I am Matthew Williams and You are Not

One thing that came up repeatedly while talking individually with my students this semester was that my composition class was run in a way they never expected. For most of them, when they signed up for composition, they envisioned an "english class" much like they had in HS where they were required to write rigidly defined research papers and were lectured to over grammar and mechanics. For those of you who know me, clearly this is not my style (I take, perhaps, a little too much pride in being in that radical faction of expressionistic compositionists)...but while I've had a pretty decent amount of success this semester in overcoming what could have been a potential breeding ground for nasty student revolt, this link over at tomorrow's professor blog is a very helpful and comforting reminder that student resistance almost always comes with the territory when you move outside of traditional instructional methods.

I particularly like the suggestions on minimizing it, and I'm already trying to formulate a game plan for next semester when I go back to teaching a class with mostly upper division students who, at least in my past experiences, have very rigid expectations on how a writing class should be taught. I firmly believe that a student's attitude and expectations heading into a class have a direct and profound effect on what they get out of the class. The problem with changing instructional methods is that you immediately create a situation where there is great potential for the student's attitudes and expectations to be put on the defensive.

Additionally, it seems as though this is always further compounded by the fact that in creative writing classes, there is a tendency sometimes for students to engage in 'idol-worshipping' of their instructors (which, I think, is wholly understandable when you realize that instructors sometimes craft themselves as validators of a student's personal "expression" in a class...how Foucault when I think of it...) which leads to a near-sense of personal betrayal and offense when you teach in a manner that a former instructor did not. This is further amplified when you teach a class that begins to question the very methods of instruction by former instructors. (this is why I would get so frustrated with some of the regular faculty who seemed to relish their abilities to erect quasi personality cults around their teaching...like that one kid who sprouted an MDB knock-off beard..ew.)

Even something as benign as adding blogs or a wiki to a class seeks to bring all this to the surface. I guess that's why teaching was never meant to be for the weak at heart, huh?

Posted by Matthew Williams at 2:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Did you know that in 1901 President Abraham Lincoln was exhumed at the request of his son to prevent would be criminals from digging up the body and holding it for ransom? Further, did you know that on this occasion 20 something people looked into Lincoln's coffin and saw his body, 36 years after John Wilkes Booth shot the 16th president in the back of the head while Lincoln was watching a play? (interestingly, his body was so well embalmed that people claimed he was still "recognizable")

If you're anything like me and learning is not just something you do for a living, but something you live for, Wikipedia is like purified caffeine that you directly inject into your bloodstream. Personally, I can't get enough. One subject will link to another and all of the sudden you've gone from reading about cheese making processes to salt domes and energy policy over the years. There have been more than one occasion where much "important" work was set aside as I pulled one of my all night Wiki binges. (what can I say, some people do drugs and booze...I just look up obscure facts)

As with most things I encounter in life, one of my first reactions is always, "neat! now how do I use this in the classroom?" But instructors beware: Wikis are a wily beast that will truly turn a mirror to your own known or unknown beliefs about education. Wikis can be a powerful learning tool in the classroom, but only if you're prepared to spend the time to really understand what is going on.

Continue reading "Theory into Practice: Wikis as collaborative learning tools" »

Posted by Matthew Williams at 12:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Psst. You. Yeah, you…the person reading this. Want to know a secret? Of course you do. I have a Facebook account. Yep, in the summer of 2004, a mere 4 months or so after Facebook was started at Harvard, I had myself an account. Want to know another one? In 2003 I came across a tiny site run by man named Tom. I signed up for that one, too. I have been a member on Myspace ever since, for better or worse.

While admitting you were a member of such sites in public was once as taboo as admitting to placing a personal ad in a newspaper, it is near impossible now to walk into a coffee shop near any campus and not hear the words "facebook" or "myspace." The meteoric rise of such websites have earned them a near permanent place in contemporary culture. The have also helped to expose an astonishingly rapid increase of the size of the "digital divide" between instructors in Universities and the students that are in their classes.

Continue reading "Myspace and Facebook: What higher-ed can learn from social computing." »

Posted by Matthew Williams at 10:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (3)

Ahh, fall time in Minnesota. Fall is truly one of those times where I really get dreamy. The cool breezes in the morning that lift orange and yellow leaves off the ground for short distances while others wait to fall beneath stunningly crisp blue skies. The afternoons where you can lay in soft green grass under partly cloudy skies feeling the warmth of the sun on your skin. The evenings and the inevitable smell of burning leaves mixed with roasted coffee, pumpkin pies, and an occasional whiff of impending rain. And the nights where the sounds of gentle rain fall on soggy leaves creep through cracked windows and somewhere in the distance is an error message that reads something like "WebCT is currently experiencing technical difficulty, please try again" that is followed by an anguished scream.

If you, or someone you love, has used or will be using WebCT, the above scenario is one that you are probably familiar with (in particular, the last part). If the statistics at the U of MN are correct, somewhere around 2,000 classes use WebCT in some form or another. That's a lot of classes. And, I should mention this to you now, for the last two years my own classes have been a part of that number. For my part, I have exposed at least 100+ students to that thing we all call WebCT. Yep. I had students take quizzes over WebCT, submit papers, engage in discussion. And, not to brag, but I'd say my ventures in WebCT-land were moderately successful. There are things I wished had gone better, but for the most part, WebCT did what it was designed to do. And that is why I am never using it again.

