself as a pretty good teacher. Hell I train other teachers how to do it :-)
I have now come to that scary place where I need to make a choice. I am now asking: What would it mean to be free from the shackles of a curriculum, participating on equal terms to achieve common goals and apply that to being an Open Educator full time? May be the dream of being a hybrid educator is just the fear to make the courageous choice to quit. This is my focus for #rhizo14 and I am glad we are on this journey together. Thanks for this thoughtful post. #rhizo14MF
kludbrook2013 27p · 596 weeks ago
It is easy to become one in sync with the system, it is designed to make it so. It is less easy to live in the system when you realise how much of a shackle it is- who determines what we teach and how we teach. I realise I had much more freedom as an elementary teacher to play because it is expected that children be able to play as they learn. It is so much harder to support that as we age students through the system and they become adult learners. It seems that the ideas we start with in early education, collaboration, sharing, group work, learning through play, are shed as we grow and must be relearned time and time again. Instead we seem to stress being on time (penalties for being late, marks off, etc) conformity, work done by oneself, play as time wasting, humilation when failing or cheating, etc for adult students. I can understand if you want to leave that! But aren't you better placed to be an advocate for open education where you are? As long as you are mindful?
So do I want to return to school to do my PhD? Yes. For the joy of learning and to see how far my brain can stretch. Will I do my PhD? Most likely not as I am not interested in being judged by academia anymore and having to jump through the hoops. I've jumped through so many already I feel like a trained seal! Arf! Arf!
Looking forward to collaborating in #rhizo14!