EDN Themes: Education & Training
Listed below are entries for the Education & Training theme. Related entries can be found through keyword searches. For example, creativity can be found in other themes. Using Google "Search This Site" to do a keyword search for "creativity" reveals related entries in other themes.
Achievement: Education vs. Credentialing
Last weekend was an interesting one. My son and I spent the weekend together and I noticed a deeply reflective look on his face. As I mentioned before in previous entries, my son is in a four-year Commerce Program at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. The reflective look, as I knew it would be, was the look of wondering about his path in life. Essentially, the key question boiled down to, "Am I on my path or somebody else's path?" I knew his thoughts and feelings were not merely about his education. They originated from a much deeper source: "The first function is awakening in the individual a sense of awe and mystery and gratitude for the ultimate mystery of being. (Joseph Campbell)." It was, I believe, in fact a point of awakening within...
Achievement: Education vs. Credentialing(2)
In the previous entry Education vs. Credentialing a number of interesting comments and insights were provided by Cyn, Rob, Aaron and my son Justin. I wrote the entry in a manner that attempted to link a conversation I had with my son about education and careers to complimentary ideas expressed by Joseph Campbell and Jane Jacobs. As sometimes happens in weblogging, the comments made in response to an entry become the focal point and I thought it would be interesting to explore them further here. Since my original thought was to write about a conversation I had with my son, and he took the time to write some interesting insights about it, I'll try using his words as the starting point here and see if I can capture some of the interaction taking place...
Attendance: School Dropouts, Pushouts, and Optouts
A school dropout is defined as an individual who quits school prior to graduation. A school pushout is defined as a student that has been counseled or in some way forced out of school prior to graduation. I would like to suggest that we also consider the idea of the school optout, or an individual who quits school because it serves no meaningful or relevant purpose in their life...
Bullying: Deterrent vs. Solution
Barbara Coloroso is a well known childhood educator. In Hold Bullies Accountable, Expert Urges she takes a clear stand on the issue, a stand which has clearly not been adopted as a cultural norm. As I've written about before, bullying is also alive and well in the workplace. I have also been far too close to this thing we call bullying on a personal level. But in all the books that are being written and news reports being made I wonder if we are really dealing with the issue effectively...
Canadian Council On Learning: 21st Century Learning Initiative
The Canadian Council On Learning (CCL) is a national, independent, and non-profit corporation that is committed to improving learning across the country and across all walks of life. Within the CCL is the 21st Century Learning Initiative with a specific focus on engaging Canadians in dialogue about the relationship between learning and the community. Both organizations are in an early stage of development and consequently there are a number of sections on the website that are under development. Perhaps the easiest way to follow the development at this point is to subscribe to their newsletter.
At first glance, it seems that the word learning is used synonymously with education and less frequently with training. Since I was unable to find a clear definition of what CCL means by the word, a quick exploration of the site revealed the following structure...
Canadian Council On Learning: Composite Learning Index
The Canadian Council on Learning has released a Composite Learning Index [CLI]. The goal of the index is to "draw attention to lifelong learning in a way that is informative, accessible and stimulates ongoing discussion." The purpose of the index is to "measure the conditions favourable to learning in Canada and demonstrate changes or differences in the state of learning over time and across regions." The underlying intent is to measure specific qualities of learning environments in order to encourage those that support economic competitiveness in a global economy...
Collaborative Learning: Authentic Interaction or Budget Management?
A while back I wrote about an educational environment that led to a Loss Of Learning. A related practice came to my attention recently and that is the use of "collaborative learning" methods to "enhance" the curriculum. The idea of collaborative learning is, of course, not new - but some of the emerging variations on this theme seem to have a different rhythm...
Connected Intelligence: Impact
Connected Intelligence Learning Environments are designed to shift many of the traditional assumptions about education, teaching, instruction and assessment into a new paradigm of learning. The essential shifts are...
Connected Intelligence: Instructional Design
The approach used in the design and implementation of a CI Network Learning Project (CI NLP) is described here. The method has five interrelated and dynamic components...
Connected Intelligence: Learning Framework
CITD Learning Framework = Knowledge Innovation + Network Environments
Connected Intelligence Knowledge Innovation...Connected Intelligence: Network Learning Environments
A Connected Intelligence Learning Environment (CILE) is learning that is developed and distributed across human and virtual networks. Its principal medium is dialogue. Dialogue is always a way of "thinking together". A CILE provides design and structure to the flow of communications and thinking with the purpose of increasing and accelerating learning. There are many opportunities and potential applications for CILE's any organization...
