Comments on: The New Bottom-up Authority http://www.ed4wb.org/?p=164 Education as if people and the planet mattered Tue, 07 Sep 2010 13:51:59 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8 hourly 1 By: ClioWeb Blog Archive » Academic Technology Goals for Higher Education http://www.ed4wb.org/?p=164&cpage=1#comment-178 ClioWeb Blog Archive » Academic Technology Goals for Higher Education Thu, 12 Mar 2009 17:15:49 +0000 http://www.ed4wb.org/?p=164#comment-178 [...] learning environments that are not isolated from the rest of the world, but rather expand through a bottom-up approach. While I really like the potential for learning in a world without walls, I think there are some [...] [...] learning environments that are not isolated from the rest of the world, but rather expand through a bottom-up approach. While I really like the potential for learning in a world without walls, I think there are some [...]

]]> By: Sarah http://www.ed4wb.org/?p=164&cpage=1#comment-177 Sarah Fri, 06 Feb 2009 02:07:33 +0000 http://www.ed4wb.org/?p=164#comment-177 You write <i>"most teachers today underestimate the amount of learning that is happening among youth outside of schools"</i> I couldn't agree more. We're (I'm a teacher) becoming increasingly irrelevant to what students consider meaningful and real and we don't even know it. K-12 schools have been disrespecting, dropping, and devaluing courses that teach students how to actually do something for at least two decades now, and not just in the vocational education arena. Why is studying literature worth 3 or 4 years of study, but creating it is just a semester elective? New technologies have given more students the opportunity to find mentors and peer-teaching communities. The tragedy to me is not the drop outs, but the ones who show up everyday, do what's asked, but are quietly, desperately, being spiritually crushed. Thanks Bill, I think. I'm feeling a little despair myself at the moment. Sarah You write “most teachers today underestimate the amount of learning that is happening among youth outside of schools”
I couldn’t agree more. We’re (I’m a teacher) becoming increasingly irrelevant to what students consider meaningful and real and we don’t even know it. K-12 schools have been disrespecting, dropping, and devaluing courses that teach students how to actually do something for at least two decades now, and not just in the vocational education arena. Why is studying literature worth 3 or 4 years of study, but creating it is just a semester elective?

New technologies have given more students the opportunity to find mentors and peer-teaching communities. The tragedy to me is not the drop outs, but the ones who show up everyday, do what’s asked, but are quietly, desperately, being spiritually crushed.

Thanks Bill, I think. I’m feeling a little despair myself at the moment.
Sarah

]]> By: Bill Farren http://www.ed4wb.org/?p=164&cpage=1#comment-175 Bill Farren Fri, 30 Jan 2009 12:03:12 +0000 http://www.ed4wb.org/?p=164#comment-175 Charlie: Agreed. I think the trick these days is to figure out what factual material to teach and then how to go about finding and developing knowledge that we haven't memorized/don't know yet. I'd rather learn how to do that than memorize a bunch of dates and other edutrivia. Given, who decides what's trivial? Thanks for the vid reference. Will check it out. Charlie: Agreed. I think the trick these days is to figure out what factual material to teach and then how to go about finding and developing knowledge that we haven’t memorized/don’t know yet. I’d rather learn how to do that than memorize a bunch of dates and other edutrivia. Given, who decides what’s trivial?
Thanks for the vid reference. Will check it out.

]]> By: Charlie A. Roy http://www.ed4wb.org/?p=164&cpage=1#comment-176 Charlie A. Roy Tue, 27 Jan 2009 11:25:51 +0000 http://www.ed4wb.org/?p=164#comment-176 @ Bill A well-stated post. Perhaps the biggest innovation besides increased connectivity that the technology revolution has brought is the presence of ubiquitous knowledge. Information is no longer scarce so the teacher as the "giver of knowledge" has become an out dated and inefficient modality. Alan November has a video on his page about how even in some of the nation's top prep schools the bulk of learning goes on with students in informal group settings. @ Bill
A well-stated post. Perhaps the biggest innovation besides increased connectivity that the technology revolution has brought is the presence of ubiquitous knowledge. Information is no longer scarce so the teacher as the “giver of knowledge” has become an out dated and inefficient modality. Alan November has a video on his page about how even in some of the nation’s top prep schools the bulk of learning goes on with students in informal group settings.

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