Comments on: Who Knows Yet?

By: Weekly Roundup (30 April 2006) at teaching.mrbelshaw.co.uk

Weekly Roundup (30 April 2006) at teaching.mrbelshaw.co.uk — Sun, 30 Apr 2006 18:08:10 +0000

[...] Borderland – Who Knows Yet? [...]

By: Doug

Doug — Fri, 28 Apr 2006 22:32:56 +0000

Hi Paul, your idea pushed my thinking a little bit. Very simple, and potentially very powerful. I’m going to give it a try on Monday. Just a thought here, I suspect that getting a meaningful response from the kids, just like blogging outside the classroom, will undoubtedly depend on knowing what kinds of posts will tickle the kids’ imaginations and move them to say the interesting kinds of things that I hear when I’m closely listening. Who knows? We’re just tossing around ideas here, right?

By: Paul

Paul — Fri, 28 Apr 2006 21:53:13 +0000

I think I agree with Marco Polo when he says we should ask the kids. My idea, but I haven’t gotten to it yet, was to publish my own teacher’s blog and let the kids either comment or make their own posts.

Initially, I would moderate their input; later, maybe not. At first it would be an experiment, to see what develops back and forth from them to me, them to each other, and so on.

It could/would be an extension of discussions we had in school that day. Every teacher runs out of time to fully develop something. Why not continue the discussion after school through a blog. Pose an interesting and provokative question (age appropriate, of course) and see what develops. You could then pick up where you left off online when you see everyone in school the next morning.

Here’s how the discussion in school the next day might go:

“Hey, I liked what you said, Joey, about such-and-such last night online. You were really on top of that when you said such-and-such about this-and-that,” said the Teacher.

“Well, thanks, Teacher! It’s just that I’ve been wondering about this for quite some time and….” said Joey.

“Hey, I missed that one! I couldn’t get online last night. My brother was using the computer all evening for a paper and I never had a chance. I’ll sure get on tonight. You guys seemed to have had a great time discussing such-and-such…,” said Mary.

“Yea, I feel left out. My Mom won’t let me use the computer at all during the week. Teacher, could you speak to her about this?” said Elizabeth.

“Sure, how about if we print out the blog entry from last night. You can use it to open up a conversation with her. Tell Mom how we continued the discussion today in class, and how it started yesterday in class. Maybe she’ll change her mind if you keep your time online to a reasonable length during the week, say a half-hour? Give it a try, but remember, Mom’s the Boss!” said the Teacher.

Am I dreaming, pie-in-the-sky, or could this really happen? Why not try it and see?

By: Doug

Doug — Fri, 28 Apr 2006 21:30:34 +0000

MP, you’re a great question-asker. I don’t have answers, myself, but I love the feel of a question that is ripe with possibilities. I’ll have to come back to the “getting on the same page” quickly issue. I wonder what factors would encourage or inhibit people from making the necessary connections? What influences the formation of community? I know there are smart people out there who are looking at these things. I haven’t had a lot of time to look into it.

As far as “asking by observing,” that’s an art that I’m still perfecting. A critical piece of reporting that is to have the presence of mind to recognize what you’re seeing and to document it so you don’t forget. There’s a lot going on in a classroom-all the time.

By: Marco Polo

Marco Polo — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 11:16:23 +0000

Doug wrote To begin with, though, I’m wondering what those authentic purposes might be? What form does responsible, but immature, participation in online conversations take? I don’t know, but how about asking the kids themselves? Or “asking” by observing what they do?