Why You Need a Personal Learning Network
December 4th, 2008Frustrated I turned to my PLN on Twitter and asked–
* What about kids talking to each other and learning socially is so hard to "get"?
* Why is control such a huge part of school culture? Control of kids–control of teachers?
* Why do we not trust students and think if we are talking - they are learning?
* Why is restructuring the way we deliver curriculum so hard for teachers to accept?
Wisdom of the Crowds
I awoke this morning to their wisdom. I am so glad I have a PLN. I'd love to know your take to these questions as well. Please leave me a reply!
Laura O'Reilly
BoudiOReilly @snbeach Many teachers define learning as "agreement with me"
Laura O'Reilly
BoudiOReilly @snbeach because we have egos!
craigsteed
craigsteed @snbeach and then you realise, students/teacher dialogue (real dialogue) = learning = increased motivation = less 'need' for control.
craigsteed
craigsteed @snbeach students talking = teachr not "delivering" = loss of control, these all fit togethr. Secret, to realise studnts can learn togethr..
ZZenovka
ZZenovka @snbeach Hard for me as a teacher to restructure due to a lack of administrative support. I'd love to do things differently!
craigsteed
craigsteed @snbeach (curriculum & control) I think it often stems from peoples own experiences from their education - hey it worked for them didn't it?
craigsteed
craigsteed @snbeach I also wonder why teachers feel they must have exams to motivate students - motivation does not come from control
adrianbruce
adrianbruce @snbeach NB I also believe that All Generalisations Are Evil! 
adrianbruce
adrianbruce @snbeach I also believe that the natural selection process of Ts and Executives mean that these people do well in the existing system.
adrianbruce
adrianbruce @snbeach Ad's opinion re qustions-Structural Functionalists believe that the structures that exist in groups replicate & continue the group
Michelle Baldwin
michellek107 @snbeach we are discussing the "illusion of control" in schools- had a great conversation with district & bldg administrators yesterday
snobles
snobles @snbeach Or filled a school with teachers who had not thought about their own teaching … really ever?
Carey Pohanka
capohanka @snbeach What would happen if we had a school filled with people who hated school for themselves?
Carey Pohanka
capohanka @snbeach I teach French (my passion) and Geo (hated as a student). I think I'm a better Geo teacher than French bc of that.
Carey Pohanka
capohanka @snbeach meaning, as students the old system worked for them.
Carey Pohanka
capohanka @snbeach Many teachers are the ones who were successful in the "old" way..teacher talks, they learn. If not, they wouldn't have liked school
Karen Richardson
witchyrichy @snbeach it's ALL about trust system doesn't trust teachers OR students so they try to script learning so it's teacher & student proof
Patrick Higgins
pjhiggins Icon_red_lock @snbeach great questions. Teachers have a hard time seeing the value in some forms of student-centered instruction.
Ian Nixon
inixon @snbeach School culture is the key word there. The curriculum architecture in a school also tells the story of why control is dominant.
cbearsolutions @snbeach When education is under siege, anything 'new' looks simply risky. (found you through @j_allen, nice to meet you)
Ed Allen
Horizons93 @snbeach Brilliant Sheryl! would say the answer is that change is feared and many, sadly think it is still 1978.
Susan Carter Morgan
scmorgan @snbeach Control–it's how they were taught. They have trouble seeing beyond their own experience.
Josh Allen
j_allen @snbeach Simply, too many teachers are control freaks and they won't give up control of that situation.
Karyn Romeis
karynromeis @snbeach I wish I knew the answers to all your questions. I keep asking them myself! And I'm not even a teacher!
Chad Lehman
imcguy @snbeach Is there a feeling that control is related to accountability?
Chad Lehman
imcguy @snbeach I think restructuring the curriculum is more difficult for administration to accept.
Jason Alley
jasonalley @snbeach Fear of the unknown and a feeling of obsolescence? I think your PLP model is a dynamic approach though. Seems rooted in E. Rogers.
Ernie Easter
ErnieEaster @snbeach First we would need to change school culture and principals who do not want to see chaos-kids socializing during class. Poor evals.
erniec
erniec @snbeach in order to make social learning happen we have to get a whole-school appreciation for what a GREAT classrooms look and act like
Carmen Tschofen
ctscho @snbeach Always somewhat stumped by idea that teachers can "make" kids think.
