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Stephen Downes
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3 weeks ago
in To Leo Laporte’s fans and Techcrunch trolls - Thanks a helluva lot on odd time signatures
If you value the content, always make a back-up, even if you think the archive is in good hands.
1 reply
3 weeks ago
in Cool Cat Teacher Blog: How to add a retweet button & tweet count to your blog posts on Cool Cat Teacher Blog
I don't know... adding a 'retweet button' seems so... needy.
- 2 points
- Jump to »
coolcatteacher
Needy? To me, the cool thing is that it shows how many times something has
been tweeted. I have always wanted to know that -- Technorati is NEVER
pinged by anyone any more and so going into statcounter to find the links or
backlinks for a post is really a pain -- the retweet thing sort of seems
like to me what technorati links used to be when this whole thing started --
even if no one retweets, it still tells me how many times it has been
tweeted.
When I tested it and looked back at all posts, it actually indexes whether
anything has been tweeted at all, back to the beginning - now if I can just
find out how to see the most tweeted, that would be cool.
Thanks for your thoughts -- the whole follower addiction thing that seems to
be running rampant through Twitter and the stuff about "millionaires being
made on twitter" is so annoying to me (and I would guess to you also) but to
me, this has a different use - almost a gague.
Thank you again for sharing your thoughts, they are always appreciated and
welcomed here. BTW, I passed your message on to Hannah!
been tweeted. I have always wanted to know that -- Technorati is NEVER
pinged by anyone any more and so going into statcounter to find the links or
backlinks for a post is really a pain -- the retweet thing sort of seems
like to me what technorati links used to be when this whole thing started --
even if no one retweets, it still tells me how many times it has been
tweeted.
When I tested it and looked back at all posts, it actually indexes whether
anything has been tweeted at all, back to the beginning - now if I can just
find out how to see the most tweeted, that would be cool.
Thanks for your thoughts -- the whole follower addiction thing that seems to
be running rampant through Twitter and the stuff about "millionaires being
made on twitter" is so annoying to me (and I would guess to you also) but to
me, this has a different use - almost a gague.
Thank you again for sharing your thoughts, they are always appreciated and
welcomed here. BTW, I passed your message on to Hannah!
4 weeks ago
in Cool Cat Teacher Blog: School Daze: Recovering the Teacher Within on Cool Cat Teacher Blog
Hannah's whale is great, very creative!
1 reply
coolcatteacher
Thank you!! She is 4!!!!
Vicki Davis
Cool Cat Teacher Blog
Building the bridges of today that the society of tomorrow will walk
across.
Sent from my iPod touch
Vicki Davis
Cool Cat Teacher Blog
Building the bridges of today that the society of tomorrow will walk
across.
Sent from my iPod touch
1 month ago
in the joys of failure on digital digs
The sad part about the game you describe is that it sounds crashingly boring. Most of the time, most people (indeed, every player except the kid at bat) are standing around, doing nothing.
If their baseball skills are so poor (and I can easily imagine that they are) then maybe this is simply the wrong game for them. Maybe they should be playing catch. Or shagging (soft) fly balls. or even a game of scrub. Things that involve lots of activity.
What you describe is not simply a case of the over-stigmatization of failure (though it is certainly at least in part). It's also a case of the over-structuring of what ought to be a much more loosely structured activity.
The way you deal with failure (as game designers know) is not by eliminating failure, or by over-structuring activities, but by ensuring fairness within domains of competence. People take part in activities at their skill level, and they compete against people of similar abilities.
What you describe is a set of organizers who were not able to think beyond the bounds of the game itself, who had an imagination that was limited to the modification of existing rules, rather than adaptation of the activity in proportion to the players. This is an affliction of the entire educational system, and not merely baseball players.
If their baseball skills are so poor (and I can easily imagine that they are) then maybe this is simply the wrong game for them. Maybe they should be playing catch. Or shagging (soft) fly balls. or even a game of scrub. Things that involve lots of activity.
What you describe is not simply a case of the over-stigmatization of failure (though it is certainly at least in part). It's also a case of the over-structuring of what ought to be a much more loosely structured activity.
The way you deal with failure (as game designers know) is not by eliminating failure, or by over-structuring activities, but by ensuring fairness within domains of competence. People take part in activities at their skill level, and they compete against people of similar abilities.
What you describe is a set of organizers who were not able to think beyond the bounds of the game itself, who had an imagination that was limited to the modification of existing rules, rather than adaptation of the activity in proportion to the players. This is an affliction of the entire educational system, and not merely baseball players.
1 reply
digitaldigs
Thanks Stephen, you make an excellent point in your reference to game design. One creates an immersive, engaging experience by keeping the challenge and activity level balanced. Of course one could say the problem with baseball is that it requires a lot of standing around, even under the best circumstances. That's the mental part of the game, which is maybe hard for younger kids.
I would extend on your thoughts here to say that in education risk needs to be properly apportioned. The risk of failure and benefit of success need to be harmonized. There ought to be a kind of commerce between students and teachers as well in defining risks and rewards in relation to the difficulty of the task. I would hypothesize that there might be some pedagogical sweet spot in terms of challenges, risks, and benefits where the challenge is high enough, the risk is palpable but not perilous, and the benefits are tempting: the result is a genuine learning (and maybe even enjoyable/immersive) experience.
I would extend on your thoughts here to say that in education risk needs to be properly apportioned. The risk of failure and benefit of success need to be harmonized. There ought to be a kind of commerce between students and teachers as well in defining risks and rewards in relation to the difficulty of the task. I would hypothesize that there might be some pedagogical sweet spot in terms of challenges, risks, and benefits where the challenge is high enough, the risk is palpable but not perilous, and the benefits are tempting: the result is a genuine learning (and maybe even enjoyable/immersive) experience.
2 months ago
in http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2009/05/reading-to-improve-your-life.html on Cool Cat Teacher Blog
My reading patterns change over the years, but there are some constants.
One constant has been the newspaper. I read one or more newspapers every day, preferably in the morning. This I have done since I was 14 and had my own paper routes.
When I was young I also worked my way through my mother's classics. Jules Verne, Mark Twain, some Dickens, some Crane, Thomas Hardy, and more.
Then in my late teens I discovered science fiction, and read it almost exclusively for a number of years. Heinlein, Asimov, Clark, Niven, Pournelle, DelRay, and many many more.
In university my range widened as I read numerous works of philosophy. I was originally inspired by Hume and Descartes, and settled in on John Stuart Mill as definitive. Also important in my thinking were Nietzsche, Camus, Wittgenstein, the Logical Positivists, and the post-Positivists like Quine, Kuhn and van Fraassen.
In the mid- to late90s I read histories and biographies. The centerpiece of this was Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, but I read a wide range of works on medieval to modern history.
Then it was back to science fiction again as I discovered cyberpunk. William Gibson and Bruce Sterling were like manna to me (what a treat to see Bruce Sterling at SXSW). I also enjoyed hard SF by people like Greg Bear. But recently I have discovered, to my horror, that I have run out of science fiction. I have been reading it faster than they have been printing it, and now there's nothing new to read.
During this time, of course, I have been reading online constantly - about 800 feeds in educational technology, new media, cyberculture, and similar subjects. This includes everything from academic articles, from those journals that are online, to Twitter posts, and everything in between.
And recentl;y, because of the dearth of SF, I have gone back to the classics I didn't read as a child - Hemingway, for example, and most recently, Dumas. These will probably keep me going for another couple years before I begin to run out.
Reading has been central to my life, and I would be a very different person without it.
One constant has been the newspaper. I read one or more newspapers every day, preferably in the morning. This I have done since I was 14 and had my own paper routes.
When I was young I also worked my way through my mother's classics. Jules Verne, Mark Twain, some Dickens, some Crane, Thomas Hardy, and more.
Then in my late teens I discovered science fiction, and read it almost exclusively for a number of years. Heinlein, Asimov, Clark, Niven, Pournelle, DelRay, and many many more.
In university my range widened as I read numerous works of philosophy. I was originally inspired by Hume and Descartes, and settled in on John Stuart Mill as definitive. Also important in my thinking were Nietzsche, Camus, Wittgenstein, the Logical Positivists, and the post-Positivists like Quine, Kuhn and van Fraassen.
In the mid- to late90s I read histories and biographies. The centerpiece of this was Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, but I read a wide range of works on medieval to modern history.
