March 2008 — eLearning
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Finding Their Voice
In addition to showing the potential for special needs students to engage in an activity many may have thought was beyond their capacity, the District 75 debating project demonstrates how technology tools can lead a rebalancing or reprioritizing in education of the three teaching-andlearning dialogues: 1) teacher to student, seen in teachers' daily work of teaching, guiding, and directing students; 2) student to student, most often expressed in discussion forums, small study groups, projects, and increasingly in blogs, podcasts, and other interactive experiences; and 3) student to resource, the dialogue that occurs between students and the almost infinite array of materials now available to them, including books, videos, the internet, podcasts, and their own life experiences.
The teacher-to-student dialogue has traditionally dominated the school environment, with teachers driving teaching and learning. Coffina's debate program advances a more learner-centered approach, shifting the nexus away from the teacher. The online debates move the teacher from center stage to the background and sidelines, from star to facilitator and director.
As teachers are no longer merely talking at students, the student-to-student and student-to-resource dialogues gain prominence. Students work in teams to prepare the elements of a debate-opening statements, positions, crossexaminations- workinging collaboratively and with all the research materials at their disposal.
Teachers are keenly interested in collaboration, including what tools can encourage and foster it among their students and incorporate it into learning. The online synchronous classroom provides them with such a tool. Teachers are developing a set of practices that still provide essential teacher direction and support, but also include more personalized and customized help. And students are finding ways to use online classrooms and other Web 2.0 applications to direct the path of their learning experiences and to develop confidence in what they can do.
One way to approach selecting and using collaboration tools is to think about the role of the three academic dialogues within the face-to-face or the online classroom. Working toward achieving a balanced dialogue model is a way of creating a 21st-century framework for teaching, and, in the process, developing good practices with the new technologies.
But though this wave of Web 2.0 applications such as the online classroom is making it possible to more easily achieve a more collaborative, student-centered learning environment, the applications alone are not enough. We need teachers who are open to this new equalizing of the three classroom dialogues to design collaborative learning experiences that draw students in and place them in authentic and challenging situations. And we need administrators who support this type of collaboration and outreach. Collaborative learning experiences engage learners, and engaged students learn more.
Judith V. Boettcher is an independent consultant specializing in online and distance learning, and the pedagogical applications of new media.
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