It’s the end of our second quarter tomorrow, which means that I’m trying to catch up on all the work that both came in late and that I’m a little behind in grading.  I’m taking a break in large part because I need to flex my writerly muscles after so much reading.
    One of the most frustrating parts of teaching and assigning writing is that I can’t read, digest, and respond to everything that I ask my students to do in as timely a manner as I would like.  By the time I get to some papers, students have moved on to other thoughts, ideas, and assignments, and the opportunity that might have existed to push a particular student’s thinking in a new direction has moved on.
    I know I can’t grade or respond to everything.  I also know that sometimes, writing an assignment is in and of itself good practice, regardless of feedback.
    But still, a person’s writing is a fragile and precious thing, particularly if that person is a new writer.  If the student was kind enough to really engage an assignment, it’s hard to realize that I won’t always be able to honestly engage their contribution to our conversations.
    But I owe them that much. 
    One of the reasons I like the idea of learning networks so much is that a network distributes the load and the responsibility of giving feedback.  A student in such a network has the (potential) audience of the entire network from which to receive (potential) feedback. 
    Clarence has been writing about learning networks lately.  He writes:

One major lesson I have learned about blogging with kids is that
authentic purposes and spaces to write makes the difference between a
successful experience and not. Kids demand choices when working in
these ways, and given the opportunity to write for a global audience,
they will find spaces that match their interests and their style. I do
definitely appreciate the number of classes that are blogging, and the
teachers that have made contact with me, but we are still learning to
understand that when we work in ways like this, we are giving kids
opportunities for choice.

When we set up RSS feeds for our
kids, and give them choices about the networks they will form, the
information they are interested in, and the writers whose style they
appreciate, we need to learn that the information spheres they have
access to are as wide as our own. No one tells us who we must read
(outside of suggestion), and no one tells us where we must write.
Blogging gives kids choices, and we must support them in their choices
if this is the type of learning environment we hope to structure for
them.

The students in my class have formed networks on their
own. Their RSS feeds fill with the blogs of other students in our
class, the blogs of other student writers from across Western Canada,
the U.S., Europe, and parts of Asia; but we have much room for
improvement. We need to learn how these networks form and how to
capitalize on them for learning purposes. We must learn how to pull
kids together in learning networks for short periods of time and then
pull other groups of kids together in flexible groupings at other times
for other purposes. We need to form networks of classrooms who are
willing to come and go, who are willing to work together for short
periods of time and then drop off, when projects are completed, moving
on to other groups for other purposes.

If we want to work in
these ways, we must push ourselves further towards authenticity,
towards flexibility, towards understanding what learning means in this
new world.

  Of course, Clarence is talking about how tricky it can be to ask students to talk to one another without choosing favorites.  He makes the point very nicely that students who have real choice in their learning will not have to talk to everyone.  Nor should they.  I’ve got to believe, though, that, given enough students in enough classrooms, everyone can find someone to connect with via their words and ideas, at least for a short time.
    I like that teachers like Clarence continually push my thinking about how to teach, reach and publish writers and their writing.  His post on the blogging doldrums that hit his class over the holidays was full of good ideas.