Then it was back to science fiction again as I discovered cyberpunk. William Gibson and Bruce Sterling were like manna to me (what a treat to see Bruce Sterling at SXSW). I also enjoyed hard SF by people like Greg Bear. But recently I have discovered, to my horror, that I have run out of science fiction. I have been reading it faster than they have been printing it, and now there's nothing new to read.
During this time, of course, I have been reading online constantly - about 800 feeds in educational technology, new media, cyberculture, and similar subjects. This includes everything from academic articles, from those journals that are online, to Twitter posts, and everything in between.
And recentl;y, because of the dearth of SF, I have gone back to the classics I didn't read as a child - Hemingway, for example, and most recently, Dumas. These will probably keep me going for another couple years before I begin to run out.
Reading has been central to my life, and I would be a very different person without it.
1 reply
coolcatteacher
Thank you so much for sharing how you read -- it is interesting that I've started reading some of the classics as well -- reading the old Arthur Canon Doyle, Sherlock Holmes on my itouch, mostly because they are free and I wanted to test it out on my itouch. It is very evident in your work that you read a lot. Thank you for sharing!
2 months ago
in Social TV: Watch Hulu with Your Facebook and MySpace Friends on Mashable - The Social Media Guide
Hulu throws up a big error message to people outside the U.S.
Don't encourage this sort of anti-internet behaviour. Don't watch Hulu. Don't support Hulu. Don't cover Hulu.
Don't encourage this sort of anti-internet behaviour. Don't watch Hulu. Don't support Hulu. Don't cover Hulu.
1 reply
Robert Basil
Blame your local content providers. THEY are the ones who will not allow Hulu in your country.
2 months ago
in Cool Cat Teacher Blog: Keeping the Poison Pen from Making You Sick on Cool Cat Teacher Blog
I am one of the people mentioned but not named in this post, and possibly a proximate cause for it's having been written, so it seems relevant to make a comment.
Moreover, I have probably been criticized as much as anyone in the educational blogosphere. I've been labeled everything from a techno-communist to a hippie to an idealist to a fascist. Criticism, not always fair or honest criticism, is a routine and daily part of my life. I got a few more today (one of them justified) and I'll add them to the pile.
So it should be noted that I am, in fact, sensitive about when I hand out criticism. I try - and I think succeed - to highlight good products, good content, and good contributions. The vast majority of the comments I leave on people's photos or blog posts are supportive.
What I'm trying to get at here is - when I criticize someone, including you, there is a reason. It's not that I don't care - quite the opposite, I DO care. Otherwise I wouldn't bother. Life's too short. I don't criticize posts just to cause the author grief, or to spread malice, or anything like that. I criticize because I think something important has gone wrong, and that I ought to comment.
So, in that light, I would add one thing to this post on criticism: accept the possibility that you, the person criticized, might be wrong. That the person making the criticism might have a point.
In my case, I thought I had a point. I still do. I think these agencies - Prensky, ReactionGrid, nGenera - are simply using you and your students in a publicity campaign. I don't think you should just let yourself be used in this way, and you certainly shouldn't ley your students be used in this way.
You are free to disagree. You are free to feel that the criticism is unwarranted. But I would like to be very clear that when I criticize, it's not simply to be a "poison pen" or a "jerk" and that I think it is wrong to dismiss criticism in this way. When you work in public, when you issue press releases, when you engage in projects that are at once very commercial and very political, you have to expect criticism. Not all of it as kind, or as well-meaning, as mine.
show all 3 replies
Moreover, I have probably been criticized as much as anyone in the educational blogosphere. I've been labeled everything from a techno-communist to a hippie to an idealist to a fascist. Criticism, not always fair or honest criticism, is a routine and daily part of my life. I got a few more today (one of them justified) and I'll add them to the pile.
So it should be noted that I am, in fact, sensitive about when I hand out criticism. I try - and I think succeed - to highlight good products, good content, and good contributions. The vast majority of the comments I leave on people's photos or blog posts are supportive.
What I'm trying to get at here is - when I criticize someone, including you, there is a reason. It's not that I don't care - quite the opposite, I DO care. Otherwise I wouldn't bother. Life's too short. I don't criticize posts just to cause the author grief, or to spread malice, or anything like that. I criticize because I think something important has gone wrong, and that I ought to comment.
So, in that light, I would add one thing to this post on criticism: accept the possibility that you, the person criticized, might be wrong. That the person making the criticism might have a point.
In my case, I thought I had a point. I still do. I think these agencies - Prensky, ReactionGrid, nGenera - are simply using you and your students in a publicity campaign. I don't think you should just let yourself be used in this way, and you certainly shouldn't ley your students be used in this way.
You are free to disagree. You are free to feel that the criticism is unwarranted. But I would like to be very clear that when I criticize, it's not simply to be a "poison pen" or a "jerk" and that I think it is wrong to dismiss criticism in this way. When you work in public, when you issue press releases, when you engage in projects that are at once very commercial and very political, you have to expect criticism. Not all of it as kind, or as well-meaning, as mine.
3 replies
Trevor Meister
I feel I must enter this conversation at this time with respect to the comments made regarding ReactionGrid. If they are to be grouped with the others you have mentioned, and criticized accordingly, I think it best you at least have as much information as possible. I also think you may find this interesting on other levels.
I have spent the last two years exploring everything I could related to technology and its use in Education. The things that impacted me most were Virtual Worlds, and the concepts surrounding personal learning networks/environments and connectivism.
Over time I came to rely mostly on Secondlife and twitter for the bulk of interaction. SL started becoming cost prohibitive and the teen/adult grid separation made it very difficult work with real students,so I started exploring open source Virtual World options including OpenSim, Wonderland and Cobalt/Croque. Twitter became my main networking tool, especially when I participated in the early stages of CCK08. During CCK08, my PLN expanded quickly and began to almost take on a life of its own; thats when it happened.
On twitter, I connected to someone I had run into in Second life. They were in early process of a startup revolving around enterprise use of Virtual Worlds, and happened to have a region on ReactionGrid. I visited and found the building and scripting capabilities very close to SL and far more advanced than the other 3 or 4 grids I had explored. I inquired as to cost, and I'm sure my avatar's jaw dropped when I found out I could get approx 25X the space for less that I had been paying in SL. For less than the cost of the big screen we got for the family at Christmas..I obtained the equivalent of 6 SL Islands for a Year. My plan was to continue to explore the potential of Virtual Worlds for learning and share the space and everything in it with members of my PLN who may share this interest. The educators and others I chose to follow as I formed my PLN were ones who typically supported the "do it yourself" attitude, share and share alike, opensource solutions etc. and this would be my contribution back to that network.
Meanwhile, in another part of the twitterverse, I noticed some generic notices going around regarding Google's decision to close down Lively, Its 3D chatroom service. Then I saw an announcement by a teacher I was casually following, @coolcatteacher, regarding their classes' reaction to the closing of the learning spaces they had constructed in Lively. Pick your favorite cliche for having an idea suddenly pop into your head, it was that kind of moment. When the closing of Lively became a certainty, I offered them the use of one of the 6 regions for a year to continue the work they had started in Lively. The ReactionGrid crew, which consists of 3 very dedicated individuals didn't have a clue this was happening until I informed them, yet have bent over backwards ensuring that the students' experience in world is a good as it can be. I have had almost daily contact with a member of the team in one form or another and can say that the level of support I have received borders on fanatical. Compare that to the TV I bought at Christmas; I was lucky to get some assistance transporting it across the parking lot to my vehicle. You don't have to take my word for it, ask around in the VW community or better yet, come in and see for your self. I offer you the same opportunity, 1 region to use as you see fit for a year. They are doing some really cool things on grid with real-time data aquisition, representation,manipulation and re-broadcasting. I for one, would love to see what you could do with RSS harvesting/aggregation and processing/visualizing in a 3D virtual environment.
