Questions raised:
Early in our careers, many of us felt we needed the guidance that textbooks and teachers' guides offered: later in our growth as teachers of writing, we chafe at those directive constraints. Is this tendency any different in the online classroom/workshop? If so, what (or who) is the mentor?
Who, or what, is suggesting "best practices" for these virtual learning spaces?How long after we've mastered the curve before we begin to chafe at our original "theory of the month" pedagogies and begin to move on to the higher ground of inventing our own theories and practices?
What comes first: the pedagogies or the practices?Johannes Cronje: The NEED comes first ...
Nick Carbone: I think we move on the moment we start to practice...
Daphne Desser: I think practice informs pedagogy -- critiques it, revises it -- so that [pedagogy] can be reenacted as practice...
Greg Beatty: Most instructional guides that address "how to" teach online do their best to ignore the realities of the situation ...
Dan Butcher: Practice always comes before pedagogy ...
Will Hochman: I sometimes wonder if the overwhelming writing theory is practice ...
Ben Reynolds: Mentors ... show newbies the liberating possibilities of the tools ...
Fred Kemp: Those who pride themselves on rejecting the "theories of the month" are in effect resisting the notion of change itself in favor of the presumed tried and true ...