Watching the students in my class get themselves thoroughly involved in the production of their podcasts and vlogs has been an interesting learning experience. They are deeply intense and focused. Most groups are well on their way, and over the next week we will be posting our first entries online. But what I have also noticed is the almost total inward movement among the groups of kids that are working to produce these segments. I have 21 kids in my class, and they have organized themselves into 9 groups. Yet these 9 groups are working almost totally alone and isolated from each other. As a "by - product" of their focused attention, classroom networking has withdrawn. I am bringing them together at the beginning or the close of our production time and asking them to share ideas they might have for regular show segments, requiring them to share their opening or closing music, or having them listen to, and evaluate the production pieces of some of the podcasts I regularly listen to, but otherwise their groups circle around a computer and they rarely surface to have contact with the outside world.
Are networks of learners, and studio - like learning environments compatible?
