Knowledge Revolution
Google has been a mixed blessing for knowledge
management. With the ease of
availability for the common person to access almost any form of knowledge, the
knowledge hierarchies are not what they used to be. In the blogosphere
and elsewhere on the
internet, classically college trained nuclear physicists from rarified academia
can have interactive dialogues with informally trained living room physicists
that have consumed openly available knowledge and entered into the fray of
commentary bringing very different background and ideas. In the days where knowledge was restricted to
certain groups there was, and in some places still is, a feeling of possessiveness.
While globally knowledge
management may be becoming a
thing of the past, when I look around the teaching industry I see how some
of it is still mired in document-based and people-based knowledge management.
It is apparent that they are hesitant to move forward system-wide and many
thought and resource sharing sights are still blocked from a school
network. There still seems to be this
sense that they can control the flow
of information and knowledge and restrict it to only chosen sources of
historically reliable information. The
teachers inside this antiquated system are doing their best to seek out their
own personally directed learning as described by Jarche in his framework
for social learning. As many school mission
statements have some portion that expresses 21st century
learning, the systemic resistance to that same mission can be frustrating for
those who do want to move forward. While
there are teachers and classrooms that exist that are more open to the social
aspect of knowledge, I would say that education, as a field is resistant to
that change.
In the past months, I have seen a push from the outside to
move toward some semblance of group directed learning for teachers from the state
MTSS structuring guide. Buildings
across our district have been guided to form work-groups for working through
the problem-solving model in what the state considers to be five key areas:
instruction, behavior, literacy, numeracy, and data-based decision-making. While the intent from the state was to allow
the groups to be entirely self-directed through group research and conversation
so that they can focus in on areas of improvement, the system removed the
self-direction from it by giving the groups what they should be focusing on and
putting an administrator in charge of leading each group, rather than allowing
the group to choose their method of leadership and moving forward. Even Kansas’ adoption of Common Core that has
been tweaked and is called Kansas College and Career Ready Standards (KCCRS) focuses on
a more historical view of knowledge and not necessarily what is needed for
college and professionals in today’s word of information networks and socially
held knowledge rather than archival knowledge.
Education has always been slow to respond to the changes in the world
around them, as classrooms today look very similar to classrooms from 40 years
ago, with pretty much the same structure and only a little technology thrown in
for variation. If education is to
survive the knowledge revolution then it too must make changes that reflect the
new types of knowledge networks that facilitate the production of new ideas in
today’s technological landscape.
The group-directed learning you describe sounds like what Nancy Dixon and others call Communities of Practice. Dixon explained that in order for Communities of Practice to be effective, they need to be relatively informal but also need a business focus as well as a high-level sponsor or facilitator for them to be effective. While the lack of freedom probably feels restricting, there may actually be a method to the approach the district is taking with these groups.
ReplyDeleteNora,
DeleteI appreciate your candor and can relate 100%. Life in public school is no different here in Southern California. I too am on a committee this year to implement MTSS and we are busy helping teachers get on board for Common Core. In my view these directions fall short of what needs to done. I have been stating to those I trust that public education needs to embrace the digital world more so and I applaud the renegade teachers who shut their doors to create engaging lessons experimenting with technology and authentically have students perform project-based learning.
Interesting post. I work in higher education for a university that has historically been innovative in reaching non-traditional students. However like most institutions of higher education, we struggle with staying innovative amidst the rapidly changing environment of information management. To your point, I find that those who are the most resistant to adapting to this new world are the faculty. It is not surprising considering they are the most vested in the old information management exchange. Historically the learner came to the teacher to obtain knowledge. Today the teacher must assist with the filtering or vetting of information that is freely available to the interested learner. It has been difficult for many to make this transition and in the minds of many faculty members it has diminished their importance in academia. While I don’t foresee the need for faculty to be replaced, it is becoming clear that the role of faculty will require an adaptation to and the facilitation of technology.
ReplyDeleteI work in a middle school, and while there are always those faculty who are mired in the ways of the past, the system is slow to respond. Vision statements change and they are finally getting smartboards and projectors in all classrooms, but the expectations for district common assessments and the focus on traditional paper inputs and outputs isn't in keeping with the 21st century skills they are looking for. I would agree that post secondary education is doing a better job of focusing on new skill sets, but public k-12 education doesn't seem to have changed at the same speed. Without the need to compete for students, there is not as much emphasis on working toward change. As a teacher who did not resemble the traditional model as much, maybe I am more focused on how the system was resistant to the changing nature of knowledge, but I am not unaware of a handful of colleagues who are "old school" but my bigger concern is that with a system that does not support innovation, those who are leading the change do not have the resources they need to continue moving forward. It adds to the problem of good teachers leaving either education or public school to move to greener pastures that are not as mired in the past.
ReplyDeleteAs I read your post, I immediately thought of Zooniverse - a collection of opportunities for average people to help with scientific discovery. The internet has made collaborative volunteer research possible!
ReplyDeletehttps://www.zooniverse.org/