XplanaZine

I object, it’s good to subvert…
The first time I heard about the idea of ‘incorporated subversion’ I thought it sounded pretty cool, then I started relating it to what I was doing (teaching English to overseas learners in Melbourne, Australia) and it really made a heck of a lot of sense. Next I started looking at it in the context of teaching and learning online (which is what I now work with everyday) and started using it in just about every conversation I had :o) and now, well, it just about pervades everything I say and do… and my colleagues are getting pretty bored!
Basically, IS is set out by David Squires in his 1999 article ‘Educational Software and Learning: Subversive use and Volatile Design’ (.pdf) as design which gives learners ‘opportunities to work in environments which allow for idiosyncratic exploration and expression’ as opposed to those which provide for neither or only one aspect of exploration or expression. I’ve always (well, OK, it took a while ;o) thought of my classes as being blank pages, they write themselves… the learners bring their own experiences and needs to the table and we explore where they want to go. Practicality insists that I do have to have some sense of structure… sometimes the paper might be a bit smaller, sometimes you’ll be drawing pictures, sometimes writing, sometimes making paper planes (actually, swans were more popular!) but fundamentally, learners can ‘subvert’ the medium in whatever way they want to… and so can I… and they love it… and so do I!
Now, taking this out of the bricks and mortar and I reckon (and here I’m probably wandering off from Squires… but hey, I’m allowed to subvert him, aren’t I ;o) that there could hardly be a more relevant issue in teaching and learning online today. Take for example the concept of learning objects… on a very basic level this revolves around the idea that we can create multimedia or whatever encompasses a ‘learning cycle’ - something like: intro / material / activity / assessment. And hey, we can meta-tag all of these, plop them in a database and reuse them to create whatever course we want… hmmmm… let’s just ponder for a moment why schools don’t, on the whole (although I can remember a few teachers who did!), plonk you in a room with a textbook and bugger off! Was it because the ‘multimedia’ capacity of that textbook wasn’t enough to keep us entertained or help us learn? Nope… it’s because that ‘aint how we learn. OK, eventually learners do ‘remember’ (NOT, I repeat NOT understand) content but that so isn’t what education is about.
Alternatively to a pretty stream of diagnostic learning objects then, give a learner a personal publishing tool (like a weblog) host a class website, facilitate the formation of effective community dynamics and you’ve got something completely different. You’ve got learners engaged in understanding and constructing knowledge both socially and individually. They can explore what they like where they like, they can express themselves how and when they want to and they can belong to a cohesive group and exist in their own right. I have my own route through this world and that includes my learning, I make of it what I make of it and so do we all, on our own and with those around us. We’re not all the same, we aren’t buckets… we’re fires waiting to burn, we need to express ourselves and explore ourselves, and we, as educators, need to incorporate and encourage this ‘subversion’ in everything we do.
Whaddya reckon?
Some useful links:
Teaching as a Subversive Activity - A review / summary of this revolutionary book
The DOGME Teachers of English Group - A group set up concerned with ‘a pedagogy of the bare essentials’
An earlier post on this in my weblog