The inner intelligence of my students came out again last week when I asked them to comment on two different posts on the class blog. The first post was about our word of the week, which last week was servitude. Again, I had them look up the word and read the prologue to Amistad and then comment on what the word means and how the reading had meaning to the word itself. The students picked up on the connection of slavery right away. The second post was less directed and had a link to a news article from Prime Time about a nine year old Egyptian girl who was a slave in a household in California. I ended the post with the question of what are there thoughts and comments and if slavery still exists today. I was astonished and taken aback by the sensitive, intelligent and worthy comments they left about not only slavery in the United States but the cruelty behind the Egyptian girl’s situation.
The next day, I decided to read some of their responses aloud in my classes. I was careful not to state who wrote the comment as I read about five of them in a row. I then opened up the discussion again hoping to gain more intellectual thinking in the classroom on the topic and about the novel we were about to start. I was wrong. As usual, I had the few students who always raise their hand, say exactly what I was looking for while the others in the class sat back, looking at the ceiling or floor and praying that I would not call on them.
What went wrong? As I struggled with prompting them and trying to get the answers they produced on line, after about ten minutes I gave up and started the reading assignment. I thought maybe with more information they would boost my spirits and join in on the discussions as we read. Once again it became a futile battle, with two students raising their hands and the others looking like lumps on a log. Was it because they did not understand the material? Did they not understand the questions? Or maybe, I was directing too much and should have left it more open ended.
I have been tossing this senerio around in my head for a few days now. Why can’t the students produce the same voice in the classroom as they do on line? In talking with Rick Biche, a science teacher on my team, we came to the conclusion it is because of the “privacy” of the computer. When the students type, at their own stations, with no one else listening or reading over their shoulders, they are alone and are free to voice their own opinions, thoughts and inner intelligence and no one will make fun of them or knock them down for it. Their “privacy” from the other peers in the room is there. Once the comment is posted, it then becomes public knowledge, but their embarrassing moment is long gone by then. In thinking about this, how can I get my students to discuss and interact in the classroom with the same inner intelligence and voice they have while blogging and leaving comments? How can we create the ultimate environment where no child will feel offended or shy to share what they think? The internet is an amazing tool for those students who stare at the floor and ceilings and skate by without ever speaking in the classroom, but is that a worthy education for the student? And, if so, how do we begin to assess their comments, posts and other uses of internet technologies?
