Cyber English, a class I have been teaching in a New York City public high
school since 1994, has provided me the opportunity to discover just how
community involvement with my scholars can affect educational reform and
support the idea "that it takes a village to raise the child." Cyber
English began on the idea that I wanted to make my scholars' work public, to
engage in peer review, and to be part of the "food chain." An immediate
by-product was community engagement as "outsiders" discovered my scholars'
work on the web and began emailing them their impressions. This began my
telementoring program. Next, parents began to visit their child's page.
Finally, business was able to view scholar's work to find potential
employees. This discovery opened up my thinking to how I could use the
CyberEnglish model to foster my thoughts on manifesting educational reform
on a larger national scale.
Reform is not solely a teacher responsibility; it requires more of a
community effort. Reform will require the involvement of the student,
teacher, administrator, parent, business community, politician, and
educational vendors. I have found in Cyber English that the community can
be involved in the "raising of the child." Cyber English is a totally
online class I have taught in a New York City public high school since
1994. My students use the Internet to access the reading material, to
post their work, and to engage in peer review. A discovered aspect was
that by being so public the public had access to them and some became
telementors. Telementors opened up my thinking of how the community could
be engaged in the educational reform movement. The notion of
accountability has become the driving force in current educational reform
mandates. Current forms of accountability involve high stakes tests and
standards, which must be met. The problem is in the distribution of
resources in all communities on an equitable basis. I found the Internet
to be a way of leveling that distribution of resources especially when it
came to access to telementors.
I am currently in the process of writing a book titled Cyber English.
This book will provide readers with the practical theory of my class. The
book will discuss and explain how I went about making my scholars work
public, engage in peer review, interact with telementors, and become part
of the larger body of scholarship. Following the theory I will provide
some practical examples via case studies of three students to show how
their community engagement illustrates the place for the Internet as an
important tool for educational reform.
The greatest support I can get is to get peer review from my colleagues on
my work. The next step would be to examine Cyber English.
http://www.tnellen.net/cyberenglish/
To follow and to practice what I preach and in the true spirit of
scholarship I make my work public for peer review and welcome all
comments. So please email Ted
Nellen.
CyberEnglish the Internet project
CyberEnglish The Web-Book
The CyberEnglish Scholars
First steps in the Ecology of Learning, the beginnings for me.
Second steps in the Authentic Assessment, the next move for me.
Bibliography
Formal Image of The Scholars 7/1999
Fun Image of The Scholars 7/1999
The Official 2000 Image 7/2000
© TedNellen 2000
