In the Innovative Pedagogy Report for 2013 ten topics were highlighted. I
decided to focus on "Crowd Learning". I decided to talk about this
topic because it relates a lot to the course I am taking at the University of
Akron. Times are changing and as an educator I need to be aware of the most
effective ways for my students to succeed. Technology plays a much bigger role
in education then when I was growing up.
What is it?
Crowd
learning is a fast growing way for people to become quickly educated on a specific
topic. People work together and share opinions through online social spaces,
websites, and activities. Crowd learning is a spontaneous way of learning! It
can be constructed to follow set goals or just go with the flow.
Why is it
important?
As teachers
we strive make our lesson relevant to each student, a very hard task for many
especially when you have 30+ students with a wide array of likes and dislikes.
Crowd learning is always relevant to its learners. The learner is self-
motivated and responsible for their achievements. Learners decided what they
need to learn. A teacher’s role is to help guide them in figuring out what
their needs are and providing them with support. In a crowd learning situation
the roles of teacher and student become blurred because everyone brings a
contribution to the discussion.
How can it
be used?
The course I
am currently taking is a great example of crowd learning. We participate in
twitter chats. The instructor posses a question and we the students answer and
feed off of others responses. Students participate in things like this and do
not even realize what is taking place. I could see a high school teacher
incorporating something like this into their courses via wikis. Elementary
students could do this as well. Creating a class blog and have the student on
the week post a question related to the class curricula and allows other to
respond would be a wonderful learning experience.
Challenge...
Like
everything related to the internet a teacher must be aware of what is being
posted. For younger students having most structured chats is wise. You also
need to instruct students how to look at responses. Making sure that a response
is genuine and credible.
Three
helpful links
http://blog.ideascale.com/2013/04/18/5-reasons-why-crowdsourcing-is-beneficial-for-online-education/
No comments:
Post a Comment