Explore+3

Exploration #3 Go to amazon.com and browse through books on education, perhaps those authors’ works who we have been reading. Go to your local bookstore and do the same. Write a brief comparison of these experiences. Answer the question: How is the Internet curriculum? I have been looking for a text to use for a course that I am developing on Health Informatics. So this exercise is easy for me, since I just got done with this very same experience. Holding the book in my hands and experiencing how “readable” the text is was a key step in my selection, hence the trip to Barnes and Noble. It was very brief. I looked for books on my topic, found none. Went to the helpdesk and they confirmed that they had NO books on my subject, and definitely not certain ones that I was looking for. Between Amazon.com and Google Scholar I was able to read a good portion of the books I was evaluating, I had access to complete Table of Contents for each book. I was also able to read reviews by students and others as to the content, relevance, readability (taking it all with a grain of salt, of course). While looking at the texts on Amazon, it made suggestions of other books and told me what others were purchasing that looked at that book. So it becomes social as well. I had actually gone to Amazon for these features, to broaden my search for a text. From my online experience I was really able to discern the validity of the authors, the appropriate background of the authors, the focus of each book, and come up with a very solid understanding of a large body of work and what is relative for a foundational course in a very broad field of study. I also realize that, technically, I could put together reading assignments across a larger body of work for students to read versus one purchased text. In answering the question, “how is the Internet curriculum?” I feel like it goes back to the lack of linearity, the social features, and the lack of boundaries. So, while the Internet may not be curriculum per se it certainly is an environment that supports curriculum with personal choices, a personal experience, and learner-driven content.

sandlstats ETAP 710 Can you say more about your observation that the internet is "an environment that supports curriculum with personal choices, a personal experience, and learner-driven content"? Is this typically how we conceptualize curriculum in the U.S.? As far as how we conceptualize curriculum in the U.S., I believe we perceive this as the content knowledge to be learned. Dewey's belief that curriculum and the individual both set the parameters within which the process of education occurs; this is played out to limited degrees within the US classroom. Unfortunately, I think we look at the curriculum "content" as overshadowing the broader mission of education. And we loose some of the finer points of the mission of education. (of course I could be all wet!) I guess I kind of skirted the question of "is the Internet curriculum?" It is content; unorganized, unvetted, and unending. The Internet has vast expanses of content ranging from complete bunk/garbage to invaluable. That being said, an individual may not have the necessary skills to discern, seek out, and utilize these resources. Combine this with the information explosion on the Internet and it becomes overwhelming. To recontextualize my earlier statement, I would have to say: Students need to acquire the skills necessary to make GOOD personal choices, for a BENEFICIAL personal experience for learner-driven content to be successful using the Internet. I don't believe the Internet is a stand alone curriculum. However, under the auspices of a designed curriculum where goals have been identified and good questions have been posed, the Internet can serve as a resource for educational needs that is far beyond the typical resources of a closed brick and mortar classroom. And there need to be curricular-driven goals in place. Since I am E.D. Hirsch I'm reading a lot of his writings, and he emphasizes that curriculum standards are not pressing teachers to follow the same methods to meet standards, they have the autonomy to choose the best methods to meet the final standards. In the same way, the Internet is an open playground with unlimited opportunities for learning experiences and learning errors. It allows for individuals to have experiences that best answer the big questions as they understand them. But curriculum drives the direction that these experiences need to go in. It sets the parameters for what we will learn, but not necessarily how we will learn. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org) page 1 / 1