Trevor Meister
Prologue
A little over two years ago, I made a decision to resign from my position as a public school teacher after 18 years of teaching. Seven years prior to that I was entering my 4th year as a district level mathematics and technology consultant and was forming a vision of just how powerful the emerging technology of the time (dynamic web vs static web) could be. After a year of trying to get someone with "clout" to listen I gave up. I retreated to my little classroom in northern Alberta, taught math, worked on my computer and watched silently as gobs of $$$ were spent creating static lessons on CD-Roms and shortly thereafter, static web based versions of same. I hadn't forgotten - or lost sight of the vision - but seven years of quietly working away from the inside was enough. I had many regrets during that time, most over things I could not control. It wasn't these that bothered me, it was the kind that you described perfectly in a fairly recent post http://halfanhour.blogspot.com/2009/03/tnp-20-y... on your "Half an Hour" blog. "The regret of a man who was not true to himself, who did not give his all, who held himself back or conformed for the sake of advancement, of the man who stopped seeking because he was told what to believe:these are the regrets I could not bear to feel" -Stephen Downes. Nor could I.
I have spent the last two years exploring everything I could related to technology and its use in Education. The things that impacted me most were Virtual Worlds, and the concepts surrounding personal learning networks/environments and connectivism.
Over time I came to rely mostly on Secondlife and twitter for the bulk of interaction. SL started becoming cost prohibitive and the teen/adult grid separation made it very difficult work with real students,so I started exploring open source Virtual World options including OpenSim, Wonderland and Cobalt/Croque. Twitter became my main networking tool, especially when I participated in the early stages of CCK08. During CCK08, my PLN expanded quickly and began to almost take on a life of its own; thats when it happened.
On twitter, I connected to someone I had run into in Second life. They were in early process of a startup revolving around enterprise use of Virtual Worlds, and happened to have a region on ReactionGrid. I visited and found the building and scripting capabilities very close to SL and far more advanced than the other 3 or 4 grids I had explored. I inquired as to cost, and I'm sure my avatar's jaw dropped when I found out I could get approx 25X the space for less that I had been paying in SL. For less than the cost of the big screen we got for the family at Christmas..I obtained the equivalent of 6 SL Islands for a Year. My plan was to continue to explore the potential of Virtual Worlds for learning and share the space and everything in it with members of my PLN who may share this interest. The educators and others I chose to follow as I formed my PLN were ones who typically supported the "do it yourself" attitude, share and share alike, opensource solutions etc. and this would be my contribution back to that network.
Meanwhile, in another part of the twitterverse, I noticed some generic notices going around regarding Google's decision to close down Lively, Its 3D chatroom service. Then I saw an announcement by a teacher I was casually following, @coolcatteacher, regarding their classes' reaction to the closing of the learning spaces they had constructed in Lively. Pick your favorite cliche for having an idea suddenly pop into your head, it was that kind of moment. When the closing of Lively became a certainty, I offered them the use of one of the 6 regions for a year to continue the work they had started in Lively. The ReactionGrid crew, which consists of 3 very dedicated individuals didn't have a clue this was happening until I informed them, yet have bent over backwards ensuring that the students' experience in world is a good as it can be. I have had almost daily contact with a member of the team in one form or another and can say that the level of support I have received borders on fanatical. Compare that to the TV I bought at Christmas; I was lucky to get some assistance transporting it across the parking lot to my vehicle. You don't have to take my word for it, ask around in the VW community or better yet, come in and see for your self. I offer you the same opportunity, 1 region to use as you see fit for a year. They are doing some really cool things on grid with real-time data aquisition, representation,manipulation and re-broadcasting. I for one, would love to see what you could do with RSS harvesting/aggregation and processing/visualizing in a 3D virtual environment.
Trevor Meister
Prologue
A little over two years ago, I made a decision to resign from my position as a public school teacher after 18 years of teaching. Seven years prior to that I was entering my 4th year as a district level mathematics and technology consultant and was forming a vision of just how powerful the emerging technology of the time (dynamic web vs static web) could be. After a year of trying to get someone with "clout" to listen I gave up. I retreated to my little classroom in northern Alberta, taught math, worked on my computer and watched silently as gobs of $$$ were spent creating static lessons on CD-Roms and shortly thereafter, static web based versions of same. I hadn't forgotten - or lost sight of the vision - but seven years of quietly working away from the inside was enough. I had many regrets during that time, most over things I could not control. It wasn't these that bothered me, it was the kind that you described perfectly in a fairly recent post http://halfanhour.blogspot.com/2009/03/tnp-20-y... on your "Half an Hour" blog. "The regret of a man who was not true to himself, who did not give his all, who held himself back or conformed for the sake of advancement, of the man who stopped seeking because he was told what to believe:these are the regrets I could not bear to feel" -Stephen Downes. Nor could I.
coolcatteacher
Stephen,
It was not just you, but perhaps that your criticism coupled with that
of others was contradictory. Although some of it is right, all of it
cannot be.
I am not going to go into our work with Tapscott on this post but can
return to the other to respond.
I will say this. I married my husband for many reasons- I love him but
had lustful reasons as well. Does the fact that I had a base, carnal
reason for wanting to be with him negate the higher reasons? No.
Likewise, this post cannot be boiled down to just one person- you or
any of the other dozen involved and the project with Don, likewise has
many reasons.
Flat classroom and the other projects are still pretty unknown by
most, Tapscott is much better known, so many could say we are just
seeking publicity for ourselves.
It is very hard to raise money for our conference to send children
from all socioeconomic backgrounds to it. One source of money from
this year is gone. Some would say that we are using Tapscott to
promote the cause we are pursuing.
It has been mutually beneficial. I do appreciate your ongoing concern,
this is bigger than the comment you left yesterday.
Twitter has been a bit of a pain lately! It has! Julie and I are
pulling 12-15 hour days to make all this happen. Our motto right now
is to get through it. When we are done we have adjustments to make,
big ones. But right now we have q2digiteen q2flat classroom and
netgened going!
As for being wrong, I wish you were wrong but I am wrong more often
than right. Was talking to my friend Terry Freedman today and
mentioned that this model is probably only about 30% perfected, we are
limited by what we can do and by so many things.
We will have to agree to disagree on NetGen, for really, there are so
many things you are right on.
As for being used, let's look back in a year or two and see the
results, for time will tell.
You are always welcome here to disagree. What I respect most about
your criticism is that you always post here first so I am not
blindsided. There are many things right about how you criticize, but
for me, personall, the load, of which yours is only a miniscule part,
you'll notice I do not talk about issues at school here, which far
outweigh anything I experience in the blogosphere.
Criticism comes with the territory, and yes, sometimes it is right.
Vicki Davis
Cool Cat Teacher Blog
Building the bridges of today that the society of tomorrow will walk
across.
Sent from my iPod touch
It was not just you, but perhaps that your criticism coupled with that
of others was contradictory. Although some of it is right, all of it
cannot be.
I am not going to go into our work with Tapscott on this post but can
return to the other to respond.
I will say this. I married my husband for many reasons- I love him but
had lustful reasons as well. Does the fact that I had a base, carnal
reason for wanting to be with him negate the higher reasons? No.
Likewise, this post cannot be boiled down to just one person- you or
any of the other dozen involved and the project with Don, likewise has
many reasons.
Flat classroom and the other projects are still pretty unknown by
most, Tapscott is much better known, so many could say we are just
seeking publicity for ourselves.
It is very hard to raise money for our conference to send children
from all socioeconomic backgrounds to it. One source of money from
this year is gone. Some would say that we are using Tapscott to
promote the cause we are pursuing.
It has been mutually beneficial. I do appreciate your ongoing concern,
this is bigger than the comment you left yesterday.
Twitter has been a bit of a pain lately! It has! Julie and I are
pulling 12-15 hour days to make all this happen. Our motto right now
is to get through it. When we are done we have adjustments to make,
big ones. But right now we have q2digiteen q2flat classroom and
netgened going!
As for being wrong, I wish you were wrong but I am wrong more often
than right. Was talking to my friend Terry Freedman today and
mentioned that this model is probably only about 30% perfected, we are
limited by what we can do and by so many things.
We will have to agree to disagree on NetGen, for really, there are so
many things you are right on.
As for being used, let's look back in a year or two and see the
results, for time will tell.
You are always welcome here to disagree. What I respect most about
your criticism is that you always post here first so I am not
blindsided. There are many things right about how you criticize, but
for me, personall, the load, of which yours is only a miniscule part,
you'll notice I do not talk about issues at school here, which far
outweigh anything I experience in the blogosphere.
Criticism comes with the territory, and yes, sometimes it is right.
Vicki Davis
Cool Cat Teacher Blog
Building the bridges of today that the society of tomorrow will walk
across.
