Private Universe

Watched the video today called A Private Universe. It's about how people learn and hold on to false information. Sometimes instruction can reverse someone's thinking. Sometimes someone holds on so tightly to their own personal theories that instruction cannot change their perception.

One of the examples in the video was asking both ninth graders and recent college graduates to explain the concepts of the four seasons. The majority of them gave the explanation that it's based the Earth's distance from the sun as opposed to the changing tilt of our axis. One ninth grader was interviewed before and after instruction about this concept. She was able to incorporate what she learned from the lesson, but she still held on to a degree what she believed before.

How can new media make an impact on education when things like this are happening? A few things come to mind:

1. Most schools have an online classroom for their students. I know this is true for most college courses, but this is becoming more and more true for middle and high school students. Instead of assuming that students are just a "void" (quoting teacher from the video) about the subject, assume from the first day that your students have some misinformation about the topic. Use a combination of pre-tests, discussions, etc to find out what the student knows now. That instructor could have asked each of those students to write an explanation for those concepts. Ask them to teach the concepts to others either through a blog and brief youtube video.

2. I love the concept of students creating learning objects. It's one thing to learn a concept, it's another to be able to teach it to someone else since you have to know your concept from a variety of perspectives. Using an array of Web 2.0 tools, you can ask your students to create a learning object to demonstrate their understanding. THEN, post it so that others (global or local) can provide feedback and ask questions. Creation makes the students more active. Like the teacher in the video stated, she needs the objects in her hands to describe it. She needed to be active to communicate about those concepts. So, sit in front of a webcam, describe it and let others ask question or make suggestions.

3. Wikis would be really powerful here. Ask students to rewrite their textbooks in their own words. This includes images and diagrams. Require students to contribute to every section and correct the mistakes of others. Thanks to the history function of most wikis, a teacher can see easily who added the wrong information and who corrected it.

Too often, students can get lost in a face-to-face classroom. We know how to make others believe that we are listening and understanding the material. We nod our heads at the right time. We point our eyes forward, but in many ways, no one is really home.

This concept taps in my frustration with face-to-face instruction and the faculty members who become angry when I suggest that developing some online tools might help their students learn. A math instructor once told me, "Students do not learn without me present." It broke my heart. Now I need to find a way to get that instructor to watch this video. Yes, they need you, but in face-to-face classrooms, we lack the time and resources to make students as active as they need to be. Active learning is the key to addressing misinformation and misconceptions of our students.

Using some online tools that require students to demonstrate their learning can help you identify some areas where students are lacking understanding. (Of course, grading this type of assignment is not as easy as a self-graded, multiple choice test. Ah, there lies the difficult journey!)