Week 1 Reflection

There are a few things that stand out to me in looking back at the past week. The first has to do with the complexity in terminology. I didn't realize how extensive and detailed the vernacular is. I have decided that I am going to make myself a cheat sheet to keep it all straight! Given everything we've read and the discussions that we've had, I see how critical and challenging it is to be on the same page.

One topic that has come up a lot this week is communication both online and off, and the affordances and challenges of each. Last semester in Social Aspects of Internet Communication Technology we read a paper by Joseph Walther called Computer Mediated Communication. I had to go back and look at it again, my recollection was that there were many relevant points in the paper. One thing Walther discusses is that groups who had an expectation of long term relationships, like a long term group project, drove more personal, friendly relationships. I noticed that in the margins I wrote - consider this article when thinking about online learning and student/teacher relationships.

I read Christensens' book Disrupting Class last summer, and I liked it a lot. I found it inspiring. It's exciting to think that we're on the cusp of a new frontier in education. I realize, however, that what I imagined when I thought of this new future doesn't necessarily match what is taking root. I remember talking to a woman who ran the website division for a large marketing agency in Connecticut about five years ago. She said that back when tv was new to the market, it was essentially used to "do radio on the tv" and that what we were seeing is people "doing tv on the internet." I hope to see a future where we don't just perpetuate the way education has existed, but instead innovate and discover new approaches to learning and teaching.

There were some interesting projects I read about last semester in Cognition and Computers. One was a project called Archaeotype that Professors Black and McClintock researched at the Dalton School. It is a blended learning method where students working in groups learn about ancient Greece by digging up artifacts in a virtual dig. The students then research the artifacts both online in Archaeotype and in museums and had to form a hypothesis about the object. The group then presents their hypothesis to the rest of the class and had to defend their thinking. Another was River City where students worked collaboratively to solve the mystery of why people are dying in the town by conducting interviews, collecting samples and performing tests in an online lab. These projects are new, innovative approaches to education where students learn the subject matter and new skills, and are engaged in critical thinking and working collaboratively - all things they'll need to be able to do once they leave school.

I'm a staunch advocate of disruptive innovation and I'd love to see a game changer. I'd love even more to be a part of it!