Using our design knowledge to connect the dots

Using my copious amount of notes from this week as my evidence, I really felt that we covered a lot of ground this week. We started the class by talking about conceptual tools being learned in the context of their use. We also talked about knowledge being inert, because it is taken out of context. Through our discussion, I realized that when you introduce technology to the culture of people who use it and situate it correctly in the culture of their use and engage the students in authentic activity, that is when you have true enculturation- as long as you are doing this consistently, not just one class. This idea of enculturation also relates to the idea of cognitive apprenticeship. Basically, cognitive apprenticeship is where a “master” of a skill teaches the skill to a novice or person who is less knowledgeable. This, in a lot of ways reminds me of how we as teachers, have to do student teaching in order to become a professional ourselves. While we do a lot of teaching ourselves, we always have another person (master) there who is leading us in the correct direction. This is really the closest that I have ever come to cognitive apprenticeship that I am aware of.

We also talked about modeling (I do), coaching (we do), and fading (you do) approach. I use this method all the time with my students and it really seems to go well with what we have previously learned about the ZPD. Because, as we know- knowledge is the intersection of activity, culture, and tools, and knowledge can be symbolic, conceptual, physical, etc. This point ties in the design principal for this week as well, which is that good learning designs situate knowledge in the context of its use- combining authentic activity, conceptual tools, and culture. As I just said, all of those points really go together. You can’t have learning without the kids actively using what they have learned in the context of an activity. We also need to work harder to make sure that we are enculturating the kids- to teach lots of different opportunities to learn from other cultures- even if that culture is just a different expert in a field you are teaching. Thinking of enculturation as ethnicity is not the correct idea. It is more akin to like-minded people learning together, like when I have my countywide librarians meetings where we discuss pertinent issues that librarians face.

After we had most of our discussion, we also talked about the reading from last week- including the ABC’s of Activity- which are authentic activities, background knowledge/building, constructing activities (making and doing it), and sharing. Because, as we talked about none of these things are sufficient without the others, particularly when we talk about background knowledge. IT is necessary but not sufficient in explaining all. Constructing is usually best done collaboratively (like many teachers do on a team), and you must share because they learn from each other and get feedback to check for understanding, especially from someone in the culture they are learning about. The ABC’s also had a way for teachers to engage their students in- pedagogical knowledge, content knowledge, technological knowledge, and then quite separately we have doing knowledge. The way that we connect the doing with the rest is design knowledge. We as teachers also tend to know a lot from experience which explains that the doing knowledge is often over in its own little island away from the other knowledge forms.

As far as how this all effects me, I think that it is way too easy in getting caught up in the teaching of something, that we can sometimes forget the true progession of concepts. We need an activity, sure- but we need the background first! Sometimes it seems like we as teachers can put the cart before the horse, and I like to think that I do not do this, but in talking about what makes a good design, I think that it has made me more aware of the succession of events and even that I need to give the kids more time to share what they have learned with each other and me! 

Once again, sorry for the summary to those reading – but I really do find it the most helpful to the way that I learn. I can find out what I think and process it all and also make a summary of what I have learned in a cohesive way. Thanks for reading!