Evolve

I came across a very interesting article while updating my netvibes’ reading this evening. It is called Collectives, Networks and Groups in Social Software for E-Learning by Jon Dron and Terry Anderson. I thought groups and networks were just the same. Collectives is a fantastic word and sends us to a plethora of content and a kaleidoscopic view of learning. After reading the article, I saw that I am part of these three moments of learning. I discovered  that groups are cohesive and that members  feel a need to meet face to face. One of the features of groups in social software is links updating the activities of others and a certain familiarity among members. I have learned lots in such groups. I have used moodle platforms in courses, used wikis to collaborate in projects and group work, yahoo groups and threaded discussions to have conversations. Groups make you feel comfortable, at home.

Networks, according to the authors:

...are not, of themselves, smart, but the clustering, linking and interaction that occurs within and between networks creates a structure and form that aids functioning and organizing of these distributed entities.

Distributed identity, that is what many of us have. Our identities are distributed through the net in blogs, wikis, podcasts, virtual communities, forums, etc. Networks, the authors point out, have an emerging shape. I like this idea of knowledge having this emerging property. Knowledge emerges from connections. I am not really aware of all those that are part of my networks. I am part of online and face to face networks that contribute for my learning. I have discovered lots of things through facebook, orkut and other networks I am involved in. Each individual is part of several networks that are blended with f2f networks. They are not designed to meet the needs of the collective.

The collective comprises individuals who do not see themselves as part of neither a group nor a network. The shape is emergent and not designed and it provides encounters with the unpredictable. So if I am part of groups and networks, I cannot be part of the collective? For now, I can tell that I have benefited a lot from the encounters with the unpredictable I have had in google, in going to my page on delicious and clicking in all to find posts related to my interests. There are moments that I think some of us are part of this collective. When we decide to collaborate to a larger world beyond our treasured groups and networks we start becoming googled and part of the collective.

I decided to take the picture meme challenge. The picture I posted is not very colorful, but it means a lot to me. It is the picture of my 21classes blog . You can see students posts and students names. The reason I have chosen it, was because Brazilians are big fans of Orkut . This is the number one social networking in Brazil. It is a place for conversations, and messages. However, it is blocked in schools and it also has the problem of language (students would feel embarrassed in front of their friends if a teacher required them to start posting in English in their orkut community).

My idea of social media is one of open doors. My question and my quest as a teacher has been about finding a way to take my students to have conversations in class and outside the microcosmos of class. Social media should be open to everyone, open to comments and ideas, open to the serendipity of the web.

Social media media in schools, is many times anti-social media : a blog that only registered members can comment on (a group of people like us). If the group is too closed and too small, there is not much space for diversity, for serendipity.

For conversations to start, one should build in trust. In my view, it is difficult to build trust, if one does not trust educators and blocks certain tools, websites. It is not possible if we are too paranoide about our privacy. How is it possible to meet someone new, discover a new idea, if we are not open to the innovation of casual encounters.

My idea of social media in class involves conversation within the class microcosmos, other school classes, and with the outside world. It involves online conversations and f2f conversations between students talking about what they have posted, a drawing they have created. It involves sharing perspectives, opinions, ideas, and exchanging comments.

This is at least some of the things I have experienced and some of the things I have searched for. I am humble enought to admit that I have not achieved them all, but it is my goal. I really do not know if I will get there, but I do believe it is worth trying.

I have been a blogger since 2006. Everything started when I was a Hornby School participant in Sorocaba, Brazil. I first started using my blogs as a personal diary, I guess that is what everybody does. That is how blogging begins. Next, I started teaching and saw that blogs could be a tool to guide students and share interesting resources, such as, websites, references sites like dictionaries, online corpus. Later I started to see them as place for conversations, a venue for publishing students' work, and finally I started having my students setting up their own blogs.

The picture I used, I got it in taggalaxy at my friend Carla Arena´s suggestion. I just typed the word blog and got this wonderful picture.