Walden University blog posting - Module 1

Critique Siemens’s “metaphors of educators.” Which of these metaphors best describes the role you believe an instructor should take in a digital classroom or workplace? Is there a better metaphor to reflect your view of the role of instructors?
Siemens takes an eclectic view of educators using the metaphors of curator, concierge, network administator and master artist. With these metaphors in mind, he makes the point that students and teachers interact with various ways as related to educator activity, skills and knowledge and learners creating meaning and knowledge. Rather than adhering or exalting any of the metaphors, he suggests that there may be useful applications with each orientation.
In the educator as master artist (Siemens, 2008, p. 15), the educator uses exemplars to aid instruction as with past masters and "emerging forms of art." The network admisistrator from Clarence Fisher delievers a model of an instructor geared toward an end result with evaluation from both learner and instructor (p. 16). The conceierge offers new "possibilities that are ripe" for the learner. However, a teacher in actual practice would ethically need to match the instructional approach with the learners' needs alongside the learning situation following a continuum and making adjustments, similar to Siemens' s description of teacher as concierge. Siemens's (p. 16) accolade to Bonk's notion of teacher as "concierge" is an interesting one. In that explanation, he says that the teachers helps to "softly" guide the students with traditional lectures and self-exploration and Siemens (p. 17) extends this metaphor to an educator who is a "curator" who has "advanced knowledge" and accepts the "autonomy of the learner" at the same time.
Like Siemens and Bonk, I agree that the educator must guide learning while encouraging autonomy in the learner. The classes that have given me self-direction, like the Walden program, have had the most meaning for me and the best application to my life.
Siemens, G. (2008, January). Learning and knowing in networks: Changing roles for educators and designers. Paper presented to ITFORUM for discussion. Retrieved June 4, 2009 from http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com.