Module 1 Blog-Sara Becker

George Siemen's offers several metaphors of educators in his paper. First is the educator as master artist where the instructor is there as the expert to provide feedback when a student has demonstrated excellence, but peer-to-peer learning and feedback is strongly encouraged. The educator as network administrator is when the teacher is there to assist learners making connections and building a personal learning network with peers. Most of the learning occurs within the personal learning network with the instructor there to provide assistance when necessary. The educator as concierge is when the instructor points students towards resources that they may not have been aware of otherwise.The educator as curator is when the instructor sets up the environment to maximize learning but lets the learner explore without boundaries (Siemens, 2008).

Of the roles that Siemens mentions, I think the one that best fits a digital classroom is a combination of the educator as network administrator and the educator as curator. I think an instructor in a digital classroom should set up the environment to maximize the amount of learning that occurs, but should also encourage collaboration with peers in a learning community. I think there are times when the instructor should be able to step in and guide learners in one direction or another, especially if the learner is at a standstill, making no progress. I think collaboration and exploration are both essential in an online classroom, so a combination of the two metaphors would be most appropriate.

References:
Siemens, G. (2008, January 27). Learning and knowing in networks: Changing roles for educators and designers. Paper presented to ITFORUM. Retrieved from http://it.coe.uga.edu/itforum/Paper105/Siemens.pdf