Wendy Drexler
WendyDrexler @snbeach Teachers feel that what they are doing is working. Hard to give up "tried and true". PD should be about experimenting.
Alfred Thompson
alfredtwo @snbeach How often to we hear people thinking that when kids are talking they are NOT learning? When it is often the way they do learn.
erniec
erniec @snbeach if your style has been to maintain a quite and orderly classroom this looks like chaos
Wendy Drexler
WendyDrexler @snbeach Do you think that control is part of a teacher personality?
Wendy Drexler
WendyDrexler @snbeach I think we're afraid that if we're not talking, they're not learning. Can't see that twinkle in the eye when they "get it".
Scott Elias
ScottElias @snbeach It's a lot of work & they don't see the value. Some believe that they are giving up the "power." That's where leadership comes in.
robclarke
robclarke @snbeach I think it is insecurity
Jonbecker @snbeach have you read Dan Lortie's Schoolteacher?
Stuart Ciske
sjciske @snbeach Teachers teach the way the learned (and played old educ game) best and thus we have a system full of knowledge font people
Meg Ormiston
megormi @snbeach Add in the control question Unions setting the culture of control
This post is evidence towards why we need a PLN. How can we begin to think that we, are our immediate colleagues & friends (perhaps 200 or so), provide a representative perspective on anything. Its likely we are all reasonably similar in our upbringing, values etc. (of course there will be differences, but overall we tend to hang out with similar others). A PLN enables us to connect with others outside of the social constructs we typically operate within. We can learn so more this way. It is powerful to connect with others, to contribute to a diverse community and learn together.
These are great questions! From my experience, the answers have many folds. First, many teachers are afraid to give up the control as they feel they are really held accountable to make sure all the students learn what they need for the state tests and ACT’s. Secondly, many teachers are afraid that their students might know more than they do about some of these technologies, so they would rather just not use them. They are afraid of looking foolish. Thirdly, many teachers, especially high school teachers, are so focused on the content and all the little details that they forget about the big ideas and getting students excited about learning. I do think all of these challenges are surmountable in a school. Problem based learning intertwined with 21st century technologies, e.g. blogs, wikis, and other web 2.0 tools, are a great place to start. Teachers can be trained and guided in writing problem based learning units that integrate these technologies. They can also be taught how to loosen up their control and help students learn to evaluate their own learning. I have taught a grad class now three times where teachers learned about “digital natives” and problem based learning. They each wrote a unit with these attributes. While they still have a ways to go, these units were a huge leap in moving toward the type of learning students want and need.
Sheryl,
These are great questions. A while ago I read a really interesting book titled “The Human Side of School Change” by Robert Evans. He provides interesting explanations for why educational change is so slow.
Here are two of my favorite quotes:
“Traditional organizational change often fails because its designers, overemphasizing rationality, underestimate the opposition reform generates and the power of staff members to resist….At the core of traditional approaches to change lies an arrogance that invites failure and plays a key role in the inability of those approaches to overcome resistance…. The conviction of an advocate, even a powerful one, inspires resistance if it simply dismisses the inevitable dilemmas of implementation.” (Evans, p 16)
“…our response to change, particularly when it is imposed upon us, is determined by how we understand it, what it does to our attachments and beliefs, and how we can fit it into the sense we make of our world.” (Evans, p17)
I highly recommend the book if you haven’t already read it. It is almost ten years old, which makes it even more poignant.
-Liz
Some of the best learning and teaching in my classroom looks like a game of pinball to outsiders.
A group of students huddled around one computer with a loud buzz of conversation. Then the students rush back to their seats. In a few moments more students are gathered round the new computers. Then they go back to their computers.
I have a rule that if someone teaches you to do something cool on the computer, you have to repay them by teaching it to the next 3 people that ask. After that they can refer the person to someone they taught.
I used to have a neighbor who was driven nuts by me “allowing chaos to rule my room”.
She kept trying to come in and “help me establish control”.
So I started locking my door. She would bang on the door, I would block her entry and tell her things were under control.
Her next step was to complain to my principal. The principal - told her to mind her own business that my classroom was great. Then he told me to make sure to keep my door locked and not answer when she banged - but e-mail him instead.
Thankfully she has left our campus now.
Kimberly,
I find that amazing and good for your principal!
Thanks for stopping by.
Even though students are hard to get, they learn in many different ways. If the teacher feels that his lecture is not quite enough to a student to catch-up. He must have a patience to teach his students and take control over the situation.