Author: Cody

The Connected Learning movement could not make its role as education’s savior any clearer. I look forward to learning more, but I am not sold. By nature a skeptic and realist (What scientist isn’t?), my experience has led me in a different direction than Connected Learning, as defined by those at http://connectedlearning.tv/ . While I in no way desire to tear down the methodologies outlined by the movement, I simply think this blanket approach is blind to its shortcomings.

Allow me to digress. My PhD work is in the area of Urban Forestry. Specifically, I am interested in woody plant physiological ecology (aka, ecophysiology). My work is all about natural, biological processes, to which “technology” falls so short as a subsidy. I am absolutely in agreement that education needs reform, but in my field, the reform needs to happen in terms of connecting with the subject matter, natural systems.

Likewise, I am wary of focusing on Connected Learning as the answer to all our educational maladies because of the isolationist nature of social media and distance learning. In reality, do we really have greater access to universal knowledge than we did before mainstream internet use? No. Is universal knowledge more accessible, yes, but not by much. Libraries are founded on the principle of accessibility of knowledge transfer. What the internet does provide that libraries do not is opinion-driven, subjective, false knowlege–around every corner.

We, as educators, should reprioritize face-to-face interaction within education, cooperative work, and contextualized learning. Last week, I was researching qualities of great educators, and even now in 2016, educators recognized for their work are those that contextualize the learning. Not once in my research did I come across anything that resembled Connected Learning. Instead, I saw physics professors that put their life on the line demonstrated principles that they whole-heartedly believed in and wanted to imbue to their students. I saw chemistry professors that gave tangible demonstrations of the subject matter that drew students in with oohs and aahs, opening the eyes of many and strengthening the foundation of the knowledge being transferred.

In my own experience, it was only a year ago that I attended my most life-changing course and met my professional mentor. All that I spoke with in the class had similar experiences, and the professor has received much recognition for his remarkable methods. The technology used in the course: a white board and an old-school overhead projector with transparencies.

By no means am I against Connected Learning, but I don’t think it needs to be our focus at this point. I daresay we have out-of-touch educators and relational education has been lost in mainstream education. Also, I believe we use a blanket method to educate, especially in primary and secondary school. We think everyone needs to reach the same standards of learning, when we should inspire students to find their skills and follow their desires (trade school should be just as encouraged as higher education). Within higher ed, we need to remind ourselves of the role of grades and achievements as competitive indicators for employment instead of thinking every student capable of 4.00 GPA. Grade inflation is out of control, yet the quality of education is dropping because we focus on catering to the lowest common denominator. Lastly, we need to help students advance in team problem solving. Having spent years in the industry before beginning my PhD, I can attest to college graduate inability to work in teams and think critically.

Only by addressing these issues can we then reap the benefits of Connected Learning. I am afraid we are merely venturing down a rabbit trail, skirting the issues that should be our main concern. But I am cautiously optimistic that I am missing much of what Connected Learning has to offer. I am very concerned how social media is becoming so intertwined with education at the expense of true collaboration….