Here’s an interesting link to a Konrad Glogowski post about creating a learning space. I’m tempted to apply myself, but I really don’t need another project.
And by way of a tweet this morning I found Software for Starving Students. We REALLY need to be looking at these tools to augment strapped school budgets.
We’ve been talking about the purposes of Education.
Check out this YouTube video
If you didn’t see this come through Stephen’s feed, you are missing out on some very interesting ideas that are very relevant.
Emerging technologies for learning: volume 3 (2008) Emerging technologies for learning: volume 3 (2008): article summaries
Between Classroom 2.0, Fireside Learning, and here, there’s been a building sense of “do I really believe this stuff?” Apparently I’m not the only one.
Open Thinking & Digital Pedagogy » Letting Go
And I think there is something big here for me. After reading this article, it wasn’t that I was surprised. I felt guilty. Really guilty. As a professor of edtech and media, i have the opportunity to effect hundreds of preservice and practicing teachers. I have typically focused on helping improve technological competency, media literacy and instructional practice with these individuals. This seems OK, doesn’t it?
Alec is referencing an article by Robert Cringley and you can find the link in the post. This is an interesting follow on to “Why Teach?”
When I threw this idea up, I confess I was not thinking about the idea of “Why teach?” from the perspective of why do YOU teach, but “Why does anybody teach?” This question grows out of the idea that teaching and learning are so far apart — so tangentially related — that the activity of teaching seems almost a waste of time.
I base this on the notion that most learning happens outside of the influence of The Teacher. I maintain that The Teacher might have some small influence on the larger orbits of the people they teach, but that, by and large, the most of what any Teacher’s students learn had nothing to do with the intended consequences that the teacher desired.
This isn’t to say that learners don’t use teachers. Just not THE Teacher.
And given that, why teach?
One of the things I wanted to do with my “View of 21st Century Learners” video was to encourage people to add their own views from their own perspectives.
I’ve offered extra credit to the class, but since others follow this blog, I thought I’d challenge each of you …
> create a video of what *you* do to learn. (don’t say you don’t learn because if you’re breathing, you’re learning.)
> use the sentence “I am a 21st Century Learner” somewhere in there
> have a picture of yourself.
What I’m trying to do is get people to realize that “21st century learners” are not just the kids in school, but all of us. The same tools that give us the ability to attend an online course and to learn from a specific teacher in a specific context give us the ability to learn practically anything from a rich variety of sources.
Even how to use the resources to learn how to use the resources.
Recursion is such a powerful concept, don’t you think?
David Jakes is a really funny guy who often doesn’t get enough credit. He’s been in my ‘gator and on my radar for a long time now and Clarence pointed this thing out to me this morning.
The Strength of Weak Ties » A Single Word
How do you assess contribution in a networked classroom?Ok, so what does it look like? What’s new, what’s different, what’s the same? Your ideas?
I’m not a good one to work in the Ustream/Elluminate world, so I dont pay a lot of attention to these events. They strike me as “technology because we can” and not really good applications of the tools. Elluminate doesn’t run on my main (linux) machine and between time zones, meal times, kid taxi, and all the rest, I seldom can get into this stuff at all. I catch the tweets and read the recaps in the blogs. While that’s probably a bit Luddite of me, I just don’t see the value in talking heads, powerpoints by remote control, and fancy-dan chat rooms with so many bells and whistles they crash my computers. You wanna chat? Gimme IRC .. plain text for plain speaking. If you can’t type… that’s a different matter, but I digress.
THIS thing, though. This seemingly innocuous question is at the heart of it. There are some really interesting and thoughtful comments under the post and Clarence’s take on it is insightful. For those who’ve wondered about — and even been openly critical of — the way I run classes, this should articulate it for you.
Welcome back from Spring break.
This has been working its way thru the blogosphere for at least a few days now. I first saw it just before I went to California last week.
Pajamas Media: Do Homeschoolers Need Teaching Credentials?
California parents have “no constitutional right” to homeschool their children, the 2nd District Court of Appeals ruled Feb. 28. Parents face truancy prosecution and loss of custody if they don’t provide a credentialed tutor or send their kids to a public or private school that requires daily attendance, wrote Justice H. Walter Croskey in a sweeping decision.
This probably won’t stand up in the court of public opinion and I’d expect the law to change in California if the courts don’t overturn this on appeal. The prerogative of parents over their children’s welfare has well established precedent. If they don’t LOOK mis-treated — starved, beaten, or otherwise physically damaged — parents get a pass on how they treat their kids. But this is an interesting time to be looking at why teach?
According to Justice Croskey, the purpose of state sponsored education is the indoctrination of children into the societal mores of the State. While that *sounds* a bit fascist, the reality is … what?
High Stakes testing so that “No Child Left Behind” can punish schools that don’t toe the line?
A few million dollars in connectivity rebates to connect schools to the internet and a few more million to pay for the filters to keep them from actually connecting to anything useful?
If we believe that Education is about the preparation of the next generation, then what’s this “life long learning” cark all about? Adult education isn’t really Education?
What’s the story?
This journal came across my feed today. As we explore the issues of culture and technology here is a scholarly journal with some interesting articles on ‘virtual faith’ and exploring some new ideas like ‘techno-’ and ‘cybershamanism’
Online - Heidelberg Journal of Religions on the Internet
Vol. 03.1 Being Virtually Real? Virtual Worlds from a Cultural Studies’ Perspective, ed. by Kerstin Radde-Antweiler
Via Downes and Others …
The Cute Cat Theory Talk at ETech
Web 1.0 was invented to allow physicists to share research papers.Web 2.0 was created to allow people to share pictures of cute cats.
Read the whole article and ponder why I start out with this on a week where we’re going to talk about “Why Teach?”
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