Why one audience?

After my latest experience with my first submitted "paper" in more then 3 years I am left with quite a few questions:
Why are we still submitting papers to one professor? 
My last paper was blatantly misunderstood and I got pretty fired up over it.  After further communications with classmates and looking over the work they submitted and how it was grade…well,let’s just say I was really, really, really worked up.  I am still not sure exactly what happened when my paper hit this professor’s table, but I can assure you that it was completely misunderstood.  He continually questioned figurative language and metaphors, instead of letting them in and engaging in the thinking that they were written to inspire.  I felt as if the piece was an opinion paper and since we had read the same book, I thought maybe I could get creative with my ideas.  Instead I found out that he would like me to rewrite the book we both read and make sure to nod or shake my head in an average high school layout style of writing.  I am proud of the paper submitted and the intent of provoking deep thought that drove it.
Why are we still submitting papers?
If you are reading this blog then you are willing to engage in a real 21^stcentury learning activity.  I really struggle with finding the time to ever become a topnotch editor like my mother.  I love letting the words flow and it frustrates me to revise and edit with the skill that my mom pulls off.  She is very good!  I also find it very tedious and restricting to cite sources.  I would much rather add a link to my paper and have people explore the same sources I have on my own.  I understand the need to use the sources and I also understand the need to communicate those sources.  But what is the point of such stringent and anal formats?  Sure, twenty years ago we really had to spend a lot of time and energy tracking down information.  An extremely defined road map that clogs up any paper would have been necessary to locate such sources and the information they contain.  Now I feel like the speed and availability of information allow us some freedom on this matter.  Why is my writing being critiqued on whether I have a comma in place or if I don’t put the year a text was created twice in the same paragraph?  Bottom line, I would much rather engage with a professor in a discussion and actually have to create some organic conversation and debate on a topic than submit the usual 3-5, 1,000-word mummy wrapped APA paper!
Well, I am off to pursue the tedious task of funneling my ideas through the black hole described above so that I can get a cookie or something from one man, one set of ideas, and one more person that I will strive to chase out of education with my students of the future!  I am copying the first draft of this paper on the bottom of this post.  I will post later with my version for an audience of one.
Kevin
Disclaimer:  All of the above comments are my opinion and not directly aimed at any one person or institute of learning.  Love you mom :)

Kevin

              A New Culture of Learning

                   February 29, 2012

            As a young teacher starting my career during tumultuous political and financial times for education, it is very frustrating to hear negative comments about teachers, schools, and learning in general. Society is great at ranting about how broken our system is, how much money and time are wasted, and how we are constantly failing the future minds of the future (Robinson). I am introduced to district-wide “fixes” for our broken schools all the time at meetings. A new science kit, Response to Intervention, or new books are all sold as the solution. At these same meetings, experienced educators often scoff at recycled ideas and trendy ways to patch up broken methods. Their bookshelves are lined with quick fixes, most collecting dust or never opened. Educators at all levels understand that something needs to be done, and all involved want what is best for their students. The roadblock is that we keep trying to reinvent the wheel when we should be learning how to fly the jet. Thomas and Brown explain in A New Culture of Learning that we must change our current system and thinking from “the stable infrastructure of the twentieth century to a fluid infrastructure of the twenty-first century” (2011,p. 17). The authors make many great suggestions on how to get this done. Three of these are that a new culture of learning exists today, that we must learn to embrace change, and that technology greatly fuels this change. I agree with these assertions and think that the future really starts with forgetting the past.

