As I begin another class with pre-service teachers I was asked for the very first time, “Does my blog have to be public?” I didn’t give a choice. It would be great to have a discussion around the benefits and issues around public sharing but given the time constraints of the class (specifically this term as it’s only over a 6 week period), it’s difficult to provide students with enough information in a short time to make an informed decision. To be honest, I never really thought much about doing it any other way. In my zeal to have my students experience the joys of networked learning and prepare for a world where ideas and sharing should be and hopefully will be more transparent, it seems logical.
Ever since the day I wrote my first blog post and received a comment, I knew that learning in public had huge potential. That was over 4 years ago. Today I’m one of those who has embraced a lifestyle of learning that is founded on transparency and connectedness. I’ve wondered many times how and when learning should be private. My belief that the pendulum for most of education sits way on the side of private and needs to move way more to public. It does seem a bit odd to me since we have no qualms about student athletes or musicians or actors to perform in public. No athlete ever joins a team and suggests they just want to practice but don’t want to play in front of a crowd. For many, that’s part of the appeal. I’ve often talked about stages: athletic stages, artistic stages and then wondered about academic stages. We have almost zero expectations for students to publicly share learning. While I understand some people’s hesitancy to participate in online spaces, I believe the benefits are worth exploring even it it means some discomfort.
When can we begin to expect that just like our sports teams, drama clubs and bands, our students academic work will be publicly on display? Is asking pre-service teachers to post content online outside of a walled garden a bad thing? Is age a factor? Does it matter that I’m teaching future teachers? What’s the worst that could happen? What’s the best? (I already know the answer to this since it’s happened often during my various sections of teaching this course). I would value and love your input on this issue.
I’ve been reading and enjoying David Perkins’ book, Making Learning Whole, in which he writes about the importance of playing the game, not just practicing. He coins the term, “elementitis” – ” week after week, even year after year of focusing on elements with very little of the whole game ever played…a culture of deferred gratification with the rewards of actually playing the game always coming later.” I think his seven principles upon which his book is written tie in wonderfully with the ideas of transparency and openness. (1) Play the whole game, (2) Make the game worth playing, (3) Work hard on the parts, (4) Play out of town, (5) Uncover the hidden game, (6) Learn from the team… and the other teams, and (7) Learn the game of learning. Doing all of this does not require online learning spaces, but they can certainly be facilitated in such spaces, along with other very meaningful learning spaces.
Learning should involve meaningful and authentic performance, not simply performance on our ‘brilliant’ assessments. I think the key here can be found in the authentic, the relevant, and the meaningful. There’s value in the artificial and the controlled, but there is just so much more!
Steve Ransoms last blog post..Play the Whole Game
As I said (via Twitter tonight) to @karlfisch (and vicariously to you), ‘athletes’ and other performers agree to the ‘stage’ in the very first step of signing up for a team/event; as you said, they don’t sign up to ‘practice’.
Students, on the other hand, do not a) assume that is the case nor b) get chance to do thoughtful reflection/research on the impact of ‘learning’ — and thereby, failing — in ‘public’ when they sign up for a ‘class’ or traditional academic experience.
Can this change in the future? Sure, but the school, program, class MUST define — on the front end of the student’s experience — that ‘public’ and ‘learning’ will be a minimum expectation, or the best case scenario is that a teacher’s will/bias will conspire (for good or superficial reasons) to convince ‘kids’ to go there. I’m, of course, talking about sub 18 yo’s without a choice about the class, not college students reading clearly defined syllabus guidelines they can opt in/out of.
The better question — IMHO — is who should determine the starting point of such a ‘mandatory’ publicly digital education experience that hinges on a grade and ‘failing’ in public as minimum skin on the table? (esp. at such an early stage of web 2.0 / social networking tools being introduced to formal educational settings)
Needless to say, this topic is far too complicated (and just unfolding) to be answered in one comment response. For what it’s worth, I think this is as good a question as I’ve seen in a long time in these here edu-Internets. (wink) Thanks for putting it out there, my friend.
