Could I be wrong about Web 2.0?

When we were shown Ken Robinson's "Changing the Education Paradigm" video in a lecture the other week I was completely blown away. Not so much by the animation, which was amazing in itself, but by the content. I have since read many articles by Sir Ken as well as his latest book "The Element". I know the idea of Creativity in Education has been around for a while but my recent exposure to the concept has set off bells, light globes, whatever the appropriate analogy may be.

In a lot of ways it fits in with what we have been learning about web 2.0 technologies. I have been very wary of the whole web 2.0 thing as I only understood it's applications from a Facebook/Twitter perspective. That's an understatement actually - I avoid it like the plague as my minimal exposure to it has found it to be time consuming (read "wasting time") and full of innane conversations. I'm a talker not a texter - and yes, I could be accused of many a innane conversation! But inanity (is that a word?) hangs around for so much longer when it's there for all to read.

The following video by Sir Ken, along with Charles Leadbetter's video "Education innovation in the slums" has me re-evaluating the whole social network phenomena. If I view web 2.0 technologies within an educational framework, then I am a definite convert. I do believe we have to rethink the ways in which we educate our kids. I think schools can be very un-creative environments and this has a lot do with how we view creativity. It is not about being artistic - which was a bit of a revelation to me and even more surprising given my creative background. If we view it as a way of thinking about things, then it has so many implications for education that it's staggering. I am drawn to teaching so much more because of these possibilities.

While I go away and ponder this some more and if you haven't already seen it, here is Sir Ken on "Changing the Education Paradigm"...

To be or not to be....collectively intelligent!

I guess the best place to begin my second post is by discussing the idea of collective intelligence. Unfortunately, I missed last weeks lecture, so I looked up Wikipedia for a quick definition - the irony!

While I understand the whole concept of collective intelligence is based on the idea that the end result of collaboration is supposed to be greater than what would otherwise be achieved by an individual, I'm not sure that this is for me, on a personal level at least. Perhaps it is a little egocentric of me, but I don't think I would get the same level of satisfaction from creating a collablorative work as I would from creating something on my own, even if it were of a lesser quality. While every creative process involves degrees of collaboration, even if only through internalising other's thoughts and ideas, I know the final product is mine. I have gone through all the neccessary processes of knowing, understanding, analysing, synthesising and evaluating to come to my final product. If this isn't as good as it could have been, had it been a collaborative work, at least I know I have learnt from the process. I can do better next time.

Hang on....I guess this is an indirect form of collaboration itself, isn't it? I have collaborated with other's ideas and end products to inform my future thinking. (I think I have just had a reflective moment - something that, along with blogging, still sits uncomfortably with me. Maybe I'm finally getting the hang of this.)

Like most things, I believe the tools of collective intelligence such as wikis, have its place. I can definitely see me using it in my classroom. However, using it will depend on what I ultimately want to achieve. But how do I determine individual growth and learning on a collaborative work? I am a definite proponent of collaborative work but I think the satisfaction lies in what you personally make of the process. Perhaps for me then, it is more about how collective intelligence can lead to personal achievement.

This is a far more complicated concept than I realised when starting this entry and far too thought provoking for a Sunday morning. Who knew I would have so much to say!

Birth of a Blogger

Well, I never thought I would ever be doing this but here goes - my first blog! And for once in my life I am lost for words......

And now, more than 2 weeks after my enlightened contribution from above,  I am still struggling to find something worthy of typing. Mind you the fact that I seem to have 7 followers without blogging anything so far... well I can see how the attention might be addictive for some. Makes you feel quite special really.

So, a good place to start might be my view of the social constructivist approach. Well, it seems to go hand in hand with the use of web 2.0 in education but it is something I still have to get my head around in the classroom. I still prefer a good old fashioned face-to-face conversation with my fellow students - discussions boards and blogs just don't provide the same level of interaction and engagement, along with all the humour, anger, frustration and the light bulb moment, that a "in-house" class discussion can often provide.

I think I might feel more favourably towards wikis as an educational tool, once I find out exactly what it does and how to use it. Stay tuned, as they say!