Pedagogy of the Oppressed PAULO FREIRE
It seems as students we are to let our guard down and accept the information presented to us from our instructors as we are supposed to know nothing about what we are being taught, blank slates, empty vessels who crave for knowledge. We have to understand how to use that content, being aware always of our position as a student and not being misled. Also how it is beneficial to our role as a student as we progress either in academia or in a career. If we are not aware of our position and the instructors intent this can be challenging and misleading. I feel as a nontraditional student, being about 20 years older than most in my classes I am aware that what I take from this education is up to me, but I am also not always certain the content applies to my position. I’m a already half-filled vessel compared to others and the content I decide to shape my education shouldn’t be about getting a grade to show I comprehend because that grade serves no purpose in the real world but only how I effectively will use the content learned and the collaboration it contributes to. We look at our instructors, teachers as parents trusting them to shape and guide our academic endeavors with the course content but forget that they are there continuing their own education also on our behalf with the role they play in our “education”. I am actively changing my position in life from being oppressed deciding to be in a graduate course attempting to better myself, but also, I am still oppressed by those who control the institution and how the course content is prolonged. . I will have to apply the information in the real world to see if it has any relevance or intentions to changing my oppressed situation as a student with limited options to turn away. The Banking approach or relationship it fuels only works if the student allow it, being fed content that only fills voids of confusion. We are the ones who are paying to be here and should really be making the choice of what we are learning and how it will benefit our lives in terms of survival so we stand no longer oppressed in and out of school.
Bell Hooks/ Engaged Pedagogy
It takes courage and acceptance for such critical awareness and active participation to occur in a classroom setting between student and teacher. Conditions would need to be right for students and instructors to have the kind of relationship she speaks about. I think there are many factors that can interfere with this. To maintain a way to make the student feel like they are more than a number and treating them with the type of humanism that cares about the students personal growth in and out of the classroom. Introducing engagement to active participation is a way I feel this type of relationship can be applied in the classroom with constant feedback and how the student can use such information to grow. I feel other factors like different culture, age of students needs to be taken into account and how they accept such personal aspects of mentoring from instructors as some students may not feel that it is needed or how to accept if not being done in other classes as a norm
The Web We Need to Give Students Audrey Watters
Having an active voice students can ultimately push back against the educational technology that takes advantage of their position as a student and intellectual property. For students to own a domain through the institution name can be a way to keep out online perpetrators that lurk to mislead students to share information and their work. It is only ethical for a student to be able to retrieve as well as the overseer of who can access their domain since content materials and intellectual property should not be compromised but kept private unless otherwise denoted. In addition having the ability to take that domain and keep until they no longer have any use for it while maintaining control of the information included in it for sharing or editing. The technologies that students use now are rarely accessible once the course is completed or when they compete their time at the institution such as a Google drive or other course websites that have links, OneDrive, Microsoft 365 Office apps that all will need a email associated and password of affiliation. Students should have a safe place to store, share and collaborate any information and intellectual property during and after their time as a student without concerns to having access or others gaining without their permission. Students need to be aware of what these educational technologies are designed for and who they benefit the most, we should also have a continuing say of ethical relationships when applying them to our lives.
Rhizomatic Education: Community as Curriculum Dave Cormier
The classroom community should be a constant negotiation of sharing information and knowledge amongst peers and instructors. Sometimes traditional classroom methods do not apply or will not produce the kind of collaborative results needed with all the different learning curves and needs of each student. By examining the Rhizome concept of there being no constrictions of growth or development it seems beneficial as an ideology to be engaged in. Proper pruning when done correctly initiates proper growth and strength in a tree or plant, if this can ne applied to how students obtain knowledge and apply it in a classroom we only seek what will be most useful to our roots and educational needs. Everything else is overwatering and will be discarded from our stems or creating new synapses of expanding growth similar to the horizontal boundaries that are surpassed by the Rhizome. As this happens, we have to be aware though of the information that become the seeds or fertilizer of our own growth, the digital containers we use to share and communicate this information hopefully with common goals in mind. This and collaboration methods help speed up the traditional methods that take too much time in classroom settings for everyone to be able to gain insight into how the knowledge will benefit our education. There is too much time trying to contemplate or decipher text instead of finding ways how they can actually be applied to each of our goals as a student. This can be fixed with communities in a classroom and students having a more active role or involvement in what should be discussed and how we use our time effectively together.
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