Socrates was a master of educational dialogue. His goal was to inspire his students to think for themselves. So, instead of lecturing them he questioned them. I have always liked this taxonomy of education, both as a student and an educator. I believe it encourages students' problem solving skills and creativity. It is amazing to me that the methodologies of this Greek philosopher born in 399 B.C. continue to be so applicable to the participatory culture of education today!
A participatory culture is a culture with relatively low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement, strong support for creating and sharing one’s creations, and some type of informal mentorship whereby what is known by the most experienced is passed along to novices. A participatory culture is also one in which members believe their contributions matter, and feel some degree of social connection with one another (at the least they care what other people think about what they have created).
Clinton,K. et al., (n.d.). Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture:Media Education for the 21st Century. Retrieved from:
http://goo.gl/qS1yG
Socratic questioning serves multiple purposes in education. It motivates students to clarify concepts, identify assumptions, define rationales, seek evidence, consider implications and understand the merits of inquiry.
Students today desire a personalized, interactive, problem based, flexible, and collaborative education. This requires educators to become content and learning facilitators. Instead of just transferring knowledge to the learners, teachers today must assist the learner to find the answers. eLearning and mLearning offer the perfect venue for such instruction. Learners have ubiquitous access to information, allowing them to independently seek and critically think. Students can create representations of their work using unlimited types of media and presentation tools. The timelessness offered in digital learning allows users to take time to reflect on their learning, concretely embedding it into their practice. Online pupils can collaborate with peers, questioning one another and increasing their perspectives and viewpoints exponentially. They can share their scholarship world wide, gaining valuable and virtually limitless feedback. What Socrates began as a one on one tutoring method can now be used with an infinite number of learners. I wonder if he ever imagined his teaching method would still be of so much value in the 21st century??
You have had some neat metaphors the past four weeks. Do you think our online projects had Socratic aspects?
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely! ADLT640 has definitely reinforced the merits of inquiry. Questioning one another (how do you do that? what do you think?), exploring the validity of content(which LMS/presentation tool is the most user friendly/effective?),defining rationales & exploring implications (why use that methodology? what are the pros and cons of eLearning?)have been the staple of our class. And I have learned more from this Socratic method of learning than ANY traditional class I have taken in the past. Being in this class has resulted in more than just content knowledge, it has increased my awareness of the immense value of the COI in 21st century education!
ReplyDeleteHey Linda, Great contemplation on the Socratic method of 500BC and it's relevance in today's world. While the questions have changed overtime, the asking of them has not. Getting others to question the world around them and to think critically for themselves has been one of the pervasive roles that educators have faced for thousands of years. :)
ReplyDeleteAgain with the fantastic metaphors! I haven't taken ancient history or philosophy in years so this was particularly interesting.
ReplyDeleteI love this distinction between sharing the knowledge and sharing how to find the knowledge. I think this class has really taught me that there is a difference and that giving students instructions on how to find the knowledge is not the lazy way out. Creating instruction, no matter what kind, is a lot of work for teachers. I thought that before, but after this class I know that's the truth. ;)