Referenced Article: Ana Concejero, “No Teachers, No School,” Ingles Rosaleda Blog, January 13, 2008. Accessed November 27, 2011.
As I approach some of the final topics covered in this blog on the future role of technology in classrooms, I thought it fitting that I look at the role of blogs themselves in classrooms and schools. As a student blogger, I personally believe that blogs encourage research and help students to develop their own opinions on current events relevant to their lives. Today I am focusing on blogs as a more extreme learning tool; in Ana Concejero’s article (referenced above), she describes a school outside of Minneapolis where blogs are the primary way that students learn on a daily basis. This revolutionary school goes so far as to eliminate teachers from its curriculum entirely, encouraging students to stimulate their own learning through the creativity of blogging.
At the “New Country School”, students do not even have classes and “work in an environment that looks like an office” when they learn. The school is “one big room” and is filled with students sitting at computers, focusing on “interdisciplinary work” of their own interest. The students are not simply allowed to fool around or use the computers mindlessly; instead, there are advisors available to make sure that their projects fit the requirements of the Minnesota education system. The advisors do not teach the students, only make sure that their work is adequate enough to pass as they move through the school. If an advisor feels a student is falling behind with state requirements, they will offer advice for them to find a way to meet standards as quickly as possible. This guidance ensures that students are learning up to speed with traditional, even though they are not in a typical classroom setting. The New Country School is described as an “open environment” in which the students truly learn from expressing their work and opinion through blogs and through the conversations they have with each other as they share their projects.
The New Country School opens up an entirely new door for the future of education through blogging technology. Allowing students to learn for themselves and develop opinions as they learn new materials is an important part of education that is clearly expressed through the creation of a blog. Students have the opportunity to seek important material independently and can discover new literature or math techniques on their own. Blogs encourage students to learn confidently and make learning a much more intimate, personal experience for the individual writing the posts. At the same time, the New Country School presents many potential concerns. Eliminating teachers makes it difficult for students to guide themselves to new learning material, even if they have advisors. Furthermore, students must teach themselves everything that they know. Having a teacher present to clarify misconceptions, challenge students appropriately, and channel students’ progress to maximize their success is, at least in most present-day classrooms, an invaluable part of a child’s education regardless of their age.
Ultimately, blogging technology has already begun to play an increasing role in classrooms, and schools will continue to incorporate blogs into course materials as computers and Internet become even more integral parts of school curriculums. I don’t think blogs are sufficient to dominate a curriculum, but I strongly feel that the initiative to encourage blog use among students is a positive one. I look forward to hearing about the success of the New Country School as it continues to use blogs as its primary mode of education.
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ReplyDeleteTo put it bluntly, I think the entire concept of the New Country School is kind of dumb, and it's definitely totally impractical on any larger scale.
ReplyDeleteGenerally speaking, teachers are fundamentally necessary for young minds to effectively learn. The Internet is a great resource, true, but it's also full of distractions, assertions that haven't been fact-checked, and other materials that are potentially deleterious to education. The job of the teacher is to cohesively present information to students in a manner that guides them and allows them to better understand fundamental concepts. In addition, as noted previously, teachers serve vital roles in explaining confusing concepts and motivating students (well, good teachers do, at least).
Without teachers, the educational environment is often characterized by:
1) knowledge that is relatively random and not uniform in nature
2) lack of pedagogical support
3) extreme difficulty in motivating students to do work in areas they do not like
If students are intellectually self-motivated in all areas and can resist distraction on computers, yet for whatever reason don't mesh well with traditional education at all, then New Country might be for them. Besides the few odd ducks in that category, though, I see little real room for an educational model like this.
I somewhat agree with Sam; I don't think a school that solely relies on blogs and technology can be as effective as a traditional school with teachers. First off, this type of school could only work for certain types of students as well as subjects. Students would have to be at the age of about high school. Any younger, students would not have the basic learning skills that would allow them to stay concentrated on learning, and researching different subjects. I then think that subjects such as history (information based) would be more effective than subjects such as math (application based). Using blogs would just not have the effectiveness of information retention, application, and test taking, which are important learning skills.
ReplyDeleteApart from the academic disadvantages, I believe there are social disadvantages to a system like that of the New Country School. Students would be focused on individual work only, thus loosing some skills of cooperation and patience. They would lose the experience of learning and participating with one another as well as interacting with teachers.
Even though I believe blogging is a good tool in schools to increase research and communication about certain topics, I do not think they should replace traditional modes of teaching.