Recently, I have had the pleasure of spending a few days with my in-laws who live in Amish country, Ohio. And besides the swimming, canoeing, hiking, biking, and catching up, what was possibly most enjoyable about this trip is that I got to meet with a young Amish woman by the name of Anna. And bear with me for a moment as I try to get to why this is relevant to teaching, learning, writing, and online pedagogy. Because it is. Trust me.
Anyway, Anna is an unmarried, hard-working, and very bright 26 year old, whose formal education ended about twelve years ago, when she completed the 8th grade in a small school house run by her Amish church. She learned how to write, read, do math, and interestingly enough, also had to take eight years of German, so she could read the bible and understand their sermons, which to this day, are still in HochDeutsch, or high German. But don't think for one minute that Anna is any less critical or inquisitive. Beneath her white bonnet and long dress is a mind equivalent to that of our recent graduates.
And as I was talking to her about life in the Amish community, the Anabaptists, the Mennonites, and Rumspringe (the period before a youngster joins the church), one of the things she said really struck a chord. When asked about the fundamental difference between the Amish and the English (the non-Amish), Anna replied, "For all the things the English (non-Amish) people have, they don't really help each other out. We had a tornado go through Sugar Creek just last week, and rip the roofs off several houses. And you know what? They're back on. All the men came out and fixed all the houses. People here really help each other out. If you're a member of the church, you will get help. You don't even have to ask, they will be there for you. It's what you do."
For all the talking, reading, and researching that we as professors do, isn't that our final goal? To get students, as well as professors, working together as a team to get the best results? To create a true learning community, where people don't help each other out because they get extra credit, or because their teacher is making them, but because "it's what you do"?
Obviously, we can't force our students to become Amish in order to gain that sense of engagement with one another. I'm pretty sure very few of them would even be up for raising a barn, but even in our (post)modern times, there has to be something we can do to regain that sense of community. To create that idea that two know more than one, and ten definitely know more than one.
Personally, I'm not sure what this magical incentive could be, but I vote for raising a barn. Maybe that will help speed up work on our Ray Charles building too.
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Judith, Thanks for your story, and welcome to QEP 101 blogging! I can step forward and unabashedly answer your question -- all of us on the QEP staff are designing our "writing opportunities" as just this kind of "magical incentive" for the students.
ReplyDeleteIn other words, we are using shared writing online to simulate good old classroom discussion and, yes, a sense of community, both within the class and, possibly, beyond the class. The connectedness between students even works in both time (returning to the class site after the class ends) and space (contacts in this country or internationally).
The more examples of connectivism that we see and read about in action, the broader the scope becomes for what this type of student involvement can accomplish.
Judith, I think there are practical as well as magical incentives for people to work together. I think those practical incentives are becoming more explicit, forceful, and obvious as networking emerges to replace hierarchy as the dominant organizational structure.
ReplyDeleteMy too simple argument goes like this: In hierarchies, our status and value is largely measured by how many people are under us. This tends to emphasize competition as individuals climb the ladder to the top of the heap. And it's lonely at the top, with room only for the one or the few.
In networks, however, our status and value is largely measured by how many people are willing to connect to us. This tends to emphasize cooperation as people connect to as many people as possible, adding value to attract and taking value from the increased number of connections. It's never lonely in a network and there is room for all.