Unschooly-Youths Conversations Reflection
(Oh yeah, I should have screen-captured the conference call window so I could put images here so this post would look less boring… guess I should get in a habit of doing that :-P)
Although I was one of the people who raised the issue (and now I feel self-conceited), my brain wasn’t cleared enough to talk about the topic. My words actually weren’t very lucent and I mumbled a lot (my another excuse is that I am not a native speaker but English is my second language). Anyways, that was kinda embarrassing (hope Paul would edit that out well :P)
Overall impression over the conversation was that, frankly, it didn’t quite feel different from English Literary Discussions I have every other day. Except in those cases I’d talk about Jane Eyre, Dracula, and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, or as eerie as ‘Vindication of Rights‘ by Mary Wollstonecraft and Virginia Woolf. Methods and procedures of discussion were almost identical; I should say that my first Skype conferencing with people half-globe around felt familiar. (Thanks Ms.Patterson for training me on the discussions!)
It was just another discussion, but an un-graded and real-world one. By this recorded conversation, many students around the world will be aware of becoming ‘unschooly’ and the following benefits. That was probably why I felt more engaged than in school debates. We were making difference to the world, not grades.
So what was Unschooliness? It was a studnet-inspired, and self-inspired work or projects that wasn’t forced to do by any other one. Kuddos for Alan and Hannah for making the definition solid. I mentioned that beginning tweets of YT were “schooly and concrete.” That was true because, seriously, “every tweets looked the same and they were so obvious homework-assignments.” Oh yes they were. After my acrid tweet, YT graduated Medieval Age (the time period where people obeyed King and Clergymen pliantly). Students started engaging themselves in conversations, asking each other about favorite musicians or taking a survey for their projects. If YT was a world history, this would be equivalent to Age of Exploration (except that in the internet no violence are involved) when civilizations start to meet each other and develop themselves inwardly through Industrial Revolution. Profound improvements from previous robotic and systematic tweets. Now only problem is that students will have to get beyond the factual talks. Talking about favorite kinds of music, baseball players and other personal priorities will be great at knowing each other living in different regions of the world. Well, but still they are pretty plain and basic. Less schooly but still concrete. Maybe ‘cliché’ is the right word. In order to jump into the abstracts (the modern age) learning how to make connections and the mastery of art of noticing is crucial. This post of a friend of mine clearly demonstrates exemplary skills at connecting personal thoughts to real events. In addition to that, I would also like to recommend this very special post, a post (actually the whole blog) filled with 100% school related subjects but 0% schooly impressions. I would categorize those two as ‘natural bloggers’.
As I mentioned in the conversations, I believe, that “time” and “exposure” are only things we need to get to the beyond-level. Oh yes and adding to that, I stressed the importance of time and importance because I said teachers can’t really teach a student to become opened; such truth made Clay Burell go “OUCH” :-p (EdTechTalk was similar to Note Passings in Model United Nations activity). Last comment about YT. Students there need to advertise their blogs a little more. I am very interested on hearing them beyond 140 words.
Also Lindsea standed out as an ideal archetype of a successful unschooly student. Personally, her blog posts taught me a lot and her various activities out-of-boundaries, such as PGC and involvement in other classrooms via skype, encouraged me. Her commitment will inspire many other listeners as well. I mean, how many students around the world are promoting global-scale projects? Simply her existence enhanced the quality of the conference.
And Clay Burell asked a question: “How can a teacher grade if assignments are structure-free? (something like this)” and it made whole people in the EdTechTalk chat room go “Nice Question”,”Good Question, Clay” and “Good Question.” I didn’t get to answer this in the conversation, but I soon realized that he already answered that question to me in Twitter couple of weeks ago, and similar answer was produced in the conversation as well. Students grade themselves. Assignments, such as blogging can be varied from a single video-post to a 3000 word formal essay. There are currently no set rubrics to judge such amorphous works. But still teacher could judge a student based on how they incorporated the 6-traits of Writing and other literary skills taught?
And what else were there? Ben contributed his experience on how getting involved in NYC blogging changed his perspectives. It was pleasant to hear because he shared similar experiences. He was relatively new also and he felt the similar way I did. Felt belonged, learning the size of the world, and learning how to make a difference. For internet-technical issues at home :’( it’s difficult for me to connect to any of blogspot blogs and Google Docs. Which means I can’t read NYC blogging often, and I also have limited opportunities to explore Space, sponsored by MrMayo. Space is another type of a collaboration along with 1001 Flat World Tales I experienced last year except it’s dealing with digital artwork which I am more confident in than writing stories. Artwork and poetry from students around the world, that is the I would label as ‘aesthetic’.
The more I get involved in this, the more I get something.
