Mumford and Sons – Little Lion Man
Back to the Future
“A foolish consistency, Emerson wrote, “is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.” So in the hopes of not sounding like a little statesman, I am going to be inconsistent and talk about how certain forms of so-called new media, particularly games, could be a very effective tool in online education… A little speed might spice things up.
I like the idea, as I said on Monday, of keeping my online writing classroom “slow”– that is, of using teaching methods that focus almost exclusively on the written word as opposed to moving or still images. (My website, too, is heavily focused on the written text, for obvious reason.) Among other things, I think visually simple design can help to encourage reflective thinking.
On the other hand, I think that it’s important to recognize that there’s an outside to this interior, reflective space and that for many students a more kinetic approach might be an important supplement to their learning. That’s why, for example, I encourage students to listen to pod-casts about language, such as “A Way With Words.” Language study doesn’t have to be so deadly serious.
The contrast between fast and slow, in other words, might enhance the effectiveness of each. That’s also why I recommend grammar games, such as those available on Quia, as way to improve students’ basic knowledge of English. Games can help to make dull subjects a little more fun. Bibliobouts, which is a game designed to teach research, sounds intriguing for similar reasons.
Slow Education
I wrote recently about what I call ‘slow learning’ on the analogy of slow food. My idea is simple: the writing process is a more educationally nutritious alternative to the standardized test. Metaphors can only be pushed so far, but I think this one holds up well. Fast food, like the standardized test, is, among other things, a mechanized response to the perceived problems of mas society.
We don’t think in industrial terms much anymore, but the standardized test and the fast food restaurant are iterations of the assembly line. These technologies are obsolete. Workers don’t need to spend their days doing the same repetitive task hour after hour; civilization won’t end if we slow down– in several senses– and enjoy well-cooked healthy meals.
I just read a piece in which a photographer made a similar argument for slow photography and it got me thinking about how these ides might apply to online learning. The “fast education” norm would seem to suggest that we have to follow the latest technologies, as quickly as possible, in order to meet our students expectations and, perhaps, cognitive styles.
In online education, this means moving from largely text based systems such as I use now to systems that rely heavily on graphics, including both moving and still images. I wonder if we might, instead, argue that for a writing class a slow education, rooted in texts rather than images, and perhaps a little philosophically resistant to change, makes more sense.
Sixteen Military Wives – The Decemberists