More on What's Working.

And an answer to my question earlier. (An answer I like, by the way -- thanks!) This is similar to the way that I would use weblogs in online curricula for managers, for example.

What's Working (Con't). Bill Brandon responds to my post yesterday asking:

If we're talking about children in primary school, or even in high school, will the long-term outcomes be better if they learn to interact directly with each other, or if they learn to interact by commenting on each other's weblog entries (assuming that they find the latter as engaging as dealing with other kids, an assumption I very much doubt would be valid). If my outcome is for students to learn that learning does not happen in isolation, then wouldn't it make more sense to design a curriculum around collaboration, cooperation, and construction of new knowledge, and have weblogs play a supporting role, rather than being the primary focus?

11:50:36 AM    

What's Working, Part 2

James Farmer responds to the responses:

Hang on there....

Will posts a good collection of comments on What's Working and gives his own, extremeley constructive, perspective...  well worth printing for part III (actually come to think of it all the comment and thought on this has been amazing, pretty special post-publication network :o):

"I'm beginning to believe even more strongly that the eventual power of Web logs in education will be realized in the longer-term learning portfolio form rather than in the daily posting of assignments or simple reflections. But I would argue again that we've only just started down this road. And to be honest, I think there is much about Web log use in schools that is already working. We're making connections for our kids, we're providing them with an audience they never had before. We're showing them more and more ways in which writing matters. And, whether we're doing it conciously or not, we're teaching them that learning doesn't happen in isolation, that it is a process, and that bits of the process that may seem unrelated really do have relevance to one another"  [Weblogg-ed News]

[incorporated subversion]

... which leads me to ask, again, doesn't it all depend on the educational outcome you have in mind? There are some outcomes for which a weblog might be perfectly appropriate -- one student, dealing with a computer information system to find resources, comment on them, and reflect. But how well does weblogging, a solitary activity, support outcomes in which it is essential to involve other people and to leverage their experience? It is a challenge to carry on a distributed dialog via blog, and not everyone is up to it. The pace is different from ordinary conversation, the social conventions (if I can call them that) are different, and the person who does not have much verbal aptitude is just out of luck.

If we're talking about children in primary school, or even in high school, will the long-term outcomes be better if they learn to interact directly with each other, or if they learn to interact by commenting on each other's weblog entries (assuming that they find the latter as engaging as dealing with other kids, an assumption I very much doubt would be valid). If my outcome is for students to learn that learning does not happen in isolation, then wouldn't it make more sense to design a curriculum around collaboration, cooperation, and construction of new knowledge, and have weblogs play a supporting role, rather than being the primary focus? Or have I not understood Will's and James' points? (Always possible, my work is with adults at work, not with kids in school.)

Time to go back to work. I just had this burr under my blanket and had to get rid of it.

9:37:26 AM