Hola a todos: un amigo alemán (un investigador del Deutsche Institut für International Pädagogische Froschüng de Frankfort), sabiendo que estoy siguiendo con vosotros una experiencia pedagógica nueva (Enseñar a través de un blog), me ha mandado este mail:

Von:"Kodron, Christoph"

An:"Pilar Labrandero"
Betreff:
Weblogs and teaching!
Datum:Wed, 14 Dec 2005 10:54:45 +0100

Dear Pilar

Probably very interestting for you:

http://weblogs.design.fh-aachen.de/owrede/publikationen/weblogs_and_discourse

Mit herzlichen Gruessen

Christoph

Si entrais en la página podéis leer el artículo (y practicar un poco vuestro inglés). Todavía es una experiencia muy nueva, que se practica especialmente en universidades. Yo he escogido este apartado:

2.1 Students today: Cooperative and self-determined?

"Many university programs still run with curricular concepts that ultimately force students to work isolated and compete with fellow students. Assigments are predictable, many courses are mandatory, performance assessments are routine tasks that don't require any deeper investigation but to what is required to determine the marks.

There are only limited ways to reward students that behave altrusitic and subdue their personal goals to that of a group of team mates ­ but there are many ways to reward single individuals that have shown distinct dominance in a course. In school, students have learned for years to circumvent teacher's demands with almost perfect cleverness. This problem that can amount to a complete detachment from primary learning goals: many students (not all) start challenging the educational system by reverse-engineering implicit rules of performance approval and without actually complying with the goals of a curriculum. In a vicious circle educators often try to tighten the curricular structure to force students on track. But they may just open more options for students to cede responsibility of personal progress to the institution: finally it's the design of the curriculum or the teaching skills of the faculty that is responsible for failure.

Defensive learning and affirmative strategies are useless when it comes to university level and the rules of the game usually change substantially. Students are told that they are responsible for their own learning success. While it is inaccurate to identify a single source for failure or success in this regard, it is clear that without a high degree of autonomy an academic career will not be noteworthy.

If professors want students to become autonomous, creative, helpful and cooperative, educational institutions must actually allow students to practice exactly these skills (and allow students to be autonomous, creative, helpful and cooperative) by designing curriculums and courses that really value these qualities.

Figure: »Students today: Cooperative and self-determined?«How can a learning culture be changed over time? If educators want to help students to become more self-determined in a over-directed enviroment there is little option but to offer ways for self-expression and to honor any activity.

Se desprende del artículo que el Blog puede ser un instrumento para conseguir este fin. Bueno, ya sabéis que para mi la autoconfianza es uno de los objetivos más importantes. Me gusta también el que señala el autor: La autodeterminación.

Os he puesto el artículo para que entendais lo que hacemos en la asignatura. Y sobre todo para responder a los que preguntan "si es más importante el número de participaciones que la calidad de las mismas". La calidad es por supuesto importante (recuerdo a la gente que use el corrector para las faltas de ortografía), pero sobre todo es importante la participación y la formación de una opinión personal respecto a los temas.

También me interesa que dominéislas nuevas tecnologías, que las uséis no solo como entretenimiento, que no les tengais manía (Sara, ¡seguro que las vas a necesitar!!) y además creo que lo hacéis bien.

Espero que Alejandro nos suba a Internet el vídeo. Y que nos dé la dirección donde los aloja.