Connected Intelligence: Network Learning Organization
CITD was designed to meet the specific needs and requirements of Madeira and the SRE (Regional Secretary of Education) with respect to the Information Age Initiative articulated by both the European Union and the Madeiran Government. Brian Alger of KPMG Canada was responsible for writing the feasibility study as well as designing, implementing and managing a Connected Intelligence solution to meet these needs. The result was the CITD Program. A feasibility study was produced in the last quarter of 1998 and presented to the SRE. In December of 1998 an agreement was reached with the Madeiran Government to implement the program in the school system...
Connected Intelligence: Network Learning Projects
Why use CI NLPs?
The social and economic benefits reaped by a society for the foreseeable future will be due in large part to researching and leveraging the power of decentralized and autonomous networks of learning in education. All aspects of a CI NLP are focused on observable, practical and concrete results in a project-based approach to learning. The following principles provide the rationale and urgent need for CI Network Learning Projects...Connected Intelligence: Network Learning Projects
All digital content produced by the CITD Trainers, Associate Teachers and students of the Madeiran school system resides on the Ministry of Education website. From February 1999 through 2001, 8 different CI NLPs have been developed...
Connected Intelligence: Origins
Funchal, capital of the Autonomous Region of Madeira (Portugal), was founded in 1421 and is located on the southern shore of Madeira, the largest of a group of volcanic islands lying 1100 kilometers south west of Lisbon. Madeira has a population of approx. 250,000. Its economy is heavily focused on tourism...
Connected Intelligence: Program Assessment
CITD Assessment Report 1999-2000: Executive Summary
Professor Jerry Durlak, York University, wrote a detailed assessment report for the CITD 1999-2000 academic year. The Executive Summary is included here. In addition, the response from the Madeiran Ministry of Education is included immediately following the executive summary.
The CITD Assessment Report Phases I and II
The CITD assessment report was written in two phases. The first phase was written in early April and examined the formation of the Connected Intelligence Clubs, the selection and training of Associate Teachers, school and teacher demographics, marketing of the CI Clubs, and planning for the July Celebration. The first phase report was also used to assist the CITD strategic planning week that took place in Madeira during the third week of April...Connected Intelligence: Training and Development
Connected Intelligence Training and Development (CITD) is a network learning environment that provides an integrated and adaptive system for collaboration, knowledge creation, and product development. In Madeira, and throughout the context of this discussion, CITD is specifically aimed at providing opportunities for growth and innovation in the education system. At the heart of CITD are Connected Intelligence Network Learning Projects...
Connectivism: A Learning Theory For Today's Learner
Over the past several months I have been following the development of George Siemans' Connectivism: A Learning Theory For The Digital Age [Refer: Connectivism: Main Site]. The work being done is compelling. It is an initiative that has the potential to create fundamental change. Connectivism is also closely related to Connected Intelligence as well as the The Virtual Community Project so there may be opportunities to share and integrate ideas...
Curriculum: Breaking The Pattern That Connects
How we perceive our experiences, indeed how we learn to think, are significantly shaped by years of education. These patterns of perceiving and thinking are deeply influenced by the underlying structure of education, or the assumptions embedded in the design of curriculum, instruction and evaluation. And this underlying structure originates largely in analysis, or the breaking down of information into a variety of parts we refer to as subjects, disciplines, courses and the like. Not only is information formulated through the analytical lens, but so is our organization of time so that disintegrated bits of information are presented over disintegrated bits of time. The effect of this one of creating distance, that is, years of education produces an increasing degree of separation between our authentic everyday thoughts and experiences in the world and the abstract and isolated fragments of subject matter via the machinery of curriculum and instruction that pull our attention away from the immediate...
Curriculum: Hunting Words More Than Matter
The Advancement of Learning (1605) by Francis Bacon emphasized a shift away from rote learning and deductive reasoning toward a more comprehensive engagement with the world. Of particular interest are the three vanities of learning described by Bacon...
Curriculum: Kansas, Where "Ignorant" is the New "Educated"
John Rennie, editor in chief of Scientific American, has published an article called Kansas, Where "Ignorant" is the New "Educated.". He clearly points out the increasing distance between the practice of science and the educational experience of science as well as the inability of an education system to adapt. Here's an excerpt...
