Madeline's Can Wesch and Turkle be friends?
Welsch believes that students are struggling to find meaning
and significance in their education. He
claims that when students, like my own, ask questions such as “What do we need
to know to pass the test?” education then becomes more about grades, than an
opportunity to understand the world around them in a meaningful way. He believes that when students are given
ownership in how they learn, and are given the freedom to find and present
information that is meaningful to them, it changes their perspective on what it
means to be educated. I agree with Wesch’s
approach to creating meaningful learning opportunities, where students are more
interested in the learning than what they need to know in order to get a good
grade. However, in our k-12 world of education, we as educators are often tied
to our district’s curriculum, which is designed to align with the district’s desired
testing outcomes. I’m not saying that creating
global learning experiences is not possible in k-12, I just think that with all
of our curriculum requirements, such learning experience may have to be done
through smaller, less ambitious projects.
Turkle claims in her article “The Flight From Conversation,”
that we need less technology and more human interaction. She states that when we have face to face
conversations with others we converse with ourselves, which ultimately provides
us with a learning opportunity for self-reflection. As a result, she claims that we end up expecting
more from technology and less from each other, thus, giving the semblance of companionship
without the stresses of human interaction.
I agree with Turkle’s suggestion that in order to have meaningful
relationships we need to have more face to face interactions. This is an important tool to have especially
when students are required to do work together in small groups. However, since most of our students are
digital natives, they also need another tool such a chrome books in order to
connect them to information that they can then use as discussion points in
their groups.
I see both Wesch and Turkle as allies because they both see
the importance of people connecting and creating their own meaningful
experiences, and that technology, school district’s, or even curriculum
standards should not dictate how we create these meaningful learning
experiences.
Your final paragraph brought up an interesting point that I hadn't thought of - both authors stressed the importance of connecting with people. I wrote that they would be "frenemies" but your argument for them being allies makes sense, too. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteI agree, Madeline. They both feel that education can be serious business. Real education can save the world.Curriculum standards are worthless if they interfere with real learning. If we can't teach kids about the state of the world and how they can respond, then what's the point. Really.
ReplyDeleteI like that you are saying that we should use technology to engage students and to change the way teaching should be done.
ReplyDeleteMadeline, I love the way you wrote this blog. It reminds me what Simon Sinek was saying when he described how to make people believe in the power of what you are saying. I especially think it was well thought out how you concluded with what they are instead starting out saying what they are.
ReplyDeleteMadeline- In my blog I wasn't sure if W & T could be allies but after reading your post you may have changed my mind! I was focusing on their differences while I completely overlooked how like you said, they both see the importance in connecting with people. Nice!
ReplyDeleteGreat post. They are both just trying to get student/human engagement to occur!
ReplyDelete