EDSS 530

Jeff the Visitor


According to the criteria of David White (2011) I would consider myself as a visitor on the web. However, as a PC gamer who I have established networks of friends that I frequently play with. In addition, I frequently lurk around forums that interest me, like video games, the Oakland Raiders, and PCs to get information, I rarely contribute to the forums. When it comes to newer forms of social media, like facebook, twitter, and diigo, I was not really aware of their usefulness as a learning tool. After playing around with these PLN tools, I am beginning to appreciate their utility. I really value the information I am finding through diigo and links on twitter. While I consider myself a visitor at the moment, I can see myself becoming a resident as I continue to discover the power of social media and PLNs.




Learning in New Media Environments


Let me begin by saying that I am genuinely impressed by Dr. Michael Wesch’s description of social media and its importance to the world. One thing that really struck me was his position that everyone is affected by new media one way or another and one cannot avoid being influenced by new media directly or indirectly. Dr. Wesch also brings notes some conflicts within media like:


• mass participation vs. mass distraction.
• openness and Freedom vs. surveillance and control
• transparency vs. deception


 He also argues that because these conflicts exist everyone must be courageous and participate in new media to shape these digital environments for the better.


As a person, I definitely am concerned with the issue of mass participation vs. mass distraction. To be honest, I view new media as a mass distraction for me because I think I can be considered an internet addict because as I tend to contribute to various forums and participate in several online video games any time I’m connected to the web. I am also concerned that some may take their online personas more seriously than their real life ones as these new media environments become more prevalent.


On the other hand as a parent, educator and leader, I feel that I should make positive contributions to new media environments to prevent surveillance and control overcome openness and freedom and ensure that transparency is chosen over deception. From this role I feel that I have a duty to teach and model positive use of new media environments that promote a healthy sharing of information and lifelong learning. 


Furthermore, since these new media environments will become more influential in the future, I feel that I have a duty to help my students learn to use these modes of communication to express their ideas and voice their opinion. After all, if new media environments are unavoidable, future citizens should learn to participate in these digital environments to shape it into what envision for the future.

Are Grade Necessary???

The problem with grades is that they have become the point.

This is the statement that struck me best.  I can honestly admit that when I do work I am looking to get the best grade possible.  I’m not concerned about what I learned or what skills I developed, I’m only concerned about the letter I see on the paper when I get it back.    

Now, as an educator my goal is to be a great teacher.  Can being a great teacher be identified with a letter?  Since there are no grades for me to strive for, the best way for me to figure out if I am a great teacher is through peer and personal review.  If this is the case for professionals like teachers, why is it not for students?

Maybe we should just work with checklists that provide benchmarks for learning goals for each unit and the entire year.  As students progress toward the learning goals, each benchmark will be checked off as a sign of progress.  I think this would serve as a good formative assessment as well as an incentive for students as they see how far they have progressed academically. 

Now if we were to take grades out of the equation now, I think students would assume that there is no point to education.  We need to show students in other creative ways that they are learning.  I like the idea of having students work on a final unit project to share with the rest of the world on the web.  Sharing their work with other students and peers around the world will give learners a sense of accomplishment that no grade can provide.  As a new teacher looking to make my little disruptive innovations in the class, I will try to incorporate such projects to demonstrate to my students that there is more to learning than just a letter on a piece of paper.

Disrupting Class

Chapter 1: Why Schools Struggle to Teach Differently when each Student Learns Differently

1. Explain the difference between interdependence and modularity.  How is education currently organized?  

Interdependence is when one component of a system is designed to work within a specific system.  An interdependent system ensures optimal performance when doing a task it was specifically designed to do.  However, there is no room for flexibility as all components in the system must be changed to accommodate change.

Modularity is a system in which no component is dependent on another.  Of course a modular system is bound together by a set of “well-understood, crisply codified” guidelines (Christensen, 2008, p. 30). Having a base set of guidelines allows for independent proprietors to produce a modular component to work with a system.  Having a modular system allows for changes at the component level so long as it remains within the guidelines of the modular system. 

At present time, public education in the U.S. is an interdependent system.  U.S. education is temporally interdependent through strict grade level standards.  Learning is also laterally interdependent through English standards that prevent the adoption of efficient strategies for teaching foreign languages.    Physical interdependence is apparent in the school architecture that prevents project-based learning.  Lastly, policy and federal, state, and local politics prove to be a formidable hierarchical interdependency (Christensen, 2008, p. 33).

