Calling for a New Field of Study

On this run in the beautiful Bronx, I talk about something that feels too far out there to talk about in normal conversation with teachers: the need for new discipline, a new field of study... let's call it Web Science. In this first-draft rant about the topic, I try to remember why it is important to me to be asking this question even though it has little impact on my work with students right now. Still, it's about seeing what can be accomplished with students who -- almost by happenstance -- end up taking my elective class every year for three or four years, and this compared with students who dip in and out of the "technology elective" maybe twice in their high school careers. It's about skills and habits of mind and work. My focus on this question also comes from my sense that we do in fact have a body of knowledge for students to learn and theory about why it is important for them to learn these things. What I need to follow this up with is a piece of writing where I bring together some thoughs from Will Richardson and Clarence Fisher, David Warlick, Stephen Downes, and Mark Bernstein and others -- Henry Jenkins -- who are talking about this new field of inquiry. Tim Berners-Lee is creating a new field of study called Web Science. Perhaps I'm not alone out on this branch, thinking that "integrating technology" needs to be rethought.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• NewJournalism
• NewMedia
• NYC
• teaching
• learning
• school
• k-12
• change

[gilwernman]

Hi Paul

Thank you for this video, it voices frustrations amongst Web 2.0 teachers around the world ( here in UK ) and over all grades. I think that your ideas definitely need to be taken to a wider audience. You are correct it can only be voiced at present either to others in the know or when on your own ( it sounds a bit like early Christianity doesn't it???