Sent from my iPod touch
2 months ago
in Cool Cat Teacher Blog: NetGen Education Project Awards Show To Be Held in OpenSim on Apr on Cool Cat Teacher Blog
I have had and still have engagements with real students. I don't issue press releases about it though.
1 reply
coolcatteacher
Stephen, everyone is invited. You are invited. I respect your work. I
am sorry this offends you. Press releases are something authors do. We
have issued them before for our projects but I don't really see the
reason for your animosity on this one. Would love to understand what
you feel the offense is here.
Vicki Davis
Cool Cat Teacher Blog
Building the bridges of today that the society of tomorrow will walk
across.
Sent from my iPod touch
am sorry this offends you. Press releases are something authors do. We
have issued them before for our projects but I don't really see the
reason for your animosity on this one. Would love to understand what
you feel the offense is here.
Vicki Davis
Cool Cat Teacher Blog
Building the bridges of today that the society of tomorrow will walk
across.
Sent from my iPod touch
2 months ago
in Cool Cat Teacher Blog: NetGen Education Project Awards Show To Be Held in OpenSim on Apr on Cool Cat Teacher Blog
Closed event, about what was essentially a closed competition, all in aid of the media career that is Don Tapscott (plus a few commercial partners). I totally wouldn't be boasting about this one.
2 replies
coolcatteacher
Stephen - the Competition was OPEN. Anyone could contribute. NetGenEd was
Julie's and my project - it was closed and yes, we're doing those awards.
Net GEneration Education Challenge is Tapscott's challenge -- and anyone
could participate. Did you submit your video?
Secondly -- this is with our 300 students around the world and in OpenSim -
we have a lot of people contributing their free time to this one. It is an
insult to the 18 other teachers, 300 students, and all the educators who
are participating to say it is NOTHING. It is something. It is very hard to
do. My students are spending their time next week to help orient people to
OPenSim -- a great alternative to Second Life. They're orienting and
helping educators and others.
Just because you don't care for Don, doesn't mean that you should disparage
this event. Don's office is participating and he is showing up, but he has
chatting weekly and worked with these students without a dime. No one has
ever made a dime off our projects and JUlie and I do everything for all of
these at no cost.
I will not brag on myself - however, the effort that the others have put
into this is tremendous - ReactionGrid is putting in their time and effort
as well. Seeing if it can be done in OpenSim is a pretty big deal. It
really bothers me that you didn't take time to ask or dig a little deeper
on this one before you turned up your nose.
Actually, was planning to see if you wanted to spend some time in there
with my students but this email beat it to my inbox. I don't think you're
right on this one at all. And the lion's share of the work is right on my
shoulders for it.
Julie's and my project - it was closed and yes, we're doing those awards.
Net GEneration Education Challenge is Tapscott's challenge -- and anyone
could participate. Did you submit your video?
Secondly -- this is with our 300 students around the world and in OpenSim -
we have a lot of people contributing their free time to this one. It is an
insult to the 18 other teachers, 300 students, and all the educators who
are participating to say it is NOTHING. It is something. It is very hard to
do. My students are spending their time next week to help orient people to
OPenSim -- a great alternative to Second Life. They're orienting and
helping educators and others.
Just because you don't care for Don, doesn't mean that you should disparage
this event. Don's office is participating and he is showing up, but he has
chatting weekly and worked with these students without a dime. No one has
ever made a dime off our projects and JUlie and I do everything for all of
these at no cost.
I will not brag on myself - however, the effort that the others have put
into this is tremendous - ReactionGrid is putting in their time and effort
as well. Seeing if it can be done in OpenSim is a pretty big deal. It
really bothers me that you didn't take time to ask or dig a little deeper
on this one before you turned up your nose.
Actually, was planning to see if you wanted to spend some time in there
with my students but this email beat it to my inbox. I don't think you're
right on this one at all. And the lion's share of the work is right on my
shoulders for it.
coolcatteacher
Just one other thought. How are we supposed to have the students interact
with authors who are knowledgeable and well accepted without it somehow
benefiting the author? I am very grateful to Don and Thomas Friedman and
the other authors like Dan Pink who not only write about education but at
least have SOME engagement with REAL students. I am glad to see it happen.
with authors who are knowledgeable and well accepted without it somehow
benefiting the author? I am very grateful to Don and Thomas Friedman and
the other authors like Dan Pink who not only write about education but at
least have SOME engagement with REAL students. I am glad to see it happen.
3 months ago
in Sometimes I ONE-der on Drape's Takes
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1 reply
Darren Draper
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3 months ago
in Cool Cat Teacher Blog: This is the edge and it ROCKS! on Cool Cat Teacher Blog
I don't want to take the wind out of your sails or anything, so please don't interpret it like that, but I would like to just raise something that bothers me about this sort of initiative, and you can take it from there.
And that is, you talk about all the countries represented, Qatar, Pakistan, Australia, US, New Zealand, and what I keep wanting to see are some real live international teachers. Not just Americans who happen to live in other places.
Because it's not a "flat world" if only Americans (or, if only 'western' (Australia, NZ, Canada, USA)) people are involved. The whole idea of there being a flat world is that people from all cultures have a shot at this, are a part of the community, etc.
I know, I don't do a whole lot better in my own website, though I do try. But the big difference is that I am not promoting my site as some sort of "flat world". My site is about me and my community and my culture - and yes, those friends I have from other cultures - and I don't pretend it's anything else.
Like I say, though, please don't let me discourage you. That's my intent.
And that is, you talk about all the countries represented, Qatar, Pakistan, Australia, US, New Zealand, and what I keep wanting to see are some real live international teachers. Not just Americans who happen to live in other places.
Because it's not a "flat world" if only Americans (or, if only 'western' (Australia, NZ, Canada, USA)) people are involved. The whole idea of there being a flat world is that people from all cultures have a shot at this, are a part of the community, etc.
I know, I don't do a whole lot better in my own website, though I do try. But the big difference is that I am not promoting my site as some sort of "flat world". My site is about me and my community and my culture - and yes, those friends I have from other cultures - and I don't pretend it's anything else.
Like I say, though, please don't let me discourage you. That's my intent.
2 replies
coolcatteacher
Real live international teachers -- well, on this call there was Soniiya who IS from Pakistan -- really, we have as many Australian teachers represented -- we're a pretty good mix if you look at the schools represented. we, for now, have to do this in English and so we're limited to those schools who want to communicate in English, although this certainly needs to spread past that.
Here is a list of the schools --http://netgened.wikispaces.com/Schools - -but have I asked each teacher their country of origin -- NO! Why should I have to?
It is the students we are connecting as much as anything and that is where our school lies.
I do not hold up what we do as the epitome of perfection -- because we're not. We get frustrated and mess up all the time. We struggle for more diversity and have as a goal to include schools from Africa and South America -- it is a struggle because we have to have funding for African schools because Internet access is so limited. This is why you'll notice us trademarking the Flat Classroom name and forming a nonprofit as we speak - we need to have funding to include schools that do not have the money for Internet access as well as to fund taking students from poorer areas into the flat classroom conference.
No, this doesn't take the wind out of my sails -- this is something Julie and I talk about all the time -- becoming MORE diverse -- including MORE people from more cultures and if you have tips for doing better, we'd love them. WE NEED HELP in this area. We appreciate the times you've linked to our projects because we KNOW that it has helped us have a more diverse group of teachers.
This is a struggle. Interestingly, we've never included a school from Canada although we've had several apply. Just last month, a Canadian school accepted into NetGenEd had to drop out because the school did not see the benefits of doing anything with any other school outside their own -- and yes, that is what the principal and board said!
We have HUGE obstacles to overcome -- but the flattening of classrooms takes time -- sometimes a connection across the country leads to a connection in another country nearby which leads to a connection across the world.
We are building bridges, not walking across those that are already made.
So, I guess, I'm not disagreeing with you -- but remember this -- few of these teachers are Americans living in other places -- that is a stereotype that is not true. (We have more Aussies if anything.) Check out the schools on this project and the others at http://archive.flatclassroomproject.com -- we're not perfect but we've done a pretty good job considering the grassroots nature of this whole thing.
Here is a list of the schools --http://netgened.wikispaces.com/Schools - -but have I asked each teacher their country of origin -- NO! Why should I have to?
It is the students we are connecting as much as anything and that is where our school lies.