Arguments against current educational systems are easily made as society continues to view schools as a “place” to send students and from where they will all walk away with a very standard set of knowledge. Furthermore, teachers are viewed as the“givers” of knowledge and students as empty buckets waiting patiently to be filled with information. Thomas and Brown describe this as the mechanistic view of education and address the issue of “broken” schools in a very creative way:“If we change the vocabulary and consider schools as learning environments,however, it makes no sense to talk about them being broken because environments don’t break” (2011, p. 36).  I really embrace Thomas and Brown’s theory of a learning environment not able to be broken. I refuse to see anything “broken” about what goes on in my classroom today with my 21^st-century learners. This is because I find the mechanistic view of education to be exhausting and a real burden on my student’s learning. I cannot give them all the answers, and no standardized test I have ever seen can measure my students’ actual academic growth.  Our desks are not set in rows, the chalkboard does not hold all the answers, and my students challenge me as much, if not more, than I do them. This all allows us to grow out of the traditional transfer of information and into a new culture of learning.

            To fully transform the way that we feel and think about education, we must first embrace this cultural change. I question whether we are truly embracing a learning-based model of education while we still skill, drill, and test our students. Thomas and Brown quote Haraclitus to create an analogy for change: “No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man” (2011, p. 39). This quotation really makes me think about how each and every student must experience learning. Are we really doing all we canto meet our students needs, to find out what our students are learning? Or, are we just leading them to the river, having them all wade through the water, and then just checking to make sure their feet are wet? I fear that traditional grade-restricted curriculum, universal benchmarks instead of growth models, and standardized testing are forcing us to do just that. The basic fact that we still funnel students into grade levels based on age and age alone is one sign of how stringent and outdated the system is (Robinson). I would much rather have my students pick their own body of water and invite me to play in that environment with them. The river water may be too murky, shallow, or deep and some students just don’t like wet feet. Other students may not want to walk through the river, but instead dunk their head or jump over the whole thing.Perhaps a nice sail around the bay is the learning experience we need. I think a key component to embracing this change and transforming into a learning model is technology.

            One influential factor for a change in educational philosophy is the speed at which technology is being introduced in our world. The Internet, maybe the most influential piece of current technology, shows us how fast our culture is being supplemented by technology. From 1997 to 2008, the number of homes with Internet access grew from 18% to 73% (Thomas & Brown, 2011, p. 41). The increase in internet availability is astonishing when combined with the fact that current broadband Internet capabilities are up to 100 times faster then the dial-up service that most used just 10 to 15 years ago (Woodford, 2011, p.1). This vast amount of information available to students, combined with the speed at which it can be accessed, is changing everything about learning. The Internet creates a vast web of collaboration and knowledge that Thomas and Brown call the collective. The key to educating 21^st-centurylearners is finding a way to support individual learners as they play and imagine in various collectives. Instead, many educators suggest that some students may have ADHD and need to be slowed down in order to fit into the teacher’s self-contained, limited, and often slow-paced collective (Robinson). As an educator, I often try to go the other way, to knock the walls down, open up the world, and match the pace of learning with the needs of each student.

I strive to learn every day how to provide for the students who build my learning community. It is foolish to think that I have all the answers, but I am continually searching for them. It would be just as foolish for me to think that finding those answers will lead to a rest stop or a stopping point. The answers will not last long—my students’ curiosity and desire to “play” in the world around them will ensure that.

The poster boy for learning, Mr. Albert Einstein, once said, “The important thing is to not stop questioning.” My ideal culture for 21^st-century learning is based on one thing and that is questioning. Everyone involved must feel safe asking questions, supported and engaged in finding answers, and—most importantly—motivated to never stop finding new ways to chase down new answers.The kicker is that those answers will have to be questioned in order for this new culture to work. Ideally, this creates a culture of learning that has no end and an environment in which we can all play and imagine for eternity.

           

References

Robinson,K. (Producer). (n.d.). Our school system is broken! [Web Video]. Retrieved from http://ahrengot.com/opinions/our-school-system-is-broken/

Thomas,D., & Brown, J. S. (2011). A new culture of learning: Cultivating the imagination for a world of constant change.Lexington, KY: CreateSpace.

Woodford,C. (2011, October 31). How broadband Internet works. Retrieved from http://www.explainthatstuff.com/howbroadbandworks.html