And my final comment was that (why do I only remember what I said) students reject blogging and free-structure because 1)they don’t feel connected and 2) they don’t know how and why. Many of my friends are excellent potent blogger–all they need is a connection. Some of my friends complained that blogging was very boring because no one commented and there was absolutely no sharing. And that would result in 300 people joining my twitter network overnight, and I thought that was impractical because I only have about 70 people following, and suddenly if number increases to 370 I wouldn’t be able to catch all their notifications. Yeah, but I guess that limits to me because Clay Burell responded right back saying, he is already following 400 people, and extra 300 wouldn’t matter. Also regarding the connection problem most students suffer, he suggested about being connected before blogging. Creating a audience before the show, that’s one sure way to get comments on first posts.
And how do we convince the students about the ‘purpose’ of being unschooly? Relying on “time” as I said will take ages. I do not remember who said it (my bad) but someone mentioned that they need to be exposed to exemplary works, watch what other students are doing, and then start to understand the importance. Yes, no one can’t really teach other about this. One can ‘guide’ and show the opportunities and only the student may decide to join or not. Like MySpace and Facebook did, at one point, who knows student body in the blogosphere will grow exponentially?
Lastly I couldn’t resist mentioning Tyrone Kidd. He skyped me, right after the conference for clarifications on the major points. He introduced me as a student in US, and noted the power of connection: Me (is it I?) in ROK talking with a guy in US about technology input in youth education was not a thing happened few years ago. We, once again overcame the natural barrier called Pacific Ocean.
Well this is definitely one of the longest posts I’ve written before, seems like this is a good place to wrap up. Ginormous thanks to Paul and Susan for facilitating and being the discussion leaders for the historical event. Wholeheartedly appreciated it.
Hope this 1 hour conversation would bring a difference to many student bodies,
and again, Thanks for the collaboration everyone! And also thanks who used up precious time to listen to us in EdTechTalk
Soojin
- After 1 Month of Blogging
- We Don’t Need the 1:1 Laptop System
- The Internet vs Real Life
- Blogger’s Burden 3.0
- Youthnet: Opening to Neo Era of Student Learning
Technorati Tags: Teachers Teaching Teachers, EdTechTalk, Education, Unschool, Student, Skype, Youth, Blog
Filed under: 2.0, unschool, Anibal's Diary, Education, Youth, Blogging
I think the point about feeling not connected is huge. I started a personal blog (link on my name^^) about two months ago, but I know that only about three people read it, if that. My best friend doesn’t even read it. Therefore, I have little incentive to continue posting. So, there’s the paradox. If no one reads it, I won’t post. But, if I don’t post, of course no one will read it.
And I was quite nervous as well going into the discussion - I’ve only been connected for what? A week? :O
On the blogs of Alan and others: I’ve been to their blog sites, and one of the policies is that they don’t give personal information, for example, their names. So, posting their individual blogs on YT would divulge their names, and I’m not sure if their teachers want that.
Thank you for blogging! You always have something thoughtful to say.
Great summery Soojin!
Hannah–
Do you really blog for other people to read it? I started my blog a year ago, and I’ve been writing in it almost every day. The first two months I hardly got any comments at all. Hmm actually the first seven months I hardly got any comments at all. But I kept on going and talking to other bloggers and starting conversations. Eventually the readership will come. Until then, just do what you love on your blog because _you love it_. That’s this crazy Hawaiian’s advice.
Nice post, Andrew. It’s good to see students like you starting to get it
Hey, have you tried Kwout? See if you can embed (go to “Code” view) a screenshot of the Teachers Teaching Teachers site that the webcast will be posted on soon as a podcast.
I really appreciate you linking to the other student blogs around the world (and our school). It helps us all find others worth reading.
See you on Twitter
Hi Soojin,
I just posted a tweet on YT thanking you for your inspiring post. I’ve been thinking since the webcast Wednesday night about my own use of blogs with students. Today, I showed your post to one of my classes and we had an honest conversation about the writing they do on their blogs. One student said that she only considers writing “real” when she chooses what to write about. Obviously, I have to assign SOME assignments. However, next quarter I am going to give my students much more freedom to write about topics of their choosing.
Your thoughts and comments, as well as the other voices on the Teachers Teaching Teachers show this week have made me rethink how I use blogs in class. Like everything, teaching is, and must be a reflective practice. You have to continually rethink, and evaluate what you do. Thanks again Soojin. Your post made me rethink an important part of my classroom practice. As the next quarter progresses, you will be hearing from us here in Maryland.
PEACE George
@everyone
thanks! you guys are so cool. I am getting into this, and thank you all for the inspirations and encouragements. I have gone through my conflict with my readerships (one of previous post dealt with it) and I am finding my identity here.
and MrMayo, nice to hear that my post was worth debatable! Yes, I agree to that girl, whenever I write, whether self inspired or schoolwork, I get a ‘wholeheartedly’ feeling. Writing is fun, it’s the most fun when a writing moves people.
And i’ll be looking forward from you Maryland people also!
I enjoyed the discussion the other day - it was my first attendance of a live, online discussion. Very interesting. I hadn’t previously heard about ’schooliness’ vs. ‘unschooliness’, but I’m definitely interested in learning more about what works best for students.