I do not hold up what we do as the epitome of perfection -- because we're not. We get frustrated and mess up all the time. We struggle for more diversity and have as a goal to include schools from Africa and South America -- it is a struggle because we have to have funding for African schools because Internet access is so limited. This is why you'll notice us trademarking the Flat Classroom name and forming a nonprofit as we speak - we need to have funding to include schools that do not have the money for Internet access as well as to fund taking students from poorer areas into the flat classroom conference.
No, this doesn't take the wind out of my sails -- this is something Julie and I talk about all the time -- becoming MORE diverse -- including MORE people from more cultures and if you have tips for doing better, we'd love them. WE NEED HELP in this area. We appreciate the times you've linked to our projects because we KNOW that it has helped us have a more diverse group of teachers.
This is a struggle. Interestingly, we've never included a school from Canada although we've had several apply. Just last month, a Canadian school accepted into NetGenEd had to drop out because the school did not see the benefits of doing anything with any other school outside their own -- and yes, that is what the principal and board said!
We have HUGE obstacles to overcome -- but the flattening of classrooms takes time -- sometimes a connection across the country leads to a connection in another country nearby which leads to a connection across the world.
We are building bridges, not walking across those that are already made.
So, I guess, I'm not disagreeing with you -- but remember this -- few of these teachers are Americans living in other places -- that is a stereotype that is not true. (We have more Aussies if anything.) Check out the schools on this project and the others at http://archive.flatclassroomproject.com -- we're not perfect but we've done a pretty good job considering the grassroots nature of this whole thing.
Julie Lindsay
Hi Stephen
In response to your attempt not to discourage us........it's OK, we are tough....however, let's look at this a little closer. "...some real live international teachers...."??? OK, let me introduce myself as one of these species: I am Australian, hold 2 Masters degrees in Music and Educational Technology (from Australia and USA), left Oz over 11 years ago to teach in Zambia, Kuwait, Bangladesh, Qatar ...and next year Beijing. I have been 'flattening' my classroom by embedding global projects into the curriculum and raising awareness of other lifestyles, cultures and circumstances since way before I left my 'homeland'. I have friends, contacts, colleagues and network ALL OVER the world, I have a 14 year-old daughter who is a third-culture kid (google it), I prefer Al Jazeera news channel as the story is told from an international viewpoint...not a biased western view.
However, this is not about me, this is about recognition of the wonderful educators out there who are in and have been in our projects. Last night,before the amazing meeting that Vicki describes, I also chaired another meeting for Flat Classroom Project 2009-1....yes, we are running parallel projects now. In that meeting was Torsten from Hamburg - a German teacher in a government school with students who struggle with English, and there was Salim from Muscat, an Omani teacher in a government school with students who struggle with English....you see, we are VERY international already, and becoming more so. I know our projects are dominated by teachers from the west, however many of them are like me...they have been 'out' for a long time, they have a refined international perspective on the world, and do not see life through the eyes or influence of a western country anymore.
In fact Stephen, put your money where your mouth is and join forces with us as you are a wonderful and powerful writer, come and help us raise more funds, or write positive supportive blog posts that recognise the work we are doing (remembering of course that Vicki and I both hold doen responsible administrative day jobs and do the flat classroom work ON TOP of this in our 'spare time') that will inspire others to support us so we can continue to do what we do...and we do it VERY WELL...see http://flatclassroomconference.ning.com I challenge to write about our achievements in a supportive way and recognise the truth of what we are actually doing. I will be happy to talk to you more about this, to get the facts of the article correct.
Thanks
Julie
In response to your attempt not to discourage us........it's OK, we are tough....however, let's look at this a little closer. "...some real live international teachers...."??? OK, let me introduce myself as one of these species: I am Australian, hold 2 Masters degrees in Music and Educational Technology (from Australia and USA), left Oz over 11 years ago to teach in Zambia, Kuwait, Bangladesh, Qatar ...and next year Beijing. I have been 'flattening' my classroom by embedding global projects into the curriculum and raising awareness of other lifestyles, cultures and circumstances since way before I left my 'homeland'. I have friends, contacts, colleagues and network ALL OVER the world, I have a 14 year-old daughter who is a third-culture kid (google it), I prefer Al Jazeera news channel as the story is told from an international viewpoint...not a biased western view.
However, this is not about me, this is about recognition of the wonderful educators out there who are in and have been in our projects. Last night,before the amazing meeting that Vicki describes, I also chaired another meeting for Flat Classroom Project 2009-1....yes, we are running parallel projects now. In that meeting was Torsten from Hamburg - a German teacher in a government school with students who struggle with English, and there was Salim from Muscat, an Omani teacher in a government school with students who struggle with English....you see, we are VERY international already, and becoming more so. I know our projects are dominated by teachers from the west, however many of them are like me...they have been 'out' for a long time, they have a refined international perspective on the world, and do not see life through the eyes or influence of a western country anymore.
In fact Stephen, put your money where your mouth is and join forces with us as you are a wonderful and powerful writer, come and help us raise more funds, or write positive supportive blog posts that recognise the work we are doing (remembering of course that Vicki and I both hold doen responsible administrative day jobs and do the flat classroom work ON TOP of this in our 'spare time') that will inspire others to support us so we can continue to do what we do...and we do it VERY WELL...see http://flatclassroomconference.ning.com I challenge to write about our achievements in a supportive way and recognise the truth of what we are actually doing. I will be happy to talk to you more about this, to get the facts of the article correct.
Thanks
Julie
3 months ago
in hacking education conference on digital digs
OK, you make two major points:
- you need an institution to create the curriculum, and
- only people who are more mature and self-motivated can self-direct.
Neither of these is true.
The two examples I posted just happened to be institutions. I picked these examples because most people are aware of them. Because they are affiliated with institutions, they have benefited from institutional publicity. But the majority of resources out there are not created by institutions.
Go to Yahoo Groups, for example, and you will find hundreds and thousands of interest groups where people help each other learn about everything under the sun, from beekeeping to buying purses. Or look up an error message in Google and you will find entire communities dedicated to the software that produced the error message. It takes very little work to find millions of educational resources.
The main role of institutions, overall, has been to act as a *preventer* of the free and open distriubution of educational resources, but that's a separate issue.
As for the second point, there is substantial evidence that children can direct their own learning. That does not mean they are completely without guidance. What it does mean, most specifically, is that they pursue their own interests in their own way. The internet is replete with examples of children who, on finding resources, figure things out for themselves. The "hole in the wall" case is a classic example of this, though by no means the only one.
The form of your argumentation here is that you arguing based on what you believe 'must be' rather than what is the case. For example, consider this:
> But does realizing that fact mean that you will know what you need to learn? I don't think so. Not necessarily. Yes, if someone is willing to give you pedagogically oriented feedback on your writing, you can learn that way. But I would argue that you are going to need that feedback to be sustained and consistent over a period of time. Who is going to back that commitment, I wonder?
Look at how you are backing up your point. "Not necessarily." "You are going to need..." This sort of argumentation by modality may reflect our convictions, but it is not sound reasoning. It is important to argue based on evidence, not 'need' and 'necessity'.
What evidence do you have that you need "pedagogically oriented feedback" on your writing? What is it, even? Surely not merely "sustained and consistent over a period of time." And what are the grounds that show that a person must learn from one (and only one?) specially dedicated resource? Particularly when all the evidence extant seems to show the opposite.
I think that when you examine your case in detail and in fact, you'll find that your reasoning is actually based on two very different propositions than the ones you assert here. Most likely, you believe:
- students, and especially young students, won't be motivated to learn; they'll just play and be irresponsible unless required to attend to their learning
- students, if they direct their own learning, will learn the wrong things, or will learn incorrectly, and may even come to learn false things
These are very different arguments, of course. And I think some case may be made for an institutional response based on these concerns, particularly the latter. However, an institutional response to such concerns is vastly different from the response institutions are currently providing, so you may not want to go in this direction. You may not want to countenance institutions that teach what students actually _are_ interested in, and you may not want to discuss the role of institutions in teaching critical thinking.
- you need an institution to create the curriculum, and
- only people who are more mature and self-motivated can self-direct.
Neither of these is true.
The two examples I posted just happened to be institutions. I picked these examples because most people are aware of them. Because they are affiliated with institutions, they have benefited from institutional publicity. But the majority of resources out there are not created by institutions.
