Stealing from Dragons

Ok, so I have a Hobbit theme going. For some reason when I think of objectives I think of a "mission". Which leads me to think of Bilbo and the Dwarves trying to figure out how to deal with the pesky dragon. Much of the content in this lesson seemed very practical. Setting objectives by using words that focus on what students will be able to do makes sense. Layering these objectives in a way that reflects different degrees or depths of understanding also seems logical.

Yet...I've always struggled with the way that objectives and assessment close off students and teachers from the mystery of learning. I realize that on any journey a person is forced to take this path vs. that one. But how can objectives and forms of assessment prevent us from seeing that there might be other ways to go? That even though we as teachers want students to travel one way, they might discover another way that is important and interesting. How can objectives and assessment remain open to creativity and the insight of others? After all, it was Bilbo's ingenuity and willingness to think outside the box that helped him in his quest.

Get out the Map

So the biggest thing I learned from this past week has to do with the map. First... I think I did it wrong. I thought we were supposed to map out a course, but the example seemed to show a unit. Second... and more importantly... I quickly realized that it's going to take some time and creativity to make the pieces fit together. As I started to plot things out I figured out I was cramming to many things into a module, or I went to long without some form of assessment, or I was going to have way too many modules! I decided to go old school so I drew it out with paper and pencil, snapped a photo, and scanned it into a PDF. We'll see what response this gets...It's a good reminder.

This week's reading got me thinking about the material conditions of teaching and learning. There really is no neutrality or objectivity. I would also argue there is no such thing as "content". To think of teaching and learning relationally means that what we think of as content is always relationally mediated. It's never just "content" as some objective thing to be mediated to students. The teacher / student relationship is an important part of this mediation. For online education, as one of our author reminded us, the systems and platforms play an increased role. What is the impact of these systems upon the way students engage and learn? How do we as teachers help students become aware of this as they participate in online education? Is there a way to help students begin to wrestle with these deeper philosophical issues, or are we supposed to just stick to the course material?