Is Will asking the right questions?
Richardson voiced his frustration in a recent post
about the trouble that
he’s having getting teachers to focus on the potential of Web 2.0 tools to
enhance their own personal learning.
Part of me wonders if he’s asking the right questions. It’s hard to tell what
Will is saying to the teachers. If he’s trying to get at their own personal
learning practices, it seems to me that the first questions may need to be
- What are your personal and professional
interests?
areas?
All teachers are learners because all humans are learners (okay, 99.99% of
humans are learners; we all know a few oddballs). If Will can find out how these
educators acquire and gain new knowledge that is of personal and/or professional
interest to them (particularly outside of school for their hobbies, music,
athletics, and other outside interests), it seems to me there then exists a
natural opening to discuss how various Web 2.0 tools can connect these folks to
various communities and content of interest.
Will, perhaps you’re doing all this already. For example, maybe you’re
contextually embedding your participants’ learning by selecting one or more
individuals, asking them what their interests are and how they learn and grow in
those areas, and then illustrating in front of the rest of the audience how to
expand those circles of knowledge and knowing using these new tools (look, here
are 56 blogs about
pomeranians
about orchids
! a wiki
devoted to knitting
!).
I don’t know what your strategies have been, Will; this is just what I’d do. But
I’d love to learn more (hint, hint)!