@mindelei
Thanks for showing interest to the conversation! By the general flow, unschooling seems to be a better way for the students. Proper mixture of two would be the best possible way
I am so sorry that I missed this session, but will go back and see if I can listen to the recording. My students (in Australia) have started with individual blogs this year and they love getting comments. We are working with other schools in Canada and USA, so this will start to give them more authentic comments. My twitter network of teachers, have also been good at providing comments at times. So far, though I have found that the students love comments from anyone - teachers, parents, grandparents, friends and global friends and it has encouraged them to continue posting and improving the quality of their posting.
We also love using skype but time differences with Europe and USA, mean that so far it is one of the teachers from another country teaching the class in the alternative country.
However, we have used skype with your country of Korea for a week last year and found that very powerful learning. My students demonstrated cricket, Aussie meat pies, vegemite and showed a blue tongued lizard to the web cam for the Korean students to see. The Korean students showed us their uniforms, food, mobile phones (our students were quiet jealous) and the weather snowing outside. That was such powerful learning.
Mr Burrell led me to your post so thank you for the very comprehensive content. It has given me much food for thought.
Soojin, thanks for leading me here and for sharing the amazing experience! It’s nice to hear different perspectives, and good to constantly question if what we’re currently doing is truly the best thing.
I’ve been aware of the blogging world, but only just became a part of it myself in the past few weeks. I feel like I’m starting out a mile behind. Any tips or suggestions you have for me are quite welcome!
[…] Unschooly-Youths Conversations Reflection […]
[…] Unschooly-Youths Conversations Reflection […]
[…] South Korea there is a kid named named Soojin. He made an awesome post on his blog about how teachers should allow their students the possibility to post and write about things they […]
Hi Soojin. I really think that this blog post is really cool. It is because of you that our teacher, Mr.Mayo, let us write weekly posts about things that we feel passionate about. I really appreciate you.
Thank You
[…] As I read your post I found this quote I totally agree with,”“time” and “exposure” are only things we need to get to the beyond-level.” I too believe that if we want to get to great writing hights we must be able to write our minds and not be under a structure from a teacher. As i thought about this i kept reading and then found this quote that totally connected to what I was thinking, ”teachers can’t really teach a student to become opened”. Thanks for your time in writing this. You really made a stand for kids that just want some freedom in their writing. Also thanks to you Mr Mayo has given us the priviledge to have a freewrite and just write what we want to once a week on our blogs here. Thanks Soojin […]
Thanks Soojin!
My english class thanks to you now has the ability to write our minds once a week for our blog post.
thanks again,
sara
http://two11.learnerblogs.org/2008/04/25/soojins-impact-on-our-writing-freedom/
Hey I forgot to leave a link to my
and by the way Patricia from Pixie Dreams
my blog is this
[…] english class we are now writing one post a week about anything we want! This is all thanks to Soojin a 10th grader in South Korea who, in a recent web post brought up the idea that kids should be […]
In Mr.Mayo’s english class we are now writing one post a week about anything we want! This is all thanks to Soojin a 10th grader in South Korea who, in a recent web post brought up the idea that kids should be allowed to write what they want in order to promote writing. I think that this is a great idea and, I like writing them a lot. he also said “So what was Unschooliness? It was a studnet-inspired, and self-inspired work or projects that wasn’t forced to do by any other one” I thought that this really drove the point home and I really think that this is an awesome idea.
[…] Sooijin is a 10th grader that’s lives in South Korea, and he has brought a very smart point to my attention. He says that teachers should give there students more freedom in there writing and I could not agree with him more. My English teacher, Mr. Mayo agrees. When a student is forced to write something they do not put as much thought into it and effort as they would if they had a choice. When you have a choice about what you are writing about you get more into it, which makes for better writing. Also, when you have a choice about what you are writing you become a better writer in general. A lot of times in life you are going to write about personal things, the better you are at it the more opportunities you have. For example, if you are writing a job application it is about you, not some homework assignment you had in 8th grade. Writing freely is what is really going to help you not the boring English. […]
Hey Soojin, I am an 8th grader in Maryland and we are experimenting with free writting, thanks to you. My teacher found what you said interesting and now we have started having more freedom about what we write in class. Talk again later.
@Anne
Recording is open now! Good to hear this audio cast will be heard by many people! And you talked with korea before? that’s very cool, a public one or american school in korea? Yeah, I wish Skype was used more in classes too, addition to its powerful learning, it’s fun!
@Kristie,
Actually i’m quite new to this place as well, just a couple of months. Guess we can help each other out :p
@Patricia, Sara, Nik and all people who linked me
I’m actually quite surprised, that my little rambling thoughts was perceived seriously by someone else, and change and difference occurred. Thanks for the thanking you guys! make sure you guys visit my amigos on my blogroll too!
[…] you have time, please check out this H.S. student blog post- right on point with an article I just read about a recent PEW research report (here’s the […]
[…] just finished reading a great blog post, FROM A HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT! This H.S. student blog post (see my earlier post: Learning How to be Unschooly) is right on point with an article I just read […]
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