Go to Yahoo Groups, for example, and you will find hundreds and thousands of interest groups where people help each other learn about everything under the sun, from beekeeping to buying purses. Or look up an error message in Google and you will find entire communities dedicated to the software that produced the error message. It takes very little work to find millions of educational resources.
The main role of institutions, overall, has been to act as a *preventer* of the free and open distriubution of educational resources, but that's a separate issue.
As for the second point, there is substantial evidence that children can direct their own learning. That does not mean they are completely without guidance. What it does mean, most specifically, is that they pursue their own interests in their own way. The internet is replete with examples of children who, on finding resources, figure things out for themselves. The "hole in the wall" case is a classic example of this, though by no means the only one.
The form of your argumentation here is that you arguing based on what you believe 'must be' rather than what is the case. For example, consider this:
> But does realizing that fact mean that you will know what you need to learn? I don't think so. Not necessarily. Yes, if someone is willing to give you pedagogically oriented feedback on your writing, you can learn that way. But I would argue that you are going to need that feedback to be sustained and consistent over a period of time. Who is going to back that commitment, I wonder?
Look at how you are backing up your point. "Not necessarily." "You are going to need..." This sort of argumentation by modality may reflect our convictions, but it is not sound reasoning. It is important to argue based on evidence, not 'need' and 'necessity'.
What evidence do you have that you need "pedagogically oriented feedback" on your writing? What is it, even? Surely not merely "sustained and consistent over a period of time." And what are the grounds that show that a person must learn from one (and only one?) specially dedicated resource? Particularly when all the evidence extant seems to show the opposite.
I think that when you examine your case in detail and in fact, you'll find that your reasoning is actually based on two very different propositions than the ones you assert here. Most likely, you believe:
- students, and especially young students, won't be motivated to learn; they'll just play and be irresponsible unless required to attend to their learning
- students, if they direct their own learning, will learn the wrong things, or will learn incorrectly, and may even come to learn false things
These are very different arguments, of course. And I think some case may be made for an institutional response based on these concerns, particularly the latter. However, an institutional response to such concerns is vastly different from the response institutions are currently providing, so you may not want to go in this direction. You may not want to countenance institutions that teach what students actually _are_ interested in, and you may not want to discuss the role of institutions in teaching critical thinking.
1 reply
digitaldigs
OK Stephen, part of our miscommunication or disagreement here lies in how we are defining institutions. I am no big fan of educational institutions as they have traditionally operated. Your response seeks to locate me as a defender of institutions, which actually makes me chuckle. Nothing could be farther from the truth and that's fairly evident across the history of this blog. My issue here is the underlying belief that institutional-ideological forces are so easily avoided, that such concerns can be solved by technology.
Fundamentally I see social media as a potentially revolutionary force for education, primarily b/c they reshape the material conditions by which knowledge is produced and communicated. However I do not think we end up in a space absent of institutional forces. As such I think we need to be critically aware of the institutional-ideological contexts that will emerge with social media, whether they continue to involve traditional schools or not.
Secondly, I think we need to distinguish clearly between learning and education. Learning might be an integral part of human development. I can learn to wash my hands carefully between chopping jalapenos and peeing... all on my own. Education is a social function. It is inculcation into a body of socially agreed-upon knowledge. It's been a necessary part of human life, for at least some potion of a society, for at least as long as written history. Namely b/c if you want things written you will need to educate someone to do the job.
This institutional-educational process has always been technologically-mediated and materially contextualized. Here we are discussing an emerging mode of mediation and a changing set of material contexts. My concern (and argument) is that we cannot imagine these changes as producing conditions where education becomes extra-institutional.
If anything, in imagining education as being drawn into the capitalist marketplace, we have been witnessing an intensification of the institutional forces at work in modern education. Increasing roles for corporations in shaping curriculum from for-profit online institutions to programs at traditional colleges essentially directed by corporate needs. Having students learning through Yahoo and Google doesn't separate them from institutional forces. It simply subjects them to a different set of forces.
Furthermore, the epistemological categories in which we study are organized and maintained by institutions. If you are going to study something called "computer science," how will you know what it is? How do you know you are studying computer science and not industrial engineering? They use computers all the time in industrial processes. How do you know what you need to know about computers to be an industrial engineer and what you need to know as a student of computer science?
Perhaps you are imagining a post-disciplinary educational future. I can see that. But even in a post-disciplinary future, knowledge and discourses will be organized by some means. We can't know everything and in order to work collaboratively toward some agreed upon end, we require a common way of discussing things and some general body of agreed upon knowledge.
That's another institutional force.
Then there's the deeper question of how one comes to desire becoming an industrial engineer. When we make such choices, and the many daily choices subsumed within it as we follow such an educational path, have we not been shaped by institutional-ideological questions? Your notion of providing an education for what students "are" interested in would seem not to recognize the way in which such desires are produced. Even our interests as we articulate them within us indicate institutional forces at work.
At the end of your reply, you seek to attribute two assertions to me. To me, these are moot points. Some will be motivated; some will not. Some will perhaps learn false things. These are already conditions of existing institutions. I do not think that changing the technological means of education will alter these conditions.
As I see it, the future student of this imagined social-mediated education will face two options.
1. Enter into an existing curriculum, established by some institution--a college, a corporation, a religious group, a professional organization, or some other stable collective. Though the technological means are different, I hope we can agree that this condition is just as much an institutional experience as any currently being had by a college student.
2. Cobble together an education from unrelated sources. I will continue to contend that this would be a challenge for the typical student, and I would argue that as long as the first option is available, many people will take it. Some people choose to home school their kids; most pick the institutional option. However, even within this option, one's education is still shaped by institutional forces. In the simple act of picking a subject to study, either as a major (or major-like) area of continued study or as something more short term (analogous to taking an elective), one is entering into a relationship with a socially-constructed, institutionally-maintained discourse and body of knowledge.
In the very act of viewing oneself as a "student," one will enter into an institutional relationship with a body of knowledge.
I am very interested, excited even, by the potential of social media to impact education. I have regularly argued here and throughout my scholarly work that higher education must recognize the shifting technological-material conditions in which it operates. I truly think your replies are misidentifying me.
Maybe the bottom line is this... I will argue that the process identified as "bottom-up" is a socially-constructed, institutionally-contextualized, ideologically-managed process. And I am not fully convinced that this imagined future would be more "bottom-up." The world described in Wilson's post is full of qualifying examinations and accrediting agencies. That doesn't strike me as "bottom-up."
But even if it were bottom-up, we would still need to recognize the institutional forces at work.
Fundamentally I see social media as a potentially revolutionary force for education, primarily b/c they reshape the material conditions by which knowledge is produced and communicated. However I do not think we end up in a space absent of institutional forces. As such I think we need to be critically aware of the institutional-ideological contexts that will emerge with social media, whether they continue to involve traditional schools or not.
Secondly, I think we need to distinguish clearly between learning and education. Learning might be an integral part of human development. I can learn to wash my hands carefully between chopping jalapenos and peeing... all on my own. Education is a social function. It is inculcation into a body of socially agreed-upon knowledge. It's been a necessary part of human life, for at least some potion of a society, for at least as long as written history. Namely b/c if you want things written you will need to educate someone to do the job.
This institutional-educational process has always been technologically-mediated and materially contextualized. Here we are discussing an emerging mode of mediation and a changing set of material contexts. My concern (and argument) is that we cannot imagine these changes as producing conditions where education becomes extra-institutional.
If anything, in imagining education as being drawn into the capitalist marketplace, we have been witnessing an intensification of the institutional forces at work in modern education. Increasing roles for corporations in shaping curriculum from for-profit online institutions to programs at traditional colleges essentially directed by corporate needs. Having students learning through Yahoo and Google doesn't separate them from institutional forces. It simply subjects them to a different set of forces.
Furthermore, the epistemological categories in which we study are organized and maintained by institutions. If you are going to study something called "computer science," how will you know what it is? How do you know you are studying computer science and not industrial engineering? They use computers all the time in industrial processes. How do you know what you need to know about computers to be an industrial engineer and what you need to know as a student of computer science?
Perhaps you are imagining a post-disciplinary educational future. I can see that. But even in a post-disciplinary future, knowledge and discourses will be organized by some means. We can't know everything and in order to work collaboratively toward some agreed upon end, we require a common way of discussing things and some general body of agreed upon knowledge.
