My Achievements
I was successful in a number of ways. I got a guitar.
I learned to string it. I learned to tune it. I got a metronome. I got a tuner.
I got a pick. I got a book. I bought lessons. I found online resources. I used
those resources and participated in guitar talk with people I don’t know. I
practiced each week. Still, I fell short in a number of ways. Most
notably I did not learn in time a beginner’s song as I’d originally hoped. I can
strum and I can remember finger placement for three chords and four notes well
enough, I suppose, but I think I’m a couple of weeks off from properly playing
my song. Even so, I was pleasantly surprised to find I could use online
resources to get better at the sort of task that has in the past required me to
learn almost exclusively from a teacher in a face-to-face setting.
My Experience as a
Learner
This learning experience was for me a successful one
in many ways, perhaps mostly because I’ve had to articulate my process by way
of this blog. By writing out my thoughts and my steps on this blog, I’ve had to
think and express myself clearly on how I learn, what has worked, what hasn’t,
and what I’d do differently next time in order to learn more effectively and efficiently.
Writing things out has been good for me, that is. I was motivated to
practice each week because I set a goal and because I am writing publicly in
this blog about how I am making (and not making) progress toward my goal.
Perhaps the thing that frustrated or discouraged me most was the
realization that I would not be able to timely achieve my goal as originally
hoped and that I should have set a less ambitious goal. Maybe I should have
just tried to learn how
to do the Dougie. The whole point of the song is to teach a dance. How hard could it
be?
My Process as a
Learner
I had three main resources to support my learning
process: a book, a teacher, and the internet. In the past, I would have leaned
most heavily on the teacher followed by the book with the internet in last
place. However, this time the order was reversed. That’s because I was most helped
by the questions I asked at the guitar fora and the answers I received from
helpful yet anonymous people on those websites. The conversations I had on
these websites and the collaboration I experienced as a result of these
conversations was really my first experience with web-based participatory
learning outside of my courses in this program. These conversations
required a form of communication -- a digital literacy -- that I was not
familiar with at first but now feel comfortable in using.
Specifically, web forum speak -- a language I think I’ve now
picked up -- provided me access to an awful lot of information on a wide
variety of guitar topics that I would not otherwise have had access to. The great thing about web fora interaction is
that it is anonymous and it is understood that the basis for association is
nothing other than the common interest in the subject under discussion. This
means it is fine to walk away from people who offer unhelpful interaction.
That’s not always possible in a face-to-face interaction where identities are
fully disclosed and there is a person who can react in an unpredictable way.
Implications for
Instructional Practice
This experience has taught me the importance of project
based learning and of the importance in allowing students to choose the subject
and goals of a project based learning assignment. My inability to achieve the
goal I set for myself implies that I will need to engage with
students early and often during the course of project formulation and milestone
achievement in order to help students determine whether they are making
adequate progress toward the goal they’ve set and, if not, then allow
modification of the project and its goal or perhaps even a complete revision
and restart. What I’ve seen is that goals initially set are not necessarily
informed by experience so much as hope, and that that is an insufficient basis
in some cases for determining milestones and expectations.
Implications for Teaching
21st Century Literacies
My engagement in participatory learning required what I’ve
referred to above as forum speak, a literacy skill. There is an
anonymous exchange of information that takes place in web fora. This exchange
follows a set of rules. These rules are partly expressed in FAQs on the website
but they are mostly embedded (without announcing themselves as rules) in the
way that people on the fora address one another. This manner of exchange is not
like the way that teacher and student relate to one another in a face-to-face
context. The relationship online is between equals. There is no designated
teacher and learner. Anyone in the fora can play either role in any
conversation. Everyone is anonymous. There is little harm in saying the “wrong”
thing as no bad reputation can attach to an online identity that is made up
simply for the purpose of participating in the forum. This fact allows people
to exchange ideas and information more freely than they would otherwise. There
are some dangers associated with this fact too.
Literacy instruction in the classroom must be designed
to account for both the quick accessibility of anonymously offered and
potentially expert information and the danger of potentially abusive
interaction created by the same anonymity. Research or skill building projects
that make use of online fora must include guidance about what students are
likely to learn from such resources in addition to the sort of risks involved
in seeking it out, to say nothing of parental involvement, which may be key in
minimizing risk of student exposure to abusive language.