P.S. My students do blog (for a grade) in my classes…and Google can find ’em. Thus, it is public, but their names are anonymous on the blog. I’ve made my peace with the devil as much as I can while simultaneously working through the larger issues moment to moment. My own jury is out, but on a grand scale…I stand by what I said above…even though I agree to what Steve said above in the vacuum of edu-debate and grad school kick-around’s.
I’ve been thinking about this post all day and I still can’t come up with an argument that is one sided. I truly can see the value in both sides. Coming from a K-6 environment I would love to see students work posted publicly for students all to see and benefit from. The amount of work that would instantly become accessible to compare, analyze, learn from and with, for students would be huge. The impact would be tremendous and schools all over the world would have authentic audiences for which to share and publish their work.
The negatives I see are not so much around the safety dilemma, but parents and admin do worry about that, but I believe the social ridicule from peers and peers parents would be an unfortunate side effect. I would hate for students to feel scared of posting due to judgment and ridicule.
Your analogy of stages is spot on. I do think it’s fine time that we celebrate academia the way we do everything else in a students life. I know that we do in spurts (celebrations, awards, displays), but not on such a large and social scale. Is it different though because we have a choice to get on the stage, or the field, but we’re forced to got to public school or an alternative? I don’t know.
Ideally students would want to put their work out for consumption and celebration, K-12 and beyond, but something about forcing it feels awkward for me. Show the benefits, model the value, and give them the choice, somehow that feels better. But in the environment of a 6 week course and the fact that they are future teachers maybe they give up that option and public is the only option. I have no problem for college courses to require this, and I am leaning on the side that K-12 should look at it as well, I’m just not totally sold that the benefits outweigh possible costs yet.
Thanks for making me think…
PS. Can I keep this post private? 🙂
I think it’s especially important in working with pre-service teachers to at least give them the experience of a public forum.
Habits developed in pre-teaching programs are very often carried into the field, and the whole point of teacher training is to share best practices and let them “try on” different methodologies and teaching strategies. I also found one of the most valuable parts of my training many years ago was doing assignments like I”d be asking my students to do–because then I had more of a sense of the pros/cons from a student vantage point. Similarly, I think if pre-service teachers experience blogging, they will be better prepared to assist their own students later on. And I think perhaps the experience will help them encounter their own “paradigm” shift in terms of the importance and power of “sharing” for teachers.
I think your analogy is excellent, btw.
Carolyn Footes last blog post..The real power of web 2.0 tools
As there are some aspects of your student’s desire to remain “un-public”, and as an instructor you have a responsibility to foster his or her education in a safe and comfortable environment, I can appreciate your situation. I agree that learning and performing academically needs to be shared and promoted. The greatest thing you can teach your students is to reach out and connect with the education world in as many ways as possible. Teaching today is not what it was ten years ago. It is a dynamic, technology-driven environment. One could argue that it cannot be done alone. If a teacher is not encouraged to push the envelope of comfort and fill their “toolboxes” with tools that are useful, then they will always resist it. I think the worst think that can come of your request to publish publicly is that the student may realize that he or she must continue to view teaching as a life-long learning process. Sharing what we have done and learning from what others have done may be the only thing that sustains the role of educator as learning and technology become ubiquitous. Long story short, keep doing what you are doing.
This issue may be different for different educators. Elementary teachers may be more reluctant to push for “transparent education” than high school and especially college educators. The only real reasons I can think of are safety and confidence. We certainly do not want to put any of our students at risk because of their digital footprint (although I think this is an issue that often receives “worst case scenario” treatment). Some students might not feel confident enough to submit their ideas in a public forum – but my goal is to help them to eventually become confident enough. As a high school teacher your analogy of sports and academic resonates strongly. As Michael said, however, students choose to be on sports teams. I see no reason though, to shy away from a public forum for those ready for it. Others will hopefully get to that stage. Ultimately, this is our goal – getting students ready for a public and connected forum. I do see one problem thus far though – schools may not have the means to truly connect students in a public forum. We’re still at a stage where we need to be aware of the limits of our system (e.g. bandwidth for rural schools) and until we can resolve this issue I do not see transparency happening to the extent that many of us would like.