Chapter 2: Making the Shift:  Schools meet Society’s need

2. Explain the disruptive innovation theory.  What does this have to do with schools?

Christensen (2008) defines disruptive innovation theory that “explains why organizations struggle with certain kinds of innovation and how organizations can predictably succeed in innovation” (p. 45).  All entities will make sustaining innovations that continue to improve elements of their model that cater to a specific demographic.  Disruptive innovation occurs when another entity provides a product or model that serves people outside the traditional demographic.  In other words, disruptive innovation does not alter the course of innovation but creates its own market by catering to the non-consumers of the traditional market.  Initially, these disruptive innovations will not change the market, but as they become more refined they eventually redefine the market.

Unfortunately, due to the interdependence of education to the public, there has been little disruptive innovation.  Since all students and schools are mandated to achieve an arbitrarily set goal, there are no non-consumers to cater to.  Although the public school system tries to innovate by calling for different approaches to meet current concerns, there is no real disruptive innovation.  However, technology is being identified as a possible medium for disruptive innovation in education as it presents an opportunity to serve underserved, non-consumers, students. 

Chapter 3: Crammed Classroom Computers

3.  Why doesn’t cramming computers in schools work?  Explain this in terms of the lessons from Rachmaninoff (what does it mean to compete against nonconsumption?)

Christensen (2008) cites that “the way schools have employed computers has been perfectly predictable, perfectly logical – and perfectly wrong” (p. 73).  While schools have made a big push to incorporate more technology into their classrooms, teachers are only using the excess computers to support the traditional ways of learning and not using technology in disruptive ways.  I think part of the problem here is that teachers do not have the training or understanding on how to use new technology in disruptive ways that promote student-centered learning. 

Christensen presents and interesting example in RCA who decided to cater its phonograph recordings of Rachmaninoff to people who could not afford to attend live concerts in favor of the larger non-consumer market who do not have the means to see live musicians.  The best way to incorporate technology in the classroom is to use it to cater to the non consumers, or the underserved students, and not the students whose needs are being met by the traditional educational system.  Technology would be better utilized in serving students with different intelligences or to complement the classroom experience by giving gifted an opportunity to challenge them.

Chapter 4: Disruptively Deploying Computers

4. Explain the pattern of disruption. 

Disruption occurs in stages and at varying paces.  In the beginning, new disruptions create a new “plane of competition” by serving non-consumers.  Next, the disruption begins to adopt applications from the traditional market.  (Christensen, 2008, p. 96). Finally, the disruption transforms itself into a new market that caters to a larger demographic.  Looking at this explanation, I would argue that education is currently at the second stage in which software manufacturers are beginning to incorporate functions from the traditional school system into their systems.

5. Explain the trap of monolithic instruction.  How does student-centric learning help this problem?

The trap of monolithic instruction is its tendency to promote a one-size-fits all approach to education.  Given the strict mandates that schools and districts must abide by strict mandates, schools have begun cutting enriching courses to open up more resources to meet the federal, local, and state expectations. 

A student-centric approach can help to alleviate this one-size-fits all approach by catering students according to their learning intelligences and individual learning needs.  Carefully crafted programs can tailor the instruction according to student intelligences and provides more opportunities for formative assessments to adjust instruction on the fly. 


Chapter 5: The System for Student-Centric Learning

6. Explain public education’s commercial system.  What does it mean to say it is a value-chain business?  How does this affect student-centric learning?

Value-chains are businesses that bring in inputs and transform them into objects of higher value to sell to their customers.  Christensen (2008) likens the public schools system to a value-chain by describing as a system that organizes students into grade level classes (input), then learning the course content (adding value),  and then being moving on to the next grade (higher value).   Value chains are very systematic and highly structured preventing any form of innovation from taking hold.

This value chain model can have both positive and negative effects on student-centric learning.  For the most part, the current model has a great deal of non-consumers of educations.  This makes for a huge untapped market for student-centric curriculum providers.  On the other hand, with a ossified system in place, it is difficult to find support for student-centered providers as there is much resistance to such a movement.  But if student-centered curriculum disruption is like any other disruptive innovations, we will see a slow progression toward this new medium.