Curriculum: The Design of the Prerequisite
The concept of curriculum is a commonplace feature of education. Curriculum is the source of design for the educational experience. Through a curriculum design we establish and impose cultural practices that influence and shape the lives of people over long periods of time. Those effects are greater in scope than those that are stated or intended. Since universal access to education is a cultural aim, we can also assume that the imposition of curriculum on people is a cultural aim. However, while we make attempts at offering interesting curriculum design initiatives, we often fail to explore the underlying assumptions and conditions it is built on...
Curriculum: The Double Cohort Effect
The Double Cohort Study written by Alan King of Queen's University reveals a critical problem in the Ontario education system. The report indicates that 25% of the students that started the new four-year high school curriculum are unlikely to graduate. In addition, approximately 30% of the student population return for a fifth year in order to seek their diploma. Current statistics reveal a 30% dropout rate in Ontario, an increase of 8% since the implementation of the new curriculum in 1999. In other words, approximately one-third of all students in high school decide to quit...
Curriculum: The Obliteration of Individuality
Hermann Hesse's ideas are engaging and thought-provoking. His linking of experience to the awakening of the soul is made in contrast to a more commonplace connection between education and work...
Education: Autono Blogger - Seeing Beyond the Confines
A series of three recent entries at Autono Blogger explore a refereshing range of ideas that reach well beyond trivialized and popular notions of educational technology. The tag line for the weblog is: "A Japan-based native-speaking English teacher (and compulsive diarist) blogs on the subject of autonomous EFL learning (aka angst-ridden self-doubting under the guise of professional inquiry)." It seems to me that this angst-ridden self-doubting wonderfully inspired thoughts well beyond the confines of professional inquiry...
Enquiring Minds: Responsibility, Authority, Power, and Learning
Enquiring Minds is a research project focused on investigating how students "can be effective in shaping their own learning." The three-year project was initiated in the summer of 2005 and is based in the UK (Enquiring Minds FAQs). The partners include Microsoft (UK), Teacher Development Agency (TDA), the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA), the National Assembly of Wales (NAW) and NESTA Futurelab. The purpose of the project is to enable young people to take personal responsibility for their own learning by changing the emphasis from what they learn to how they learn. This statement implies a shift in power and authority in education and, like the project itself, is worth further investigation...
Enquiring Minds: Schools, Teachers, Students
The Enquiring Minds Learning Model is the main outcome of the Enquiring Minds Project. It is currently in draft form and the project committee is interested in feedback. The purpose of the model is to provide a framework for other schools interested in implementing the methodology. The underlying assumption I sense in the document is that enquiry is a process closely linked to research, and the paper decribes and extends the popular idea of students and teachers as researchers. That is, the school is an institution for enquiry-based research in which both teachers and students are actively engaged in pursuing personally motivating and individualized investigations...
Evaluation: Testing and the Classification of People
In this biting article Greg Palast is not afraid to jolt our senses and reveal the real problem behind our current obsession with testing...
Evaluation: The End Of Performance Standards
In What School Rules? Dave Perks argues that UK society is, in general, losing respect for adults and authority figures. Given the steady increase in school dropout rates, it is clear that education systems are weakening. A suggestion is made to focus on "high standards" as a means to enforce "the need for discipline."
In contrast, Ode Magazine recently published an article called In Kids We Trust (via Pearl) in which the idea of democratic schools is explored. The article asks the question, "What happens when children get a say in their own education?" The underlying issues in both articles invite us to ask the question (updated entry)...
Homework: Time Management or Time-Manglement?
In the BBC News article Homework causes family arguments a debate is taking place about the effects of homework on family life. The issue being talked about (i.e. - the effects of homework) is, to my thinking, a symptom of a much larger problem that is pervasive in society...
Instructional Design: The Propagation of Curriculum
In education the term instructional design refers to the ways in which a curriculum is delivered to an intended recipient. Typically instructional design is the domain of the school administrator and teacher since they are the medium for transmission of the curriculum. It is important to understand that the source of design for instruction is determined by the curriculum, or the concept of the prerequisite. In this sense, instructional design describes the ways in which information, skills and attitudes are communicated to students...
