It Begins

After pushing for a course in media literacy for the past 10 years, I have finally succeeded.  In a few weeks I will begin teaching an elective course, "Media Collage."  And I am a bit overwhelmed.  Over the 10 year gestation period, the focus of the course has changed pretty dramatically.  When I began campaigning for its approval, I envisioned a class that examined media in the age of conglomeration.  This was before Web 2.0--there was no Facebook, twitter, tumblr, youtube. . .

So now the course is much more about being a learner in the 21st century.  It is about the ways people use digital technology to engage with ideas, create content, and share their visions.  Very exciting.

But while plotting out the course, I have discovered that this is also about what it means to be a teacher in the 21st century.  In the past few days, I have realized that many of my assumptions about my role in relation to the student role are about to be challenged.  Again, very exciting.  But also daunting.

As an educator, I have read about, listened to, and discussed how learning is changing.  About how we are living in a transformative moment when our outdated education system must finally catch up to the 21st century.  The ideas are easy to repeat: we need to harness digital technology in order to create student driven, flipped classrooms that foster participation and engage learners in meaningful ways.  I haven't even taught the first day of my new course yet, but already I understand how challenging this will be. Very exciting.  But also nerve-wracking.

Even something as simple as how I will manage the online nature of the course has caused consternation.  For my classes, I am used to running everything through a Google Site, which includes a page of blog links to the blogs my students have created.  Their blogs, my platform.  However, this needs to shift.  Yes, I still want them to blog.  However, they need to be in control of it, just as they need to be in control of the content so they can manipulate it in ways that make the most sense.  In essence, using Google Drive, each student will have his or her own platform to which I will subscribe.  Course documents will still be located and shared from my account; but students will be in charge of how they use them and contribute to our investigation. This set up is my first taste of the decentralized nature of Web 2.0 learning.  I can only imagine how beautifully strange this is going to get.

Very very exciting.