Ryan Nickells last blog post..Acceptable Use or Accepting Use
I agree with Christian that students do not volunteer to come to school. Athletes and artists voluntarily go onstage or on the field. And the reality is that, by the time kids get to high school, the poorer athletes are no longer in the game and the horrible artists are left to be creative on their own.
I am concerned, as is Michael, that ridicule would be so great for those still struggling academically that motivation would be out the window. I do blog with my elementary students but there are students whose work does not get published until they’ve worked and reworked their assignments. I do not believe the learning should be public.
I do, however, believe there is nothing wrong with reflection being public. We often post end products on our website with an explanation of the road taken to achieve the final result. And that road usually includes many obstacles along the way.
Lisa Parisis last blog post..An Open Letter to Jason about UDL
Does it have to be all or nothing? When I blog with my adult learners about their learningwe discuss the ups and downs of privacy and of sharing and finding a balance between them.
Then they choose. The blog is public by default but if they want to make a particular post private or passworded they’re free to do so. Most of them opt for public, some go for private and quite a few start out posting privately then decide later to open them up, often after they’ve spent some time reading their peers posts.
Leias last blog post..What is a blog?
You have two choices.
1) Put them behind a closed garden situation, where the blogs are totally private, which in many ways is not different from being constrained inside the walls of a classroom. Conversations are mainly limited to those from within the class which reduces the potential for learning.
OR 2) You have the blogs public where your students can interact with people from all around the world including people with expertise that will help their learning. Through blogging students can now easily exchange ideas with people such as writers, journalists, University professors, scientists where once this wasn’t possible. Why wouldn’t you want to provide these opportunities for your students?
Done well blogging (where you work hard to teach the students good skills on writing posts, commenting and creating connections) changes the way students learn. Blogging opens them up to a global audience creating authentic learning opportunities; this engages and motivates the students to want to learn more.
Sue Waterss last blog post..Check Out This Two Page Blog Guide For Parents!
These are all such great comments. I think I can remember Gary Stager talking about this idea of publishing… and that is, too often we publish work that is not yet ready for a real audience. Not everything that can be published should be published. And, not everything that we do should be published. There are advantages, of course, to ‘publishing’ works in progress in terms of the feedback from a much larger, potentially global audience. However, perhaps these types of learning spaces do not need to be public, preserving the benefits while diminishing potential problems.
In relation to sports teams, youth teams tend to accept everyone from high ability to almost no ability. I know. My son started toward the low end of this spectrum. Many of the kids on his first soccer team could barely dribble the ball a few feet, let alone intentionally and accurately pass the ball to someone… on their OWN team. Yet, as parents, we all celebrated their willingness, perseverance, supported them in their failures, and in the end, celebrated their growth and achievement… in a very public forum – the soccer field. No one would ever think of making fun of the less-able players. Sportsmanship is valued above all else – even for the spectators (not that unsportsmanlike behavior doesn’t happen at times, though). Why is it that we can’t achieve the same level of sportsmanship (learnmanship?) for academic endeavors in public spaces? Somehow, our lust for competitive grading and ranking – something we would never tolerate on the informal playing field – runs rampant in academic circles… at all levels.
Steve Ransoms last blog post..Play the Whole Game
I hesitate to add my voice to this august forum …. but part of the beauty of this community is that I can ;-).
As I tried to say on Twitter yesterday, high levels of connectedness and transparency are not necessarily conducive to learning for all. Yes, they are for Myers-Briggs extroverts, which most teachers appear to be – people who draw strength and energy from interaction with others. But for many others, human interaction is exhausting and difficult. They can do it, but it leaves them drained and requiring solitude to recharge.
While everyone has to learn how to function in a connected world, I do think it is important to scaffold people from private to public, if there is time (and I realise that 6 weeks is VERY short for this journey). I love the idea of giving them the option to choose to start private and then open up as they gain confidence. I think this also covers the issue of K-12 students not being there voluntarily (and as a recent education grad, I can tell you that pre-service teachers have very little choice in their courses, too).
