Tech-mediated self-directed distance learning

After watching the Independent Project (2011), I have realised that there is perhaps much more potential success to be had in self-directed learning. In this short documentary, 8 learners explain how they created their own form of learning and constructed their own “classroom” within their school. These are all learners who struggled to adapt to the public school system and standard curriculum. They describe themselves as having been the “trouble-makers” or learners who didn’t care about their work at all. When they all got together, and chose their own topics of study, however, they turned into hard-working learners who took interest in their academics and actually enjoyed their work. The Independent project shows the potential of giving learners control over their schoolwork. There may however, be some problems with this type of learning in terms of upholding certain national standards in assessment. If there is no criteria as to what learners should be studying, they cannot be assessed on an equal level. Learners should thus be given some sort of criteria or set work that is to be tested. They should also however, be allowed freedom to study topics that interest them, and develop their skills and knowledge in these subjects.

Another possible stumbling block with self-directed learning may be in terms of connecting learners who study or focus on similar fields. This is where technology may come in. If technology can be used to set up a type of online school system that connects different groups of learners in a strategic way, this could possibly lead to a whole new type of school, and could make the “Independent School” a lot more practically applicable to a much larger scope of learners. In this way global digital communities can be set up, as referred to in The Standards of Critical Digital Pedagogy (2014) by Sam Hamilton. Learners should still meet daily in their “class” groups, and should interact on a face-to-face basis, but expanding the “school” by using technology as medium of learning/teaching, will only add to the knowledge available. Technology will allow for the exchange of ideas, knowledge and research on an incredibly large scale – a scale much bigger than anything we can imagine happening in a classroom on its own. As Jonan Donaldson put it: “New digital tools available to students have flung open the doors to creativity, imagination, and student-directed learning.”