Providing critique or critically commenting on student work is part of my job. I know that some of my students understand the critical comments made on their work, address issues and move on, while others are either hurt or greatly challenged by comments and suggestions and shut down or just do not know how to learn and grow from the comments.
I do not teach in a publish or perish world but I am still encouraged to write and publish.
I still remember the very first article I submitted for publication years ago and when the peer reviews came back I was devastated. I was critiqued for all kinds of things, that at the time, I could not appreciate. I did not know what to do with the reviews or even how to understand them in connection with what I believed I was trying to convey in my article. My unfortunate fall-back position at the time was to do nothing and the article was never published even though the reviews all indicated that with a little bit of editing, my ideas had merit and were publishable. The real set-back for me with respect to this critical review process occurred a number of years after I submitted the article. I was working on my doctorate and it just so happened that the editor of the journal in question was one of my professors. He said something to the effect that he remembered my article and never understood why I had not edited it and resubmitted for publication because he remembered it as being a valuable contribution to the journal.
Being critiqued is still a personal challenge, but in my ever so plodding way I have written and published a number of articles and I have just recently been notified that an article I submitted some time ago will be published shortly. And yes, I had to push my ego aside and deal with peer review comments and edit the article to get it to this final stage.
This article is not published in an open access journal, as this was paper I presented at a conference some time ago and is published in the conference’s journal. I add this statement as my good friends in the open access world have always pushed for open access publication. I trust you are able to access this through one of your many library sources.
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Evolving Use of Technologically Supported Learning Environments: Re imagining Knowledge Creation in the Classroom.
Abstract
This article outlines how technologically mediated learning environments can offer an opportunity to reshape pedagogical models. Traditional learning processes place learners along a common and controlled starting point. We guide our students through avenues of selected materials and we assist and support them as they work towards predefined end points. Nowhere along this learning route are students offered opportunities to speak to or learn from students who took the course previously. We do not capture the conversations or challenges of students as they work through any given course and as a result, current and future students are not offered an opportunity to hear from and potentially engage with those who went before. This article challenges current models and suggests that one of the more powerful aspects of online learning communities is that we have the ability to capture and use the work of others to build different approaches to learning and knowledge creation.
Berry, S. C. (2019). Evolving use of technologically supported learning environments: Reimagining knowledge creation in the classroom. The International Journal of Technology, Knowledge, and Society, 15(1). doi:10.18848/1832-3669/CGP/v15i01/19-25.