No Apple for Teachers

Steve Jobs was in town speaking to a group of education reformers.

Essentially the guru of Apple said schools would never improve as long as teachers couldn't be fired by principals. This statement made me wonder what Jobs knows about public schools, the power of principals, and the actual problems present in today's Texas classrooms. Jobs decried the teachers' unions in a state where unions barely exist, and teacher unions wield almost no power. What's interesting is that Jobs' message was probably more threatening to school book publishers and the textbook adoption process over which Texas exerts tremendous influence. I agree with what Jobs was proposing regarding using online textbooks instead of paper ones. However, I believe that the previous post on relearning learning and creating communities of learners via the internet is a much more powerful paradigm.

Now I have to find this group so powerful that they can get Steve Jobs and Michael Dell in the same room. It sounds like this group was created to support the development of the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills, known to most Texans as the TAKS.

Relearning Learning

Reading this blognote, from www.elearning post.com blog about Relearning Learning: Applying the Long Tail to Learning--led me to watching the video. I was inspired. However below are simply my notes and cribbing of Dr. John Seely Brown's PowerPoint presentation. You'll have to view it yourself to see the Matrix/ Naruto / Narutrix video or maybe you can view on YouTube, if that's your interest. But for me, it was interesting to hear an engineer talking so creatively about learning and how we might re-create our institutions of learning for today's students and tomorrow's world.

Notes: Listening to Seely Brown presentation at MIT talk about how we can support more collaborative life-long learning.
Learning as enculturation into a Practice.
Slide:
Studio-based learning via the architecture studio model at MIT. All learning is public, from idea to design to prototype to master critique.
Slide:
Learning a practice -- like an apprentice. "Moving seamlessly between lecture, experiment & discussion and addressing the drop-out rate." Pilot worked kind of well -- have to change teaching practices -- changing from being a "Sage on a Stage." Technology by itself is not the game.
Slide:
Learning about vs. Learning to be (sooner rather than later) happens with in an epistemic frame -- a way of seeing the world, a way of knowing the world --

examples: Open source movment: write code that can be read, can be understood, and can be added to -- a community
Decameron Web -- Open Review of Articles / work in progress rendered public / Nature: the Publication

Slide:
What creates meaning for the new digital culture?

"Creating meaning by what I produce and others build on -- a remix, open source culture, and even doing homework with IM."

Remix & Mashup - creative tinkering & the play of imagination -- but it is also creative rendering & the play of imagination.

Naruto & Matrix-- REmix of Matrix using Naruto anime series The Narutrix

Not just consumers of mass media/ amators (doing it for love)

But what about Knowledege Production? Not linear but interactive, recursive - Spiral structures???
The rise of the amateur (amator) class as builder, researcher, scholar, inventor -- Example from amateur astronomy yahoo groups. Faulkes Telescope Project -- Students get remote access Set up on Maui

Slide:

Tapping abundant resources of the net -- Open Educational Resources

OCW - MIT's open courseware
MIT Lecture Browser (video) - experiencing the best

OpenCourseWare Consortium

Connexions - Rice's open content initiative/tools
OLI - CMU's open learning initiative
Open Portals:
WGBH - 113,000 lectures, many on video, BBC . . .

Resources galore. But are they getting better? Creating a learning loop or learning ecology -- the diversity of the users gives us insight into how to improve it.

Next Slide;

A Circle of Knowlege Building and Sharing

Create
support for creating respresentations of pedagogical knowledge & learning experiences

Use
Encourage teachers/students to review, critique, and learn from peers' represented knowledge

----> Blogs, Wiki, KEEP Toolkit, social networks, Web 2.0, etc

Re-mix
Integrate local mods/remixes into communal knowledge base

All connected by an Extended Teaching Commons
providing venues for sharing experiences/evidence to improve practice

Slide:

A Fundamental Transition is Underway in this Age of abundance
supply push-----> demand pull
retail
physical stores ---> online shopping
media
. . . .
advertising

. . . .. News in Korea, citizen reporting, professional editing

Manufacturing
inventory based schemes to lean schemes

supply push works in scarcity / demand pull works in abundance

Slide: A Grand Transition (supply) Push ----> (Demand) Pull

Education:

