1.4 - Who’s Behind the Camera

In December of 2012, about a dozen of us got together and wrote something we called the Bill of Rights and Principles for Learning in the Digital Age. One of the features of that Bill of Rights-- it was contributed, I believe, by Jesse Stommel, who's the editor of a wonderful journal called Hybrid Pedagogy, which has run several MOOCs on MOOCs, peer-open contributory MOOCs about MOOCs. He said, "As learners online, we all have a right to be teachers." By that, he meant that DIY is not only "do it yourself", it's DIT: do it together. Teach one another, learn from your mistakes. But you also have a right, not only to learn from your own mistakes, but to teach what you've learned to somebody else; pay it forward; pass it on; be a community; be communal. Since April 22nd, 1993, we've had this amazing ability to have an idea and communicate it to anyone else with access to the internet. That means we also have a huge responsibility: the responsibility and the right to be teachers, to take seriously-- even sacredly-- our responsibility as citizens of the internet, as global citizens of the internet, to understand what honest; good; collaborative teaching, learning, peer-teaching, and peer-learning, contribution, participation is about.

In the next segment, we're going to be talking about teachers. Not just me this time, but the mystery person behind the camera, and various other people. We're going to be talking about 1) What does it mean to be a teacher, and then I want to ask people-- and I want you to ask people in the homework assignments for this week, and for you to tell us too-- who is the most important teacher in your life? Who's your favorite teacher? The question: who's your favorite teacher? What was his or her name-- first names only, please-- why are they your favorite teacher? And how did something they taught you continue? How does it continue to inform the way you act today in your life? That means teaching doesn't go away. Great teaching is also about unlearning. Great teaching isn't just a thing or content; it's a verb. It's teaching. It's teaching you how to teach. It's teaching you the confidence to teach others. It's teaching you confidence to learn from others. It's teaching you the openness to be willing to learn from somebody else, to be able to acknowledge somebody else's contribution and to acknowledge the responsibility of your own.

[Interlude: "Who's Your Favorite Teacher?" featuring Betty Henderson]

[Professor Davidson]
Hi, this is a segment where we are asking various wonderful people who their favorite teacher was, and why-- why they chose that person as their teacher. We've been talking about how anybody can be a teacher and in fact, in this age it's our responsibility to all be teachers and all be learners-- lifelong. So today, I'm very, very happy to have my colleague Benita here. I'm going to ask her to introduce herself and to tell us about her favorite teacher.

[Betty]
Hello, my name is Betty Henderson, and I would have to say that my favorite teacher is my daughter, Renetta Walker. She is in early childhood development. So she teaches younger children, and she typically is the first learning module that some of these children have. And most of them are foreign nationals. So she really enjoys it and I admire her patience and her stability in doing so.

[Professor Davidson]
Wow, so you've learned from her teaching other kids how to learn.

[Betty]
Yes, yes.

[Professor Davidson]
Does she have any specific methods that--

[Betty]
She does, actually. And she practices on her three year old son, which is pretty significant. She is very stable, as far as telling him-- answering all his questions, no matter what.

[Professor Davidson]
"Why, why, why?"

[Betty]
Yeah, exactly. And allowing him to explore. So he's doing very well. She has inspired me to return to school. So--

[Professor Davidson]
Tell us about that.

[Betty]
Yes!

[Professor Davidson]
I don't know this.

[Betty]
Yes, I am pursuing my bachelor's degree.

[Professor Davidson]
Oh, my goodness, Betty.

[Betty]
I'm 52 years old, so.

[Professor Davidson]
Oh, a baby.

[Betty]
So we're doing it, and she has motivated me to do so. So--

[Professor Davidson]
Wow. One of the other people we're interviewing is 76 and going back for a degree.

[Betty]
Wow.

[Professor Davidson]
So, I love that. Because one of our messages in this class is, you have to constantly be learning.

[Betty]
Right.

[Professor Davidson]
And it takes courage--

[Betty]
It does.

[Professor Davidson]
To be to be willing to be that humble, to realize I need to learn more. Good for you.

[Betty]
I need more.

[Professor Davidson]
This was such an inspiring interview. Thank you so much.

[Betty]
Thank you.

[Professor Davidson]
Thank you for being part of it. Thank you.

[Betty]
It was my pleasure. Thank you.

[Interlude: "Who's Your Favorite Teacher?" featuring Casey Hulman]

[Professor Davidson]
There's always someone behind the camera. There's actually lots of people behind the camera in this MOOC, but one main person. And that's my colleague Casey Hulman. But today we're flipping the camera and we're going to ask Casey a question. Casey, who's your favorite teacher and why?

[Casey]
My favorite teacher was my sixth grade teacher, Mr. Falk. And it was because he, instead of just having us read out of the books or learn static facts, he actually made us do things. My best example of this is when he was teaching us about oligarchy, Greek oligarchy. And instead of just talking to us about it, which he did, over a course of three days, he segmented the class into three sections, and each of the sections got to experience what it was like to be an, an oligarch, a citizen, or a slave.

[Professor Davidson]
Wow.

[Casey]
So you can imagine as a sixth grader, getting your recess taken away as a slave or getting double recess as an oligarch. It was such an important factor in remembering what oligarchy is about.

[Professor Davidson]
Wow. Do you feel there's some way that that method or that lesson has informed your life, or continues to inform your life now?

[Casey]
Absolutely. I think the method really helped me to understand that doing things or interacting with the information that you get helps you to retain it longer. I never forgot that lesson to this day; and I was 12 when it happened. But also, I think that those sorts of experiences-- being dis-empowered especially-- I grew up in Kansas, and the school was pretty much all white, all middle-class. And so getting to experience what it's like to have oppression experience as a 12-year-old, I think that does stick with you.

[Professo Davidson]
That's really great. And I think it's really about all the things that "The History and Future of Higher Education: is about. You know, learning from each other, having ways that we can take what we learn and apply it in our lives. And it can be meaningful in our lives. The rule of this class, is there's always somebody else behind the camera. And it's always important to remember that there are unseen people that are helping and aiding all of our education, and that's happening now, because behind the camera as Casey and I were talking, was Kristen. And Kristen has promised us a photobomb.

[Kristen photobomb]

[Professor Davidson]
That was, that's Kristen. Thank you so much, Kristen. Remember, there's always somebody else behind the camera. Even if you don't see them, there's always somebody else. And part of the lesson of the future of higher education is remembering to pay attention to the person behind the screen. There's always a man, a woman, a group, all of us, behind the curtain. That's learning the future together. Thank you so much. See you next time.