Tuesday, May 11, 2004
Creating content. About 7 slides into his web presentation on the Art of Blogging, George Siemens says that
Learning is not simply a content consumption process. Learning is also a content creation process. This can’t happen if the flow of knowledge is one way.
As long as we don't limit education to the act of filling the student with information or culture, we should have no trouble agreeing with George. If we assume that, in coming to understand what culture gives them, every student and every generation must recreate that culture in their own understanding, then we can usefully and practically see all learning as creating content for oneself.
If we grant that much, then our lovely web tools can help foreground the creating and recreating process and share its products. Posted in public, what we learn can be used as well as challenged by others, thus enriching the process that renews them. Later, speaking of blogs and RSS on slide 14, George says that
Institutions can share knowledge via simple, social tools.
We can use those tools to help make two-way learning the norm rather than the exception. A few days ago I tried to redefine active learning as making something for others to use, and here George Siemens works some of the same territory, I think.
Educators sometimes hear students ask, "What can a person really use this knowledge for?" Instead of being defensive about this question, we can take it seriously as a question to work out together. Honor the question and go ahead and make something useful together. As often as possible, post the results where others can find and use as well. [2 & P]
Learning is not simply a content consumption process. Learning is also a content creation process. This can’t happen if the flow of knowledge is one way.
As long as we don't limit education to the act of filling the student with information or culture, we should have no trouble agreeing with George. If we assume that, in coming to understand what culture gives them, every student and every generation must recreate that culture in their own understanding, then we can usefully and practically see all learning as creating content for oneself.
If we grant that much, then our lovely web tools can help foreground the creating and recreating process and share its products. Posted in public, what we learn can be used as well as challenged by others, thus enriching the process that renews them. Later, speaking of blogs and RSS on slide 14, George says that
Institutions can share knowledge via simple, social tools.
We can use those tools to help make two-way learning the norm rather than the exception. A few days ago I tried to redefine active learning as making something for others to use, and here George Siemens works some of the same territory, I think.
Educators sometimes hear students ask, "What can a person really use this knowledge for?" Instead of being defensive about this question, we can take it seriously as a question to work out together. Honor the question and go ahead and make something useful together. As often as possible, post the results where others can find and use as well. [2 & P]