New Athenian Academy

I ran across Karl Fisch from the Fischbowl in a random search for education blogs.  I recommend the blog for anyone interested in education and new ideas.  For this series, I thought I would respond to some of Karl’s ideas. Some of the original blog posts are old, but great ideas and still relevant.

From the June 13, 2006 post entitled “Blogging with Next Year’s Students”:

What if in the future we had in place a process where you could start blogging with your students before class even started?

I know, I know, there are all sorts of reasons not to do this (many of which I would agree with), but if I limit myself to just thinking about the positive aspects of this then, well, wow. What a great way to start getting to know your students before class even starts, and for them to start getting to know each other. What a great way to emphasize this “life-long learning” stuff we’re always talking about with our students. What a great way to communicate to your students that we are serious about their education and they should be too, and that they have to be active participants in the class if they want to get the most out of it. What a great way to get them thinking about some of the “big picture” ideas (or “essential learnings” if you prefer) that you’d like them to focus on in your class.

I started thinking about this idea after writing my post Social Networking and Spreading Ideas.  I have a personal blog besides this one and am starting to gain a following.  A couple of months ago, two of my former students started their own blog.  Recently one of them wrote a blog mentioning how she as enjoyed getting to know one of her former teachers (guess who) from a different point of view from sitting in a classroom.  I love that students are blogging, sharing ideas, etc.

So why not have teachers blog to their next year’s students and current students and former students?  Create an online community to share, to informed, and to inspire….  I’m loving this idea.  I really think Karl Fisch’s idea would benefit students and schools, create a real community even before the people involved meet.  I remember having “summer reading lists” and “summer assignments” back in elementary school.  How much better would those assignments be with the aide of a blog?  A shared online space for comments.  Getting closer to the school year, students could find out what was expected of them in the coming year.  Students could suggest, question, comment on the syllabus or topics or expectations.  Students could get involved in the entire process of learning and shape their future classes to reflect their previous knowledge, strengths, weaknesses, etc.  it could be used in so many ways.  I would love to see this as a teacher.  I would love to see this as a parent, encourage that “life long learning” idea that I am trying to instill in my children.  I would love to see this as a student, knowing what I would going to be doing in the coming year.

I know there are many problems with this idea, but I am going to ignore those problems in favor of a dream.  A dream of students, teachers, parents, and community members all working together to help guide students on their educational paths. Just an idea….

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Education Process by Tobe