Truth and Bias in Classroom Research

How do we deal with truth and bias in the classroom? These are real challenges and I believe first addressed by educating our students about the origin of truth and how they can be certain of anything - TOK stuff. The tools shared by Chis Betcher will be invaluable in my classroom where we are always searching for information and reflecting about the truth we have found.
Websites like factcheck.org and others may be helpful tools for teachers and students to verify resources. Getting students to keep bias out of their research is also a matter of educating them about the types of biases they may be succeptable to that may be present in others. It really does come down to education and experience.

Personal Learning Networks

In the article World Without Walls: Learning Well with Others: How to teach when learning is everywhere, author Will Richardson says "Our ability to learn whatever we want, whenever we want, from whomever we want is rendering the linear, age-grouped, teacher-guided curriculum less and less relevant. Experts are at our fingertips, through our keyboards or cell phones, if we know how to find and connect to them. Content and information are everywhere, not just in textbooks. And the work we create and publish is assessed by the value it brings to the people who read it, reply to it, and remix it. Much of what our students learn from us is unlearned once they leave us; paper is not the best way to share our work, facts and truths are constantly changing, and working together is becoming the norm, not the exception." From several perspectives these are daunting concepts. The model of teaching that I learned is becoming irrelevant, the kids are networked and we teachers are outside of that web looking in and wondering how to connect with them and get them to connect to the learning you want them to connect to. I also find it quite challenging that there are so many tools out there that I know about but am not proficient in using. Even sending text messages with a mobile phone is not second nature (it is easier for me to talk than to punch letters with my thumbs!). In short I have a lot of work to do to become familiar with all of the tools available so that I can navigate and facilitate this learning.


Richardson concludes with "Anyone with a passion for something can connect to others with that same passion -- and begin to co-create and co-learn the same way many of our students already do. ---I believe that is what educators must do now. We must engage with these new technologies and their potential to expand our own understanding and methods in this vastly different landscape. We must know for ourselves how to create, grow, and navigate these collaborative spaces in safe, effective, and ethical ways. And we must be able to model those shifts for our students and counsel them effectively when they run across problems with these tools." Okay, I'm willing, I am paying attention and my eyes are open, show me how.

January 21, 2009

This is day one of our tech course. We've started this blog, logged in to the course page, and generally navigated our way through the initial confusion.