Thanks so much for all the thoughtful discussions you have introduced me to, I do believe that seven months on Twitter have taught me more than two years in an education faculty … (shh!).
Thank you for all the wonderful responses.
I do recognize that my analogy of stages does break down when the volunteer aspect is considered. Still, I do think that it ought to be one goal to take student work and put it in public spaces.
Steve’s reflections regarding the value of team and all the other potential learning is very helpful. I’ve also thought about Stager’s perspectives regarding student work. What I believe we need to work towards is developing clear understandings between practice and performance or draft and finished. Currently, it’s hard to tell the difference. Practicing and exploring in public can be very beneficial. I think Stager’s concern is that often work is passed off as complete and ready for crtique when often it isn’t.
Christian, your discussion of culture is really at the heart of my post. It’s one that needs more discussion as you say.
Lisa and Michael, I think the possibility of ridicule is certainly more critical in a K-12 environment. As Carolyn discusses, this is something that potential teachers will benefit from greatly.
Sue and Lawrence,
I hope to offer more of a hybrid. Allow them to post some content online and offer them the choice to make their blog or selected posts, private; at least private to those outside our class.
Thanks all for the great discussion.
What a great topic to discuss! I have been going through these pros and cons since my daughter started Kindergarten and was posting on their school website. I have to admit that I am one of those moms that were very skeptical to allow photos of her with her work. The posts themselves were not a concern. I guess that you can call me one of those overprotective moms who feel that if we allow personal information and identification to the whole world, we are putting our children at risk. I have to agree with Ryan and say yes for me it is a safety concern and that is why elementary teachers may be more reluctant to push for “transparent education”. As a soon to be elementary teacher the students well-being need to be considered. Family break ups, divorce, abuse, etc.
I think that it is valuable for everyone to celebrate their thoughts and learning. However, should we be confident in posting publicly? Allowing our children to connect with the education world is a great concept but is there maybe a bit of risk we are facing our children with? I am not as reluctant as I once was 9 years ago. Change is a long process. Everyone is reluctant to change. It is always easier to just leave it the way it is!
When I started this class with you Dean, my family blog was private. I have now opened it up to share with this spring class. Since I read your post and all the comments the wheels started to turn again in my brain, and I am already reconsidering making it so public. I would hate to put my family at risk unecessarily. I am not worried about myself, I am worried about publicly displaying my children to the unknown world.
Still on the fence,
Karie
Like many of the above have already stated I am in agreement that learning and participation should be desired, and not forced, however I wonder how we, as educators of today and tomorrow, can find a balance, effectively utilizing educational technology founded on “transparency and connectedness” (like you stated Dean), to engage our students and make them curious about subject matter in all disciplines across the globe. How can we use technology like these blogs and online environments to make our students curious for learning and give them a desire of knowledge. It starts with us, the teachers of today and tomorrow, inspiring our students and passing on the passion and excitement of our subject material. While you may not always obtain 100%, it is a goal that we should drive and challenge ourselves to obtain. However, when our students leave our classroom we want them continue learning which is where cyberspace becomes an amazing educational tool like Lawrence says. We have to give them the basic “tools” in their “toolbox,” but just remember that one “tool” can have a variety of functions.