That's another institutional force.
Then there's the deeper question of how one comes to desire becoming an industrial engineer. When we make such choices, and the many daily choices subsumed within it as we follow such an educational path, have we not been shaped by institutional-ideological questions? Your notion of providing an education for what students "are" interested in would seem not to recognize the way in which such desires are produced. Even our interests as we articulate them within us indicate institutional forces at work.
At the end of your reply, you seek to attribute two assertions to me. To me, these are moot points. Some will be motivated; some will not. Some will perhaps learn false things. These are already conditions of existing institutions. I do not think that changing the technological means of education will alter these conditions.
As I see it, the future student of this imagined social-mediated education will face two options.
1. Enter into an existing curriculum, established by some institution--a college, a corporation, a religious group, a professional organization, or some other stable collective. Though the technological means are different, I hope we can agree that this condition is just as much an institutional experience as any currently being had by a college student.
2. Cobble together an education from unrelated sources. I will continue to contend that this would be a challenge for the typical student, and I would argue that as long as the first option is available, many people will take it. Some people choose to home school their kids; most pick the institutional option. However, even within this option, one's education is still shaped by institutional forces. In the simple act of picking a subject to study, either as a major (or major-like) area of continued study or as something more short term (analogous to taking an elective), one is entering into a relationship with a socially-constructed, institutionally-maintained discourse and body of knowledge.
In the very act of viewing oneself as a "student," one will enter into an institutional relationship with a body of knowledge.
I am very interested, excited even, by the potential of social media to impact education. I have regularly argued here and throughout my scholarly work that higher education must recognize the shifting technological-material conditions in which it operates. I truly think your replies are misidentifying me.
Maybe the bottom line is this... I will argue that the process identified as "bottom-up" is a socially-constructed, institutionally-contextualized, ideologically-managed process. And I am not fully convinced that this imagined future would be more "bottom-up." The world described in Wilson's post is full of qualifying examinations and accrediting agencies. That doesn't strike me as "bottom-up."
But even if it were bottom-up, we would still need to recognize the institutional forces at work.
3 months ago
in hacking education conference on digital digs
This column repeats some of the straw man arguments frequently arrayed against informal learning. For example:
> The basic problem is that as a student you don't know what you need to know.
People who don't know what they don't know figure it out in a hurry, because (especially on the internet) there is no shortage of people willing to point it out for them. People who think they write well, but don't, are advised of this fact immediately and frequently.
Another way of responding to this point is to observe that what they don't know becomes evident when they try to do something they can't do. As Seymour Papert liked to remark, foundational knowledge is so by virtue of the fact that it is actually needed. And so, a person's lack of knowledge will confront them at any point they attempt to fulfill any ambition they may have.
> I think it would be asking a tremendous amount from students to imagine that they can construct their own curriculum or cobble together curriculum from a variety of otherwise unrelated sources.
Nobody advocating informal or self-managed education is supposing that this is the case.
It is analogous to suggesting that, because you do not want to be driven around in a bus, you would have to build your own car.
Numerous curricular and other educational resources, varying in cost from free to very expensive, are available to the self-motivated learner. If they need curriculum suggestions, they can obtain a complete online course from OU's OpenLearn, a course curriculum from OpenCourseWare, or from a range o self-study resources on any interest site.
Arguments of the form offered in this column - that self-education cannot work - are easily and frequently refuted by the accomplishments of those many people who pursued their own learning in their own way. Calling them "autodidacts" at once misrepresents how they learn and trivializes their accomplishment.
> The basic problem is that as a student you don't know what you need to know.
People who don't know what they don't know figure it out in a hurry, because (especially on the internet) there is no shortage of people willing to point it out for them. People who think they write well, but don't, are advised of this fact immediately and frequently.
Another way of responding to this point is to observe that what they don't know becomes evident when they try to do something they can't do. As Seymour Papert liked to remark, foundational knowledge is so by virtue of the fact that it is actually needed. And so, a person's lack of knowledge will confront them at any point they attempt to fulfill any ambition they may have.
> I think it would be asking a tremendous amount from students to imagine that they can construct their own curriculum or cobble together curriculum from a variety of otherwise unrelated sources.
Nobody advocating informal or self-managed education is supposing that this is the case.
It is analogous to suggesting that, because you do not want to be driven around in a bus, you would have to build your own car.
Numerous curricular and other educational resources, varying in cost from free to very expensive, are available to the self-motivated learner. If they need curriculum suggestions, they can obtain a complete online course from OU's OpenLearn, a course curriculum from OpenCourseWare, or from a range o self-study resources on any interest site.
Arguments of the form offered in this column - that self-education cannot work - are easily and frequently refuted by the accomplishments of those many people who pursued their own learning in their own way. Calling them "autodidacts" at once misrepresents how they learn and trivializes their accomplishment.
1 reply
digitaldigs
Well I think there are several problems with the points you make Stephen. First of all, I don't think autodidact is trivializing. What I meant was that we're talking about people who have had a great deal of success learning outside conventional institutional means. That's all.
But to your other point... I really disagree that it is so very easy to figure out what you don't know. Yes, if you are a poor writer, others may be quick to point out that fact. But does realizing that fact mean that you will know what you need to learn? I don't think so. Not necessarily. Yes, if someone is willing to give you pedagogically oriented feedback on your writing, you can learn that way. But I would argue that you are going to need that feedback to be sustained and consistent over a period of time. Who is going to back that commitment, I wonder?
Second, you're absolutely right that you can gain access to complete online course material at sites like those that you suggested. But the interesting thing about those sites is that they represent curriculum that has been produced through an institution. As long as there are a significant number of students going through the OU's and the MIT's of the world and paying for that curriculum--or as long as there is funding from a government or foundation--then such curriculum can be made freely available to others online.
But that's hardly the same as imagining that one could get by without such institutions. Or do we think that the professors at MIT would continue to develop curriculum for OpenCourseWare if there was no MIT paying them? The same thing is true with Open University.
By the way I did not say that self-education cannot work. I think it can work very well for certain purposes. I don't think a 10 year-old is going to self-educate herself. Nor do I think she can rely on some benevolent network of experts to educate her. I assume when we're talking about self-education that maybe we aren't talking about minors. Even when we talk about home-schooling there is still someone there, right? A parent or whomever. And that person is likely relying on some institutional framework. Even if you're talking about the unschooling movement there's an institutional foundation for that, starting with educational theorists working for universities, foundations, etc.
On the flipside, if you're a middle-aged, college-educated professional, then yes absolutely self-education better work for you! You ought to be able to do the kind of learning that I do and I'm sure you do as well Stephen.
I suppose we might have some debate about the 18-22 year-old traditional college student. Maybe we can say such a person should be able to self-educate. And I'm sure that some can and do. I have devoted a significant part of my pedagogy to having students think about what it means to take responsibility for their own education rather than relying on what the university or others might tell them they should learn. And some take up the challenge. But I am quite confident in saying that most students I have taught are not prepared for such a challenge. Now maybe if the whole system were different that would change...
So here's where I think we agree Stephen. There are some students (more mature, more motivated, better-prepared) who absolutely can self-educate, if by self-educate we mean that they can largely follow along existing curriculum, freely available on the web: OpenCourseWare, iTunes U podcasts, etc. Those things exist because of institutions that have supported their production.
However this is not a "bottom up" education. It's just a different kind of institutional relationship. The institution is still there. In fact there are new institutional relationships that start cropping up all over the place, like the role of Apple and iTunes U or Google and its library or Blackboard and so on. We can also imagine that Wilson and his venture capitalist associates are imagining their own institutional/corporate role in hacking education that certainly will be monetized, right?
But to your other point... I really disagree that it is so very easy to figure out what you don't know. Yes, if you are a poor writer, others may be quick to point out that fact. But does realizing that fact mean that you will know what you need to learn? I don't think so. Not necessarily. Yes, if someone is willing to give you pedagogically oriented feedback on your writing, you can learn that way. But I would argue that you are going to need that feedback to be sustained and consistent over a period of time. Who is going to back that commitment, I wonder?
Second, you're absolutely right that you can gain access to complete online course material at sites like those that you suggested. But the interesting thing about those sites is that they represent curriculum that has been produced through an institution. As long as there are a significant number of students going through the OU's and the MIT's of the world and paying for that curriculum--or as long as there is funding from a government or foundation--then such curriculum can be made freely available to others online.
