Week 4: Will Richardson

In Will Richardson's article, World Without Walls: Learning Well with Others, the author states that "we as educators need to reconsider our roles in students' lives, to think of ourselves as connectors first and content experts second." This line has sparked some very interesting viewpoints from my classmates, but it took me a few days to digest the meaning and impact of this statement and to formulate my thoughts of this line. The longer I considered how crazy this idea is that we as teachers are more like connectors or facilitators, than experts or instructors, it became clear to me that this idea is not new at all. Like a lot of what is "new" in education, in my opinion Richardson's idea is not new, it is just applied in a different way. Consider the image below, taken from the Department of Educational Psychology and Instructional Technology, University of Georgia.

The caption mentions the idea that the role of the teacher is changing from the "sage on the stage" to the "guide on the side." The constructivist approach is far from new and I am sure that many educators try to emulate the "guide on the side" by preparing lessons that engage our students in activities that help them formulate their own understandings of the content rather than just simply telling them what they need to know.

I think that Richardson was making the point that now we have more access than ever to resources to help support this type of instructional method. Our students are no longer limited to the materials that we provide or the ideas that a few other students in the class develop. They have access to "experts" via their computer who could possibly provide a greater incite and knowledge base than we as instructors can provide. However, since our students are likely to encounter questionable content or may have difficulty establishing connections with the "experts", it is our job to facilitate and moderate these connections.