Like you stated Dean, in athletic and artistic events, a student’s work is out on public display. One important aspect of these two environments and the affects of public display is competition. How does an actor or athlete obtain the “drive” to get better and improve? Competition. How do we as teachers of today and tomorrow work to be more adaptable and beneficial to our students and the colleagues in our field? Competition. Shouldn’t we then transfer this competitive drive displayed at not only athletic and artistic events, but at the core of our society, to our classrooms? While ridicule, like Lisa and Michael try to address, may be an issue for many, it is sadly present in all classroom settings, whether they are extending into cyberspace or are in the “comfort” of an old fashioned classroom. This is where the importance of creating a “safe” environment to all students becomes key. I like the idea of being able to start private and open it up later as students get more comfortable. If outsiders in cyberspace seem to be too much of an issue limit and block them as needed, or utilize a pseudonym for each person in the class. This would also eliminate the issue of safety. The goal however is to gain knowledge and further learning in a world-wide interactive environmet. The barriers of borders no longer exist and travel is as quick as your internet connection. The world is changing and while some of us may not be “comfortable” with the way that it is changing we need to learn that we either need to adapt and catch up to it or fail our students by leaving them unprepared and behind in the techno-advancing world of tomorrow. We, as students yesterday, and humans in general, were and are never able to do things all by ourselves and gain through the input of others, so how can we not give our students the input of people across the globe. It’s time to publicly acknowledge learning, for it is one of the greatest gifts that we can give as educators. If you as an educator “opens the door,” how much more will your student see and learn in a growing, culturally diverse, and knowledgeable world.
Thanks for giving me the opportunity to give input, reflect, and expand on this topic.
The volunteer aspect has to be considered, but at some point, won’t these students turn into adults whose work will on some level be out there for people to judge? Do we help our children by protecting them from criticism or do we help them by teaching them how to take criticism as feedback and learn from it? Kids are the most honest people I know; it is the adults who have the thin skin. Maybe it is the years of coddling and protecting that thins this skin. Younger students will have a go at anything, but by the time middle school hits, they become very aware of the “other” and getting them to engage in the discussion becomes difficult at best. I am wondering if we make this “other” larger than necessary by not helping our students cope with this sooner.
David Coxs last blog post..Chandler Saves the Day
I am a pre-service teacher who was also required to blog as part of my program. In the beginning, it felt like public homework and a bit uncomfortable. I’ve blogged about other topics so it wasn’t blogging per se but the public forum in a field new to me that was difficult.
I would encourage the students to focus as much on the community and commenting aspect as the posting aspect of blogging. For much of my cohort, the focus was on output – because that was the assignment – and not feedback or collaboration. Most never looked at other blogs either within the cohort or external to it.
Kathryn Jensens last blog post..5%
I do think it’s fine time that we celebrate academia the way we do everything else in a students life. I know that we do in spurts (celebrations, awards, displays), but not on such a large and social scale. Is it different though because we have a choice to get on the stage, or the field, but we’re forced to got to public school or an alternative? I don’t know.
This is an interesting topic for sure. I am new to blogging and don’t have too much opinion on the subject at the moment, but as I learn more about the phenomenon I am not opposed to it at all. I think it has value in today’s digital generation. I agree with the comparison of sharing knowledge using blogs and displaying athletic ability performing in a sport. As a former athlete and a current teacher I probably wouldn’t have understood that unless I were a teacher today. With that said, use of this new technology and “learning in public” does have it’s positives and some drawbacks. Obvious the potential for shared information and idea growth is at the top of the positive list, but safety continues to be an issue for the drawbacks. I certainly hope to learn more about blogging as my class that I am taking continues. Good article and thoughts.
As a musician I find it very exhilarating to perform my work in front of people but as a student I also see how many children would be insecure about putting their thoughts onto a public forum. I really like the idea of the closed garden situation. I think students should slowly become more familiar with the world wide web. I don’t think that parents should have to worry about their children being online in the classroom as long as they are not required to put their names or information on the site. Teaching our children to correctly use the internet and show them that blogging can be very helpful to their creative minds. Sharing information with their teachers and classmates can only help them expand their frame of reference and also teach our children how to take criticism and ideas from others. I really enjoyed your post and I hope more academic teachers will be open to blogging with their students.
In terms of public vs. private, I love what Sue said about privatizing blogs is like keeping learning inside the classroom walls. … I just came to this link after Dean shared it with me, and simply (and I realize this isn’t a simple concept) as a composition teacher we need to keep this idea of audience in mind. The transparency of social media needs to be kept in mind by teachers… when I made my facebook account I made it to connect to students, current students. My twitter, I made to connect to colleagues. They are now all public. I keep in mind my audiences and realize they could be parents, students, and administrators. This is ok with me since I have something to say.
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