Learning Landscapes Webinar

Learning Landscapes Webinar

Lori Jane Perdew

LIS 5240

            Joyce Valenza started off the webinar talking about how the learning process should be transparent, interactive and more meaningful or personally relevant. She showed some fantastic examples of the work her students are doing. They were amazing. I loved that she had her students show the process of how they got to the final process. I think the learning process is as important, or maybe even more important than the final presentation. I’ve learned from Joyce that students work better in small groups where they can interact, share knowledge, exchange ideas and create new information. If the samples Joyce shared are any indication, I say the small groups are working! But it takes more than just small groups, the learning process has to be personally relevant—that means that we don’t just teach them history, we make them a part of it. We have to make them care. That is what I learned from Joyce.

            I want very much to work with the history teachers on their Civil War units and help the teachers to set up wikis for each student. I would help them teach the students how to track their learning progress, develop pathfinders and create some fantastic presentations using Web 2.0 tools like VoiceThread, Animoto and Glogster. A lot of the examples she so graciously shared have already given me ideas for history, science and communication arts—even art and music. There are so many ways to make the subjects we teach more relevant through personal stories, photographs and journals shared in audio or video. Sounds and pictures can effect a student deeply—make it more real and alive.

            From David Loertscher I learned that he sees learning commons as one giant conversation and collaborative workspace. I really liked that! He sees the library and the computer lab as one big learning commons with both physical and virtual space. School libraries have gone from no Web site to a school Web site and now, hopefully, to a virtual learning commons. The virtual learning commons will be a place for the giant conversation, and it will be a collaborative workspace—a place for experimenting; a place for building knowledge. I see it like building blocks—one piece of knowledge adds to or stands upon another and another until eventually you have a structure—a new idea or concept based on all the ideas and knowledge that were shared and meshed together before. Loertscher says that it is “personal expertise meshes with other personal expertise to form collaborative intelligence and 21^st century skills mesh to form content deep understanding.” The students don’t just learn facts—they learn the processes and they learn how to use the tools. They learn how and why things work, so they can build upon that knowledge. That is what I see as a Knowledge Building Center. It reminds me a little of the “think tanks” of a few years ago (the concept, not the building).

            He says these knowledge building centers or KBCs can be used in many different ways: in individual classrooms; with more than one class, throughout the district, state, even the world; in school projects; in professional learning communities and more. He says there has to be sound instructional design in order for the KBCs to work. He listed the UBD (Wiggins and McTighe) and Think Models (Loertscher/Koechlin/Zwaan) but I didn’t catch what they were. The two I did understand were the 1) the best technologies that will boost learning and 2) co-teaching—teachers, librarians, teacher technologists and other specialists in their field, all working together to build a knowledge center. Remember It Takes a Village . . . ?

            He says it’s important to end with what he calls The Big Think. He says there are three student activities to the big think. The first activity: What do I know about this subject? What do we know as a group? The second activity: How I learned this and then, how we learned this. This is followed by the conclusion: So what? What’s next? Then activity 3 is done with the adults: What they learned; how they learned it. So what? What’s next? He says it’s important for the administrators to participate. I could see even some parents participating especially on projects that the students can also work on at home.

            He then asks, “Who is assessing?” And his answer is: Everyone! That is what makes it so great. (I think. Everyone is scrutinizing the information, the process and the conclusions. This is what great learners do.)

His final thoughts are on making connections—look at what other districts, states, even other countries are doing and how they are doing it. Read great books on the subject. He gives a list of books that he thinks are pertinent.

In a way, he’s looking at learning in much the same way as Joyce—it’s just a slightly different approach. They both believe in collaboration and personal relevance. They both talk some about the process and he talks about assessment. I definitely want to take the whole knowledge building center idea back to school with me this fall. I think if I can help inspire at least some teachers to take a much more collaborative approach—both in how they teach (more small groups) and in what technology they use (shared learning sites like Google Docs and Zoho)—and incorporate aspects of the knowledge building center into their teaching, then we might eventually become a real learning commons.

I definitely would like to introduce some great learners with specific skills to collaborate with our students on projects rather than just have them come out and talk at the students on Career Day. They might just learn a thing or two while working with the students. It might be a challenge in these hectic times, but I am hoping there will be some visionaries out there who are willing to give it a try.  I would really like to try and get more parents involved in the learning process too. I’m not exactly sure how to do it at this point, but I know that it is vital for parents to participate and encourage learning at home, not just at school.

I had a little harder time with Doug’s part of the webinar because of the distractions with the technological glitches. I felt he was a little distracted while delivering his presentation but he had some good points. He says that there are five essential conditions for creating and sustaining what he calls, new learning landscapes. These are: 1) use clear language and terminology. Think about the words you use. An example he gave was the word social networking. He says it has a negative connotation—people think it is just fluff—a way to pass time. He says call it something like educational networking, so people will take it seriously. Social networking is not just Facebook and even Facebook can be used as an educational tool. 2) Support best practices not best technologies. We don’t want to just teach them newer, faster technology; we’re trying to teach them how to be better learners. That is a building process, not a technology. Students need to learn how to learn, how to build on the knowledge they have, how to collaborate with and incorporate other people’s knowledge into the learning process. They must then know how to take all that knowledge and information and create something new out of it. I believe that this is what Joyce, David and Doug are all saying. 3) Try a large variety of Web tools/technology, but be selective and universal. There are so many choices out there, but if I understand Doug, he thinks librarians should consider the pros and cons of each collaborative tool and then pick one that will work for everyone in the school. I know he mentioned that his group is only using Google Docs right now. I like that idea because everyone is on the same page, so to speak! They can all collaborate on anything and no one is confused as to what program or tool they are using. I am definitely taking this one back to the school. Every staff member seems to use a different program and it can be confusing, 4) Another way to keep everyone on the same page is to create reasonable policies, guidelines and procedures. I think some people probably groaned on this one! But it is important for everyone to know what the school or district expects from their staff, and as long as they are not so restrictive that teachers and librarians can’t share or collaborate or create a dynamic learning commons, then I think they are necessary. I personally think the same thing needs to be stressed to students. There shouldn’t be a long list of do’s and don’ts but a few good rules of conduct. I personally think it helps the students if right at the beginning you state what you expect from them and what they can expect from you if they behave or not behave. I have found that this works with the eighth-graders at my one school. And his last is: 5) Empower your staff! That is a great one. If you give them the tools, the support, the enthusiasm and the means to do their best—they will.

Doug is a big believer in small study groups. People seem to learn more when they work together. I do believe that, however, I learned as an overachiever student that those who weren’t were usually very happy to let you do all the work! But I know that I learn an awful lot through our class’ Skype sessions. I can read the information and process some of it, but it’s through the discussions and sharing of ideas and thoughts that really puts it all into perspective for me. I think that is what Doug is talking about here. And again, that is what I want to communicate to the teachers at my school. I will work to incorporate all five essentials into my school’s learning environment. I am excited to pass on this information and using it to build new knowledge building centers within my schools. I know I will keep coming back to their examples. I would love to share this webinar with my principal. I am definitely going to email her Joyce’s and Doug’s blog URLs so she can see what great things are out there that we can incorporate into our school.

Citation:

(I don’t know how to do this citation, so I’m just going to list what you had listed.)

Valenza, Joyce, David Loertscher and Doug Johnson. "Learning Landscapes Webinar." Schoollearningcommons.23 Mar. 2010. Web. 1 Jun 2011. <https://schoollearningcommons.pbworks.com/w/page/24592888/Learning-Landscapes-Webinar>.