Connectivist vs. Participant, Dewey vs. Freire

I remember when I first heard about Gregory Ulmer coming up with his own terminology to reflect the evolution from literacy to a new symbolic, visual practice needed to thrive in digital environments, Electracy. Reading about digital pedagogy lately, it no longer seems radical to invent one's own term. It seems a new term crosses my Twitter feed on a weekly basis -- participant pedagogy, peeragogy, hybrid pedagogy, connectivism -- each indicating some new practice or means of interaction in a networked, online environment. Perhaps, I should be looking to coin my own term in my dissertation instead of trying to connect a very non-technical practice that is most often linked to Brazilian peasants to new media ecologies.


Today though (and this could be may lack of sleep and excess of coffee talking) an interesting distinction emerged that could connect to the differences between critical pedagogy forefathers, John Dewey and Paulo Freire. In one vein, you have connectivism, which discusses knowledge building as an associative activity, tied to experiential and active learning. In the other vein, you have the emerging peer-based learning, tied to participant driven MOOCs. One is a radical new framework for education and the other is a more pragmatic approach to using the online environment to enhance learning and increase student engagement. One can more clearly be related to the work of Freire and the other to the work of Dewey. I'm not sure what I'll do with this discovery....

Let the journey begin...

The diagnostics have been written, the goals have been stated -- I'm beginning to see this semester more clearly now. I realize now that I have two distinct groups of students this semester, which hopefully will yield some interesting comparisons. My online students are very diverse in their interests, causes, and life circumstances. They see their personal and civic empowerment coming from an array of places, from Youtube to Jesus. Their causes are national and even global causes, citing desires to change tolerance, gun control, violent media, government corruption. However, they all see mostly the same hinderances: money and time.

My basic writing students are located in a satellite campus of Delta College in an economically depressed area of Saginaw. They are united in same cause -- to make Saginaw a safer community with more positive activities and employment. When asked about what they can do, most state that they can use their voices to demand change. A significant number of students are studying criminal justice. They are a united community.

The question is what role can social media or digital skills play into these students making a change? In the first group, social media seems a necessity. They are students who have no common community in the class -- they must find community elsewhere. The issues they are exploring require national attention and action; hence, they need to connect with people throughout the country.

My basic writing students see civic action in a more direct manner, volunteering at their church, speaking out to others in their community, etc. What role can online tools/sites play? I no longer see social media as a key player in this class, as they have community. What I see being a key issue is creating a public voice and awareness. For this, I believe a website with a collection of digital stories and essays will be key.

What I see emerging is two different approaches to advocacy based on two different rhetorical situations.

The Year of the Sabbatical

Though the placemat at the Chinese restaurant I frequent may declare this is the year of the snake, I declare it to be the year of the sabbatical. It begins with classroom research and then tapers off into seven months of reflection beginning in May. Usually I lay my courses out fully and methodically with the entire 15 weeks planned out to the smallest homework assignment. This semester, I am being true to my Freirean roots and beginning the semester by listening to the needs, interests, and goals of my students. 

The central question will be can students harness/tame the online environment to serves these needs, interests, and goals instead of being driven to distraction. Can they direct information to serve their values? I hope by building a curriculum with the students instead of for the students that I will not only be empowering them but increasing their motivation. In Drive, Daniel Pink highlights three key motivators: autonomy, mastery, and purpose. Integral to these motivators is students having an interest and a personal investment in what they will be learning this semester.

After taking in the desires of the class, the challenge will be integrating those desires with the key skills sets and literacies that are integral to becoming critical prosumers in the digital age. Let the intellectual puzzle begin...