I enjoy this simple style of video that is found in Common Craft videos. Love that the author of this video gives credit to Lee LeFever of Common Craft and mentions that he asked for permission to use this simple design idea.
The video is gives a great view of the “ideal” Networked Student. The idea that students become more responsible for their own learning and use 2.0 technology tools to reach their learning goals while being guided by their teacher is very exciting. How will it work in the real world? That remains to be seen…
The Student: As I mentioned earlier – this student is “ideal”! Who wouldn’t love a student like this?! The roles and responsibilities of the student in this learning model are very great indeed. The student basically is taking responsibility for their learning all the way from developing a knowledge base, to creating wikis or websites about what they have learned. The video mentioned several roles of the student:
1. The student takes control of his own learning.
2. The student creates a personal learning network.
3. The student must be self-motivated to seek out sources of learning and information.
4. The student must be critical of information in order to sift out the accurate information from the inaccurate.
5. The student must learn how to organize this information in order to create new knowledge from what he has read and discovered.
Wow! This is a lot to ask of students – especially from a society of kids who have not been taught to do this and who like instant gratification. I don’t know many adults who would be successful in this type of learning environment.
The Teacher: I love the descriptions this video gives to the teacher: learning architect, change agent, learning concierge, modeler, connected learning incubator! These are great and require teachers to think differently about their role. I think the role of teacher in “Connectivism” is tremendous! Keeping students on track for one thing, would be a great undertaking.
The Librarian: Can the librarian play this role – absolutely! I think we are already taking steps in this direction by helping students learn how to locate and analyze information and by helping teachers learn how to facilitate projects that focus on “Connectivism”.