Instructional Technology: School Improvement and the Seduction of Technology
The personality of education has, for quite a while now, etched out a tug-of-war existence between the demand for a return to the "basics" and the simultaneous demand for a push toward the future. In an article called Education for Tech? we once again return to an argument that is exclusively based on the future promise of technology. Certainly, Internet technology offers potential to provide opportunities to change the design and underlying structure of education, but it also seems quite reasonable to assume that the changes required are not limited to the adoption of new technologies...
Instructional Technology: Technophobia
Experts Speak Out Against Computers for Youngsters -- January 2004 Education Reporter
Sadly enough, educational "experts" are still needlessly promoting technophobia - and not very well at that. There must be something in it for them somewhere...
Instructional Technology: The Acceleration of Nonsense
Elon University / Pew Internet and American Life project has posted an "Experts Survey" called Prediction on Formal Education. Experts were asked to respond to the following proposal:
Enabled by information technologies, the pace of learning in the next decade will increasingly be set by student choices. In ten years, most students will spend at least part of their “school days” in virtual classes, grouped online with others who share their interests, mastery, and skills.
57% of experts were deemed to agree with the statement while 18% disagreed (75% total). 9% challenged the statement and 17% of experts responded correctly by not responding (26% total). This means that...
Instructional Technology: The Psychology of a Psychology Course
2003 marks my son's first year in university. He was accepted into the Commerce Program at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. He's worked hard and has earned the right to a higher education. His high-school average was quite high and he won the Economics Scholarship. He was also at the younger end of the now infamous double cohort. What we're finding, however, is that we no longer understand what the word "higher" has to do with a university education…
Learning Styles: Whose Styles Are These And Why Should They Matter To Me?
In Learning Styles, ha, ha, ha Jay Cross provides a synopsis of Learning styles and pedagogy post-16 learning: A systematic and critical review [free download available] published by the Learning Skills and Development Agency. His entry reminded me of an entry I wrote a couple of months ago called Learning Styles: Whose styles are these and what are they for?. Jay refers to the conceptual confusion that arises from existing "research" into learning styles. This confusion, I believe, originates in a narrow and confining assumption about learning...
Learning Styles: Whose styles are these and what are they for?
The idea of learning styles commonly refers to some notion for a preferred way of learning. It implies that each of us has a natural inclination toward learning of some kind, and that if that natural inclination can be identified then teaching experiences can be provided that facilitate our learning. Obviously, there is diversity in learning. However, to identify a generic set of abstract categories, label people according to these categories, and then provide experiences designed to help people in that category learn contains a variety of assumptions that need to be examined more closely...
Presentation: Educational Computing Organization of Ontario (ECOO)
This entry provides an over view of the Educational Computing Organization of Ontario (ECOO) presentation. It is divided into three parts: a) Presentation Description: Network Learning Environments and Educational Innovation; b) Presentation Notes; c) Reflections...
Research Archive: Education & Training
A list of Education & Training resources powered by Furl, Feedburner, and Feed2JS:
School: Critical Studies of Schooling
The Critical Studies of Schooling Weblog (via Pearl) is an interesting reading journal that tracks the author's explorations of alternative forms of education. I came across some interesting perspectives...
Teaching: Nothing to Teach! No Way to Teach It! Together with the Obligation to Teach!
Here is a wonderful essay by David L. Miller, university professor, that I found both insightful and entertaining. The essay carries the lengthy title "Nothing to Teach! No Way to Teach It! Together with the Obligation to Teach!" Dilemmas in the Rhetoric of Assessment and Accountability and within it are a number of pearls about education that I have quoted below...
Teaching: Resilience - A Teachable Skill?
The goals of learning, education and training are often characterized as being beneficial, helpful, and/or good. Optimism, even when hopelessly false, is easier to promote than practicality. We build courses, evaluation systems and state of the art delivery systems to disseminate opportunities for learning. The implied benefit is that we knew less about something before we started an program of learning and upon completion we know more about something after it. Since we know more we are somehow improved and enabled to pursue life more effectively - at least, that is the implication. History is showing, perhaps, that this is not necessarily the case...
Teaching: What is relevant?