Building stocks of knowledge --> supporting flows of knowledge
(factory model of educ.) ---> learning ecologies model

Informal learning:
Revisiting constructivist learning but now in virtual communities of practice -- learning by tinkering, designing, creating, remixing, and researching

Uniting the cognitive and social basis of learning -- re-conceiving Dewey in the digital age and . . .
Slide:

The long tail distribution of the networked age (circumventing the scarce shelfspace) how do you serve the longtail -- documentaries -- NetFlicks

The long Tail in Education
Leveraging each segment quite differently Supporting the rise of an ecology of learning/doing niches
Ah, demand pull - I am passionate about this niche topic. I want to learn/do more! Scaffolding for fat part of tail, simulation kits (Moses - nanos, mems?) Spikes

Compactness Theorem Result -- Any kid has a passionate interest can find a niche in community of interest - Spike - Group joining and apprenticing

In School Model: a hybrid passion-based participation in niche communities of co-creation complemented by a minimal core curriculum.

But more generally: could we enable recreation to become a form of re-creation (remix, tinkering, sharing) based on productive inquiry in communities of co-creation.

Retired people can keep boot-strapping their own skills through this passion-based learning.

Productive Inquiry -->social networking

When relaxation becomes an act of re-creation/remix & productive inquiry
|
V
Culture of learning -- a culture that thrives on innovation, life long learning, edge thinking/doing and inspiration - closing the inspiration gap. And national competiveness in a global world.

Comments:
visual learner --> abstract thinkers -->concrete doers

Atonal music / Abstract art / Remix of Romeo Julie --> WestSide Story --> Spiral of learning --> feedback

Join the ateliers to learn / participate, stay in dorm to learn thru OCW / Build up the edge/ transforms the core/ Carnegie group of teachers/ learning through stories/ When do you consolidate learning / blogs in classes/ externalize the class discussion for more reflective learners. MITs Portal for Shakespeare / MashUps / copyrights/ fears of technology/ Creative Commons / wikipedia / We are in a age of transitions, we don't have stable genres, cyber infrastructure how to make it more secure/ SecondLife? / MySpace / study groups/ IM and virtual study groups/ John

eLearning Post

I like this blog for its up-to-date reviews of edublogs.

Campus Technology

Campus Technology has a great article re-thinking learning for the 21st century. Oh, I think I have my reference wrong. That's why I have to get a blogger toolbar. There is no doubt that while classroom instruction still has value, it can be greatly enhanced by online tools.

I've found it interesting that as much as businesses have tried to monopolize the technology for profit, such as the merger of Blackboard and WebCBT, new technologies arise that capture our students' imaginations quicker than corporations can respond.

How Do You Learn?

Amazing research is being done about how our brains work. We can now map brain activity and simulate processes, and yet there is still so much we don't know about how the chemicals and nerves create those incredible ideas, images, feeling, and memories. If you have a memory, but you can't retrieve it, does it still exist, somewhere in your brain?

How to Learn

"I hear and I forget; I see and I remember; I do and I understand." - Chinese Proverb

xPlanazine

xPlanazine doesn't seem to be keeping the blog up with the daily frequency they once were. Oh well, neither do I.

Here are some new favorite links to ed sites I try to check regularly.

Stephen Downes website http://www.downes.ca/news/OLDaily.htm

Oh, he's got such a list, I'll have to investigate and get back later.

www.EdTechTalk.com

My favorite new education blog. I wanna podcast so bad, and these guys and gals convince me that it's not only possible, it can be envigorating to converse at the edges of today's information tech spheres.

Of course, I have to add youtube.com

I'm subjected to this all day by my son, but I have to admit about half the time I enjoy it.

And for just the facts -- a domain name I like, www.n4m.com


later, gaters

Changing Challenges in Education: Early Signs of Autism

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/AmericanFamily/story?id=515218

Anyone who deals with children knows about the epidemic in autism and its lesser form Asberger's Syndrome. For reasons that are unclear, the number of cases have exploded in recent years, so much so that some school districts are developing special programs to deal with these children who are often exceptionally gifted, but socially challenged.

