So what might be anti-teaching? What could be personal learning environments?
“If you want to see the significance problem first hand, visit a classroom and pay attention to the types of questions asked by students. Good questions are the driving force of critical and creative thinking and therefore one of the best indicators of significant learning. Good questions are those that force students to challenge their taken-for-granted assumptions and see their own underlying biases.
Oftentimes the answer to a good question is irrelevant – the question is an insight in itself. The only answer to the best questions is another good question. And so the best questions send students on rich and meaningful lifelong quests, question after question after question.” (Wesch, 2008)
“A personal learning environment (PLE) describes the tools, communities, and services that constitute the individual educational platforms learners use to direct their own learning and pursue educational goals. A PLE is frequently contrasted with a learning management system in that an LMS tends to be course-centric, whereas a PLE is learner-centric. At the same time, a PLE may or may not intersect with an institutional LMS, and individuals might integrate components of an LMS into the educational environments that they construct for themselves. A typical PLE, for example, might incorporate blogs where students comment on what they are learning, and their posts may reflect information drawn from across the web—on sites like YouTube or in RSS feeds from news agencies. While most discussions of PLEs focus on online environments, the term encompasses the entire set of resources that a learner uses to answer questions, provide context, and illustrate processes.” (Educause, 2009)
"As most of us know from our own experience, the best learning almost always occurs in the absence of a teacher, for it is then that learners are free to pursue with great passion the questions that are meaningful and relevant to their own lives. Focusing on the quality of learning, rather than the quality of teaching transforms the entire educational agenda." (Wesch, 2008)
I don’t mean to keep speaking about Challenge Based Learning (CBL), however, the quotes from the “Anti-Teaching: Confronting the Crisis of Significance” by Michael Wesch, and the quotes from "7 Things You Should Know About...Personal Learning Environments" by Educause, describe CBL to some extent.
“Legislative efforts, then, have not only failed to improve performance, but are also failing to keep kids in school. The evidence shows that one of the main reasons students are leaving is because they are disengaging from school.” (Hernandez Jozefowicz-Simbeni (2008); Neild et al. (2008)).
“While some factors leading to disengagement are related to their home life and family issues, it is becoming clear that an important factor is that students feel very strongly that what they are learning in school is not relevant to their lives.” (United States General Accounting Office (2002)).
“Surveys of students who have left school have revealed that a lack of perceived connection between the curriculum and their everyday life or future work was a key factor, and many former students felt that more could have been done to keep them engaged through the type of schoolwork they were asked to do.” (See Bridgeland, et al. (2006), in which 71% of respondents reported losing interest in their freshman or sophomore year; 47% reported that they left school because the class work was uninteresting).
“Through the years, similar approaches including project based learning and contextual teaching and learning have been attempted, evaluated, and enjoyed by teachers and students alike; student learning in problem-based courses has been documented; yet the norm continues to be lecture-based instruction focused on what will be on the test.” (See, for instance, Pearlman (2006); Saye and Brush (2004); Ward and Lee (2004); Maxwell et al. (2001); and Berns and Ericson (2001)).
