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Assignment 13, Phong 1. what did you find 1.1. interesting about the article? I found the model of community learner where the learning and teaching responsibility is shared among adults and children. 1.2. not interesting about the article? Nothing. 2. what do you consider the main message of the article? That a guided community of learner is a more effective teaching theory and method than the traditional unidirectional teacher or student lead approach. 3. analyze your own educational experience and 3.1. provide a rough estimate in percentage points for each category and; I would estimate that 90% of my education has been adult run or expert run rather than student run. The remaining 9% has been guided instruction. I have taken 1 classes so far that would really resemble the guided community of learner approach at CU (Mouse Davies' Object Oriented Programming class). 3.2. one example for each category (in case you have encountered all three approaches); Most the undergraduate curriculum are expert/teacher run classes. For example, all of the computer science required classes are taught in this manner. This is also true for most graduate level classes. However, graduate level classes incorporate individual or group project but the focus is on individual production of work, or a partition of work, rather than a community of learner. Mouse Davies' class is where the guided community of learner atmosphere applied. Mouse started at the beginning of the semester with the stated intention of creating a joint community of learning where he would guide students through a common group project (groups consist of four students) that last through the semester. Although classes were lectures, he encouraged a lot of questions and encourage students to add to class lectures and discussion if they know material that he didn't. So many ways it felt like we were learning the material together. 4. which technologies are used / can be used /should be used to support 4.1. adult-run education. I would argue that the same set of core technologies can be used to support any of these method of teaching. It's the way technology is used that distinguishes the different method. For example, e-mail, chat rooms, electronic bulletin could be used for all three contexts, but the way that the teacher directs the student via email, or post closed-end questions, or post a structured assignment will make adult run education method different from a child run method. 4.2. child-run education. In a child run context, students may use the same technologies but in this case for pure discovery learning. 4.3. community of learners education. However on the edges each method may require additional or new tools that addresses the learning dynamic unique to each method. But I can also recognize that tools should be architect to work together. So this modular approach of just adding the needed component for each method may not work so well. Finally, in the context of community of learner education, I would guess that one core technology that may be useful is a system that help to coordinate and encourage collaborative communications among the learner in the classroom. 5. analyze our course from the three dimensions: 5.1. adult-run education. This method occurs when Gerhard lectures from slides. 5.2. child-run education. This method occurs in the context of research and implementation projects. And also when we get to play with different prototype systems that encourage discovery learning. 5.3. community of learners education. So far we have only done this in the context of experiencing systems. We haven't had anyone else rather than Gerhard, Hal, or Elisa leading discussion (although this is really difficult to do and I wouldn't want to do it). 6. which possibilities do you see to effectively integrate adult- and child-run education? I really like the OC approach that Rogoff et al outlined in the paper. That approach holds promise – and I like to see some outcome evidence – and it seems to speak to a better learning experience for the student (and adults too). I see great possibility for teaching physical science using this method. I am wondering that given the long training and acculturation time for both teacher, co-opers, and perhaps student, to get comfortable with this method if it will scale easily? And given that we are in the context of No Child Left Behind whether this approach will be embraced?
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