Steph’s Morning Pages Prompt (tweaked and rebuilt by Renee)
How does your investment in your research question and the students’ background knowledge about your topic affect the research?
As I try to establish a confident, comfortable online community for my students, I need to consider this question…
1. What do I bring?
I know what I “bring to the table” as my TOK students like to point out. I realize that my investment in blogging and how I believe it can contribute to my students experience in TOK is strong. Does this make it easier or more difficult for my kids? I initially say that it is easier. I’m motivated and comfortable in that world and I would like to believe that this would rub off on my kids as I slowly nudge them towards being part of that community. My wonder though is, on some level, does this make it more difficult? Is it intimidating for some of them that I am pushing them in while I may not be aware of their own fears and trepidations of diving in? My hope is that I can just be more aware of this specific issue.
2. What about them?
What may be of greater importance is what they are walking in with. One assumption that I know I get caught with is that I assume that all students of this generation are computer-savvy. I assume they all text, blog, mySpace, eBay, IM, game, and surf the web with regularity. I know that this is a terrible assumption to make, which takes me back to the issue mentioned above about intimidation. What if they aren’t comfortable or confident? Worse… what if they have no interest or even a desire to stay out of that world? Where do I go from here? How do I motivate those students to try something new, build their skills and participate freely in a community that I believe can have a great impact on their overall understanding of the TOK class and curriculum? Or is this just another assumption that I’m missing?
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