But that's hardly the same as imagining that one could get by without such institutions. Or do we think that the professors at MIT would continue to develop curriculum for OpenCourseWare if there was no MIT paying them? The same thing is true with Open University.
By the way I did not say that self-education cannot work. I think it can work very well for certain purposes. I don't think a 10 year-old is going to self-educate herself. Nor do I think she can rely on some benevolent network of experts to educate her. I assume when we're talking about self-education that maybe we aren't talking about minors. Even when we talk about home-schooling there is still someone there, right? A parent or whomever. And that person is likely relying on some institutional framework. Even if you're talking about the unschooling movement there's an institutional foundation for that, starting with educational theorists working for universities, foundations, etc.
On the flipside, if you're a middle-aged, college-educated professional, then yes absolutely self-education better work for you! You ought to be able to do the kind of learning that I do and I'm sure you do as well Stephen.
I suppose we might have some debate about the 18-22 year-old traditional college student. Maybe we can say such a person should be able to self-educate. And I'm sure that some can and do. I have devoted a significant part of my pedagogy to having students think about what it means to take responsibility for their own education rather than relying on what the university or others might tell them they should learn. And some take up the challenge. But I am quite confident in saying that most students I have taught are not prepared for such a challenge. Now maybe if the whole system were different that would change...
So here's where I think we agree Stephen. There are some students (more mature, more motivated, better-prepared) who absolutely can self-educate, if by self-educate we mean that they can largely follow along existing curriculum, freely available on the web: OpenCourseWare, iTunes U podcasts, etc. Those things exist because of institutions that have supported their production.
However this is not a "bottom up" education. It's just a different kind of institutional relationship. The institution is still there. In fact there are new institutional relationships that start cropping up all over the place, like the role of Apple and iTunes U or Google and its library or Blackboard and so on. We can also imagine that Wilson and his venture capitalist associates are imagining their own institutional/corporate role in hacking education that certainly will be monetized, right?
4 months ago
in Cool Cat Teacher Blog: Soldier On on Cool Cat Teacher Blog
Are you sure you want to use military metaphors in learning and education? What does it say about the militarization of society when such analogies seem appropriate. Personally, I do not want soldiers in education.
1 reply
coolcatteacher
We use the metaphor of being a "tough soldier" all the time down here in the
south. The other person wasn't from the US. Yes, I could see how some
might find the word "soldier" offensive, but it was the word the other
person used in her email and with how we have to battle, it does fit.
It is terrible that it is a battle to do the right thing-- it just is. It is
tough out here in the trenches, and yes, I said trenches.
south. The other person wasn't from the US. Yes, I could see how some
might find the word "soldier" offensive, but it was the word the other
person used in her email and with how we have to battle, it does fit.
It is terrible that it is a battle to do the right thing-- it just is. It is
tough out here in the trenches, and yes, I said trenches.
4 months ago
in Cool Cat Teacher Blog: Why should I capitalize my i's? (And what to do about it) on Cool Cat Teacher Blog
> But here, we are professional students and one day, you will be a professional of some kind. In that case, if you do not capitalize you will be judged as someone who doesn't care about your language.
This is a very poor response. It is equivalent to saying there is no reason.
> But most importantly, IM speak is very rude to those who have English as a second language and so that just makes it poor Digital Citizenship. As a Digital Citizen, you want to be inclusive and helpful to others AND a good communicator.
I tested the translation in Google, and you are correct. i does not translate as I in French and Spanish, and I assume, therefore, other languages as well.
But *this* is not the reason to capitalize I. There are many things Google does not translate, many of which are perfectly correct usages of the language. No person can know them all, much less adjust their language to match only what Google successfully translates.
So - why capitalize the i?
The simple reason is that the capitalization tells the reader that the I refers to a person - yourself - and is not being used in some other non-designated way. The lower case i is used for many other purposes - for example, as an iterative operator (for i=0,i<10,i++), it is used as an imaginary number (the square root of -1).
Moreover, the lower case use of I, especially in a typed message, could b a typo and therefore possibly 'it','is','in','if', etc. Using the upper case makes it clear that the use of the single letter in this context is not a typo.
IMHO, grammatical principle ought always to be based on *purpose*. Answers like "it's professional" or "it's part of being a digital citizen" are non-answers -- you have substituted reason with a slogan. And answers like "so Google can translate it" obviously have no connection to th original purpose of the rule, and are (as a consequence) arbitrarily narrow in their application.
This is a very poor response. It is equivalent to saying there is no reason.
> But most importantly, IM speak is very rude to those who have English as a second language and so that just makes it poor Digital Citizenship. As a Digital Citizen, you want to be inclusive and helpful to others AND a good communicator.
I tested the translation in Google, and you are correct. i does not translate as I in French and Spanish, and I assume, therefore, other languages as well.
But *this* is not the reason to capitalize I. There are many things Google does not translate, many of which are perfectly correct usages of the language. No person can know them all, much less adjust their language to match only what Google successfully translates.
So - why capitalize the i?
The simple reason is that the capitalization tells the reader that the I refers to a person - yourself - and is not being used in some other non-designated way. The lower case i is used for many other purposes - for example, as an iterative operator (for i=0,i<10,i++), it is used as an imaginary number (the square root of -1).
Moreover, the lower case use of I, especially in a typed message, could b a typo and therefore possibly 'it','is','in','if', etc. Using the upper case makes it clear that the use of the single letter in this context is not a typo.
IMHO, grammatical principle ought always to be based on *purpose*. Answers like "it's professional" or "it's part of being a digital citizen" are non-answers -- you have substituted reason with a slogan. And answers like "so Google can translate it" obviously have no connection to th original purpose of the rule, and are (as a consequence) arbitrarily narrow in their application.
2 replies
coolcatteacher
I don't know, I've been thinking about it and to me, being a professional is important.
As a professional, there is a certain code of conduct -- one of ethics, inclusiveness and also one of presenting oneself as positively as possible. It is something that helps a person become more successful in life.
We talk about what it means to be a professional student all of the time in my class and add to the code of conduct as we see things that should be there. It is something we discuss a lot.
So, whereas, you may see this as a "because I said so" kind of answer -- it is something that my students and I would understand. It is important to deliniate in the minds of students how they should behave as students instead of socially because these are two distinct parts of their life. I've found that this illustration helps the students see what they are to be and they keep coming back to it.
I asked some of them about your thoughts and they really think that "being a professional student" is part of our vernacular and fits this example. I could see, however, how the words I've shared could be oversimplified and misunderstood and certainly, your thoughts make those arguments stronger of why we should capitalize and beware of IM speak in our educational activities.
I just don't think that "because I said so" or "because your English teacher says so" holds water -- it DOES have to be more than just that.
As a professional, there is a certain code of conduct -- one of ethics, inclusiveness and also one of presenting oneself as positively as possible. It is something that helps a person become more successful in life.
We talk about what it means to be a professional student all of the time in my class and add to the code of conduct as we see things that should be there. It is something we discuss a lot.
So, whereas, you may see this as a "because I said so" kind of answer -- it is something that my students and I would understand. It is important to deliniate in the minds of students how they should behave as students instead of socially because these are two distinct parts of their life. I've found that this illustration helps the students see what they are to be and they keep coming back to it.
I asked some of them about your thoughts and they really think that "being a professional student" is part of our vernacular and fits this example. I could see, however, how the words I've shared could be oversimplified and misunderstood and certainly, your thoughts make those arguments stronger of why we should capitalize and beware of IM speak in our educational activities.
I just don't think that "because I said so" or "because your English teacher says so" holds water -- it DOES have to be more than just that.
coolcatteacher
Surely, your response is more proper than mine. This wasy typed at 1 am last night in response to a teacher question and surely would be dramatically improved with your thoughts. Would love to share them as well.
Thank you for your insight. I know this post could be better written and remember that "i" is just one example, cu l8r and imho are all acronyms that are included in this imspeak example.
Thank you.
Thank you for your insight. I know this post could be better written and remember that "i" is just one example, cu l8r and imho are all acronyms that are included in this imspeak example.
Thank you.
I have backup copies, but I can't keep them on the Internet or point to them. They're Steve's shows. As I said, he has the right to do with them what he feels is right, but that doesn't make me any less angry about the reasons he felt he had to do it.