“PLE’s represent a shift away from the model in which students consume information through independent channels such as the library, a textbook, or an LMS, moving instead to a model where students draw connections from a growing matrix of resources that they select and organize. In this context, the PLE functions as an extension of the historical model of individual research. Because they emphasize relationships, PLEs can promote authentic learning by incorporating expert feedback into learning activities and resources. A PLE also puts students in charge of their own learning processes, challenging them to reflect on the tools and resources that help them learn best. By design, a PLE is created from self-direction, and therefore the responsibility for organization—and thereby for learning—rests with the learner.” (Educause, 2009)
“Instead, what is needed is a new teaching model that incorporates the best aspects of problem based learning, project-based learning, and contextual teaching and learning while focusing on real problems faced in the real world. This model must engage students’ curiosity and desire to learn. It must make the solving of real problems the center of the curriculum, give students access to 21st century tools, and require them to work collaboratively and manage their own time. It must allow students to direct the course of their learning and engage teachers in a supportive, very necessary role as guides. Challenge-based learning is such a model.” (The New Media Consortium, 2009)
“Challenge-based learning builds on the successes of problem-based learning models where students engage in self-directed work scenarios (or “problems”) based in real life. In challenge-based learning, as in problem-based learning, the teacher’s primary role shifts from dispensing information to guiding the construction of knowledge by his or her students around an initially ill-defined problem. Students refine the problem, develop research questions, and investigate the topic using a wide variety of primary source material, and work out a variety of possible solutions before identifying the most reasonable one. Documentation of the process and a high-quality production of findings further serve to give the process relevance to the world of actual work.” (The New Media Consortium, 2009)
“A unique feature of challenge-based learning is that problems are tied to an idea of global importance (war, say, or the sustainability of water). Students are able to research the area of the challenge in terms of events taking place in the world around them, strengthening the connection between what they learn in school and what they perceive outside it. They then work in teams of co-learners, further increasing their interest in the process and giving them valuable experience in team dynamics and collaborative work. Teachers act as coaches to the student-centered communities of practice, addressing individual questions and concerns and stepping in to help the students retain their focus if the problem seems too large.” (The New Media Consortium, 2009)
Because challenge-based learning takes its ideas from real-world issues that students then must translate into solutions of local applicability, a very wide range of curricular areas can be addressed. When integrated as a regular part of the curriculum, challenge-based learning practices naturally lead to discovery of relevant subject matter in many areas. Because problems do not need to be invented — the challenges are real — students connect what they are learning with their own experiences.” (The New Media Consortium, 2009)
“When students recognize their own importance in helping to shape the future of this increasingly global, interconnected society, the significance problem fades away. But simply telling them this narrative is not enough. The narrative must become pervasive in the learning environment. There are many ways to do this.” (Wesch, 2008)
“Personal Learning Environment is an evolving term, one without a single, widely accepted definition. Even as defined here, the concept remains somewhat amorphous, made up of disparate resources—including people—often beyond the boundaries of the institution or the user that can come and go, creating a lack of continuity. For academics, a simple reference to sources may not be enough in such an environment, as data can easily disappear. As a learning platform that is by definition always evolving, a PLE requires students to engage in ongoing decision making to maintain, organize, and grow their learning environments. The process of self-directed learning requires a degree of self-awareness, and it must be given time to mature. Some students, however, may have never taken the time to think about their own meta-cognition or to reflect on how they learn best. These less experienced students may not be ready for the responsibility that comes with building and managing a PLE. Furthermore, despite their ability to quickly learn new online tools and computer applications, many students lack the information fluency necessary to recognize when a writer speaks from authority, for example, or when a narrative is opinion. While the PLE offers the opportunity to sharpen these skills, instructors may find it useful to discuss the hallmarks of a well-thought-out argument and to underscore caution in accepting “facts” presented by peers and anonymous posters.” (Educause, 2009)
“Access to technology, an integral part of challenge-based learning, can help teachers overcome some of the other constraints of problem-based learning. Ubiquitous Internet access in a one-to-one setting opens the door for students to use online tools for collaboration and communication, often the same tools that are used in the modern workplace. Students have access to a wider range of resources, including current news articles, research, and even experts around the world.
A key feature of challenge-based learning is that it appropriates the networking tools and media production techniques already being used in daily life by many 21st century learners. In preparing the final products of their research — presentations of their chosen solutions — students draw upon photography, videography, audio recording, and writing skills that they may already be using as web content producers. If they are not already doing those things, challenge-based learning provides an engaging opportunity for them to hone these kinds of high-level communication skills.” (The New Media Consortium, 2009)
“Challenge-based learning motivates students to come to class and do well. It leverages technology tools to put the daily experiences of students in the service of their education. It focuses learning on real-world issues, gives students a chance to work on important problems, gets their voices heard, and empowers them to influence their community for the better. Challenge-based learning has real potential to reverse the slipping trend of poor retention, low scores, and disengagement, turning learning into an exciting, meaningful experience — as it is meant to be.” (The New Media Consortium, 2009)
“Challenge-based learning is a collaborative learning experience in which teachers and students work together to learn about compelling issues, propose solutions to real problems, and take action. The approach asks students to reflect on their learning and the impact of their actions, and publish their solutions to a worldwide audience.” (Apple, 2008)
In addition, Mr. Wesch sounds like he is proposing digital storytelling as a means for a final outcome. He states, “The ultimate goal of the course is relatively simple: figure out how the world works . . . My job becomes less about teaching, and more about encouraging students to join me on the quest. Students record the simulation on twenty digital video cameras and we collectively edit the material into one final “world history” video using clips from real history to illustrate the correspondences. We watch the video together during the last week of class as we contemplate our world. By then it seems as if we have the whole world right before our eyes in one single classroom – profound cultural differences, profound economic differences, profound challenges for the future…and one-humanity.”