Continue reading "The case against WebCT" »

Posted by Matthew Williams at 11:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Just some bullet points I found in a notebook that I had forgotten about...

• Up until now the theory laden field of composition has merely been trying to reinvent the wheel so to speak…trying to feign innovation that merely serves to mask a continuation of the old paradigm of writing instruction.
• Regardless of how you package it, the majority of writing instruction still boils down to the singular act of the instructor commenting on the students writing and handing it back to them. This is nothing more than a different version of content transmission from instructor to student.

Continue reading "Creative Writing, Comp, and the New Paradigm of University Education" »

Posted by Matthew Williams at 2:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

1. There is a need to explain why specific things are being taught (e.g., certain commands, functions, operations, etc.)

2. Instruction should be task-oriented instead of memorization -- learning activities should be in the context of common tasks to be performed.

3. Instruction should take into account the wide range of different backgrounds of learners; learning materials and activities should allow for different levels/types of previous experience with computers.

4. Since adults are self-directed, instruction should allow learners to discover things for themselves, providing guidance and help when mistakes are made.

More thoughts...

1. Adults need to be involved in the planning and evaluation of their instruction.

2. Experience (including mistakes) provides the basis for learning activities.

3. Adults are most interested in learning subjects that have immediate relevance to their job or personal life.

4. Adult learning is problem-centered rather than content-oriented.

From:TIP: Theories

Here's the million dollar question though...at what point are undergrads considered "adults?"

Continue reading "Principles of Andragogy" »

Posted by Matthew Williams at 12:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (2)

(from Mind and Society, p. 57)

"An interpersonal process is transformed into an intrapersonal one. Every function in the child's cultural development appears twice: first, on the social level, and later, on the individual level; first, between people (interpsychological) and then inside the child (intrapsychological). This applied equally to voluntary attention, to logical memory, and to the formation of concepts. All the higher functions originate as actual relations between human individuals."

It seems to me that if we are to grant one purpose of creative writing classes to unlock higher order thinking in students, then traditionally we have been going about it completely backwards. The effort in the workshop always goes in at the front end, and the comments we recieve afterward are looked at amusingly but with little weight. The point, traditionally, has been to protect the "autonomy" of the individual creativity.

Continue reading "L.S. Vygotskii and Higher Psychological Functions" »

Posted by Matthew Williams at 2:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The question of "can writing be taught," and "should writing be taught" used to be the two biggest questions in my mind.

But now, as I think more and more about Freire...I wonder...are these questions valid questions to begin with?

The idea that writing will be "taught" to someone implies some sort of transfer of knowledge, not a creation of knowledge.

And the transfer of knowledge involves a power dynamic...a power dynamic that is oppressive in nature. Oppressive because it is built upon the idea that instructors hold the correct, or true version of knowledge and it is their task to implant it into the minds of the students. But this is not asking the students to think for themselves. It is forcing them to rely on the information of others...a learned helplessness if you will. All too often I have heard the phrase "i want to learn what to do when I write..." even from graduate students. What about students thinking for themselves.

and I wonder...

Is that what we really wish to do to our artists?

Perhaps this means the question goes back to the idea that writing cannot be taught, but must be learned. But how?

Posted by Matthew Williams at 9:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Quotes I have found to be poignant in Dewey's Democracy and Education.

p5.

"Individuals do not even compose a social group because they all work for a common end. The parts of a machine work with a maximum of cooperativeness for a common result, but they do not form a community. If, however, they were all cognizant of the common end and all interested in it so that they regulated their specific activity in view of it, then they would form a community."

p6 (cooperative learning vs collaborative)

"It may fairly be said, therefore, that any social arrangement that remains vitally social, or vitally shared, is educative to those who participate in it. Only when it becomes cast in a mold and runs in a routine way does it lose its educative power."

p6 (on the need for collaborative learning)

"In final account, then, not only does social life demand teaching and learning for its own permanence, but the very process of living together educates."

Thought…

Society is defined by education, and not vice versa…especially if education is taken to mean both formal and informal modes of education. However, the goal of formal education is to help inform informal education when and where it happens.

Marx…The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point is to change it.

Me....The educators have only perpetuated the world, in various ways; the point is to change it.

I used to have a professor at UNI when I was there...David Morgan...what a swell guy. Anyway, he was a former member of the communist party, and offered the only marxism class in the philosophy department. I remember really vividly talking about Marx's theses on Freuebach...and David mentioning that whenever he got to the 11th one...chills would run down his spine.

I know what he means now.

The idea that teaching is not political, or is apolitical is naive and shameful. Everything is political. To not bring politics in it is as much as a political decision as to bring politics into it. Just like deciding to not decide is a decision as well.

So let's get on with it. Instead of a passive system of pedagogy, lets activate it.

Posted by Matthew Williams at 6:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)