Professional Influences

Professionally, I've been greatly influenced by greatly influenced by David Jonassen's work on problem solving, creating constructivist learning environments, and the technology of text.

I recently joined the eLearning Guild because it seems to provide the best forum for reasearch and discussion that I've found since the demise of IICS. The online blogging world itself actually provides the most dynamic source of inspiration to me through the blogs of Stephen Downey and David Pogue.

What do I think the blogging world has to contribute to my personal evolution as an instructional and hypertext developer? All of these people seem to have more time to surf the web than I do, better access to beta versions of the latest technology, and a verbosity that I seldom allow myself.

Links & Reflections for HerDomain

murchisonpta.org
hcitrains.com
redindigo.com

real women. virtual community

A long time ago, girl geeks dreamed of a world where they could go and not be hit on, or sent for coffee. Herdomain provides such a place. Women can ask questions without anybody trying to get in an argument about which platform she should be using or why her choice was inferior to someone elses.

This is a community where women share tech problems, ask questions, and offer their expertise, in a supportive, non-judgemental environment. When we started as mere novices in the virtual world, we talked about avatars, newgroups, deja vu, html, photoshop, ways in which print design differed from the dynamics of the web, and how to find a good car mechanic.

Now we talk about PHP, Dreamweaver, content management, ISP issues, client/SME relations, and good car mechanics. Some things never change.

Personally, I'm a designer who used to program. I'm a teacher who loves to learn. And I'm a geek who wants to play with the latest technogadget. I hope to always stay current by listening, learning, and sharing what I know. And making money along the way helps me keep score.

Talent Vs. Practice

The importance of deliberate practice to enhance performance.Talent Vs. Practice

Learning by Design

Learning by Design back when webgrrls were novel. My sister did the graphics for this. I've always loved her style even though she is not a techie graphics artist. Our styles are very different, but I've always admired her aesthetic.

Learning and UN-learning: Skills vs. Patterns

So often learning is not that difficult. Fortunately there are many tasks (at least here in the our country) that involve little more than keyboarding. But vocabularies are always specialized, and most cons and just general BS'ers often can master at least a smattering of whatever lingo they need to superficially impress their audience.

I believe we have payed too little attention to neuroscience in teaching AND learning. From my Ed Psych days, I remember that creating schema and forming patterns of thought and behavior are essential to learning. But we also discovered that problem-solving itself can become rote, and often a problem that requires a different strategy than one routinely practiced, can pose a stumbling block to less-skilled or less-informed learners -- those novices we are always trying to teach.

Instruction as Punishment

A prime example:

Defensive Driving Classes, Online, in person, comedic, whatever . . . These are rarely fun, rarely interactive (except perhaps, in a classroom with a teacher with passion for the subject matter and an intereactive pedagogy).

But of course, the purpose is not instruction. It's punishment under the guise of instruction.

Made me think of the bumper sticker I almost bought for myself today:

OH NO! Not another Learning Experience!

Rules

Sixth & Seventh Grade Girls' Class Rules

1. Respect everyone's opinion.
2. Listen when somebody's talking.
3. Pay attention.
4. Be nice.
5. Say hi.

Analogies

One of the queries of logic used most frequently on IQ and personality test is the analogy. In Italy, this is often how our written assignments or in-class essays were given to us. For Example:

Discuss the following:

Holy is to Sacred as Truth is to Reality.

Now that would set your mind working.

Crisis in the Schools

Every child can learn. And our schools in the U.S. are broken. I've always believed that democracy cannot function without public education. This show highlights the problems and some of the varied solutions.

http://www2.oprah.com/tows/pastshows/200604/tows_past_20060412.jhtml

One of the solutions

Rigor, Relevance, and Relationships

Interactivity

Can a white board interact? Why don't we teach by asking more questions, challenging students, instead of just presenting information?

It's not knowing the answers. It's asking the right questions.

Technology and Teaching

Too often we get caught up in the latest whizbangs that technology has to offer, and forget the basics. Unless the content is appropriate for the learner's needs, it doesn't matter whether you project, animate, whiteboard, elicit, or model.