So, what am I saying? One of my favorite quotes probably says it best, “I have vision, and the rest of the world wears bifocals.” (Cassidy, 1968)
Simply, put, no matter what the label (anti-teaching, CBL, problem based learning), students need to feel a part of their learning environment they can touch. The students need to see how they can make a difference; they need to sense progress in their own lives. To paraphrase Shakespeare, “To be (a part of the solution), or not to be (a member of society), that is the (essential) question.”
So the essential questions are: Are virtual learning environments with course management systems the answer? What about PLEs and Web 2.0 tools? Is technology itself enough? What are the key components you would include in new schools?
Answering these questions is easy. Each of us learns new things all the time (at work, home, on way to and from, hearing, seeing, tasting, smelling, dreaming, touching, and even thinking). We all learn differently. Some call this differentiated instruction; some say it is a learning style, or PLE. It doesn’t matter if it is one-intelligence or multiple, it doesn’t matter if it is right brained or left, and it doesn’t matter if it is brained-based at all. What does matter is IF I learn it and can apply it to my own life and share it with others.
Without communication, nothing is possible. Whether students learn in a virtual world, a classroom, online, a combination of these, or some other way is not relevant. If a student learns something and can apply it to his/her own life and can share it with others, we have succeeded in educating the student. We teach to each student’s PLE and should be using all tools, not just Web 2.0 tools. My new school is the world, and everything in it.
“The challenge for me has always been engaging students with technology to create a variety of disciplined communications. Classroom innovation comes from educating each student with challenge-based learning so each can successfully use his or her imagination to transform ideas into real world solutions through a vast array of multimedia. I facilitate the expansion of student experimentation while making every attempt to follow both state and national technology goals. My name is Tom Kowalewski and I am an Apple Distinguished Educator.” (Kowalewski, 2009)
References
Bridgeland, J.M., DiIulio, J.J., & Morison, K.B. (March 2006). The Silent Epidemic, Perspectives of High School Dropouts. Retrieved on December 20, 2008 from http://www.silentepidemic.org/epidemic/why.htm
Berns, R. and Erickson, P. (2001). Contextual Teaching and Learning: Preparing Students for the New Economy. The Highlight Zone: Research @ Work No. 5.
Educause. (2009). 7 things you should know about... Personal Learning Environments. This work is licensed under a Creative CommonsAttribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
Hernandez Jozefowicz-Simbeni, D.M. (January 2008). An Ecological and Developmental Perspective on Dropout Risk Factors in Early Adolescence: Role of School Social Workers in Dropout Prevention Efforts. Children & Schools, 30(1), 49-62.
Johnson, Laurence F.; Smith, Rachel S.; Smythe, J. Troy; Varon, Rachel K. (2009). Challenge-Based Learning: An Approach for Our Time. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium.
Maxwell, N., Bellisimo, Y., Mergendoller, J. (March/April 2001). Problem-Based Learning: Modifying the Medical School Model for Teaching High School Economics. The Social Studies, 92(2), 73-78.
Pearlman, B. (2006). Twenty-first century learning in schools: A case study of New Technology High School in Napa, California. New Directions for Youth Development, 110. Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Published online in Wiley InterScience www.interscience.wiley.com
Saye, J. and Brush, T. (Summer 2004). Scaffolding Problem-Based Teaching in a Traditional Social Studies Classroom. Theory and Research in Social Education, 32(3), 349-378.
United States General Accounting Office. (2002). School Dropouts: Education Could Play a Stronger Role in Identifying and Disseminating Promising Prevention Strategies. GAO-02-240.
Ward, J. D. and Lee, C. L. (2004). Teaching Strategies for FCS: Student Achievement in Problem-Based Learning Versus Lecture-Based Instruction. Journal of Family and Consumer Sciences, 96(1), 73-76.
Wesch, M. (2008). Anti-teaching: confronting the crisis of significance. Education Canada, Canadian Education Association.
