cAsTa Ways: An Interview with Bill Ferriter
Posted By Barbara Lindsey on November 1, 2008
sponsors this blog
When we posted our interview with Steve Muth a while back, we said we would do a follow up with Bill Ferriter, a teacher whose work really exemplifies the powerful educational possibilities of VoiceThread. This is indeed that interview, or rather collaborative dialog—the kind of conversation where, as Bill explains it, everyone involved works together to come to some new understanding by engaging in respectful, challenging and productive discussions around a topic or idea. His approach constitutes a Socratic approach to learning that empowers students and prepares them for a future where collaborative problem-solving becomes the norm and where our students must be able to work together locally and virtually on issues that cross geographical and cultural boundaries.
We have much to learn from our K-12 colleagues and while I do believe most of us would like to collaborate more closely with colleagues within, across and beyond our disciplinary boundaries, we have yet to discover how to connect in meaningful, effective and enduring ways. Over at his blog, Bill talks about “places of professional synergy where colleagues learn from each other and improve practice together” in reaction to Kevin’s question about why he freely shares his work with everyone and how that is at odds with our current higher ed tenure system.
Although I do agree that the tenure system, especially in the humanities, should value the collaborative, interdisciplinary work that we increasingly see in the profession, I am also convinced that we all need to do more to help our k-12 brethren break out of the isolated teaching silos I think still exist in the K-12 environment. Of course, all this is difficult to rectify, if, as a K-12 professional, you aren’t given the time to engage in ongoing communities of practice and if, as a higher ed professional, your articulation efforts aren’t rewarded in the all-important tenure, promotion and review process. So how can we effect lasting change? Do we need to? Want to? Can the kind of dialogic exchange Bill uses with his students be part of the answer? What are your thoughts? Please listen to this interview and let us know.
The wATw Podcast: An Interview with Bill Ferriter [51:30m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (468)
About the author
Barbara Lindsey
Barbara Lindsey currently serves as director of the Multimedia Language Center at the University of Connecticut. She has given numerous presentations and workshops on Internet-based language instruction at the state and national level. Barbara has twelve years experience teaching German language at the university level, and for the private business sector as well as after school enrichment programs. She has served as project director on three federally funded grants and is a past president of the Connecticut Council of Language Teachers (2004-2006).Comments
View Comments to “cAsTa Ways: An Interview with Bill Ferriter”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
[...] this post, I’d like to expand upon the conversation we had with Bill Ferriter and discuss further how online social interactions between peers has shifted notions of traditional [...]