Will Richardson makes me think sometimes. I don't know how revolutionary he is, but some of the things he shares on Delicious, Twitter, or his blog cause the little Che or Freire inside of me dance.
In his latest post, Richardson mentions a couple of quotes that got him thinking about how reading is changing. The basic idea is that students read to write and/or write to read when online. It's the interactivity of Web 2.0 that makes this possible. The learning is active and creative as opposed to passive. Kids aren't just sponges anymore. They are water pistols. Watch your eye!
The idea that students are creating their own knowledge is still a pretty revolutionary one. This scares a lot of teachers, causing them to limit or stifle progression. This just makes a stronger case for constructivism and inquiry in the classroom.
Consider the turmoil over the election in Iran. Instead of waiting to hear from the media or protest organizers, the people of Iran have made their own revolution via Twitter and other Web 2.0 tools. The repressive government has even been forced to block Twitter in order to limit protester organizing.
The problems in Iran may be a stretch, but it does demonstrate the revolution user-created content can inspire. Imagine our students gathering knowledge with the intent of creating their own as opposed to just regurgitating what we already know.
Illustration Source: Wikimedia Commons
1 comment:
Thanks for reading my blog. I don't think Iran is a stretch as much as it is a milepost on the way to wherever we're going. The many layers of complexity in all of this is what really interests me from a curriculum standpoint. I mean how do we teach social media in the context of Iran?
Love the water pistol, analogy, btw.
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