Lisa Galarneau's weblog relevancy is focused on the issue of how to make the world a more relevant place: "To be relevant means that you are adapting to the needs and wants of the people you interact with. It means listening, customizing, personalizing, anticipating , understanding, sympathizing, adapting, responding, cooperating, conversing, collaborating, empathizing, tolerating, respecting..." Providing relevant experiences is a key issue for designers, educators and trainers alike, and in a more generalized sense we are all seeking greater relevance in our lives...
Theory: Learning Theory on a Crash Course
Kathy Sierra's A Crash Course in Learning Theory is intended to provide an overview of the most important elements of learning theory used in her work. The article is an aspect of what is referred to as a "learning blog" in which "secrets" are given away in "teaching people to do what you do." PDF Summary of A Crash Course in Learning is also available.
When I see the word "theory" in close proximity to "learning" I tend to move on to something else. Admittedly, this is not the best response but it is a fact that we have already built mountains of theories about learning. Theories of learning also tend to originate from a small group, that is, the research community of academics. Thus, explorations of learning are biased and stunted by research methodology. In any case, let's have a look to see what a crash course in learning theory might be...
Universities: Carnegie, Classification and the Advancement of Teaching
The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education is in the process of revising the classification system for college and iniversities in the United States [Note: this entry is the result of a comment left by Chris in Universities: Teaching The Textbook]. Since we are presently in the initial stages of development (you can stay updated here: Carnegie Classification Mailing List), it is difficult to comment in much detail. There is some useful documentation in the Downloads for 2005 Revision of Carnegie Classification Revision. However, there are some things that struck me as interesting...
Universities: Duke, Professors of Practice and Strategic Directions
Duke University's Professors of Practice is an interesting approach to improving the educational environment for student [Note: this entry is an extension of a comment left by Chris in Universities:Teaching The Textbook]. I also took note that the Executive Summary: University Strategic Plan contains a number of valuable strategic directions. For example...
Universities: Teaching the Textbook
I was recently speaking with a university student who commented that he may not attend any of his classes this term. This student is in the top 5% of his class. The reasoning behind it was quite solid. Apparently, all of his classes are based entirely on a textbook and his marks are generated predominantly through a series of tests and a final multiple choice exam (which is, of course, is marked by a computer). Assignments and group work have been cut back due to the marking load they create. He would much rather attend and be challenged. But he sees little point in bothering to attend classes when the professors will, for the most part, simply be talking heads...
University: Milkshake Learning
In Blended Learning and Sense of Community: A Comparative Analysis with Traditional and Fully Online Graduate Courses in the International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning (August - 2004) we are invited to revisit the notion of blended learning. Since the copyright reads, "All rights reserved. No portion of the contents may be reproduced in any form without written permission of the publisher" I will refrain from quoting since it is apparent that the sense of community described in the article is not open.
Blended Learning is a term I first became aware of through an outside "learning consultant" during my experiences with Connected Intelligence. She was unable to describe the term beyond the vague notion that somehow "online" and "offline" learning environments needed to be used in tandem. This is what I refer to as a blindingly obvious reality. For me, the idea as it was presented represented more of an apology, or perhaps excuse, as to why her previous ventures into e-Learning with very large clients were something less than desirable. A "new" approach was apparent that moved e-Learning to a new and improved variation that was called blended learning. It's an idea, in this case, that has very little to do with learning, but a great deal to do with career survival. In relation to Connected Intelligence, the term blended learning as it was presented to me was both redundant and flimsy - and it still is.
A while ago, I wrote an entry (ok - a mild rant) called Learning: A Maze of Adjectives. I'm now convinced that we should insititute a moratorium on using adjectives with the word learning. We are not playng with language, language is playing with us. It's interesting to note that we do not tend to abuse the words education and training with descriptors like authentic, active, or the like. For example, we read about ideas like authentic learning, but not authentic education or training. We see floods of processes around active learning, but not active education or training. However, using these adjectives may be an effective temporary measure for trying to reclaim what we realize we have lost in learning. In other words, the adjectives applied to learning can be seen as both an apology and desire to reclaim the things we forgot about. At the same time, adjectives are essential to fiction.
The opening sentence of Blended Learning and Sense of Community: A Comparative Analysis with Traditional and Fully Online Graduate Courses captures this desire to reclaim what was always obvious...
Virtual Community Project: Graphics Exchange Magazine
Virtual Community: Index of Entries
- Introduction
- The Information Artist Learning Framework
- Media Coverage: Toronto Star Article
- Media Coverage: Graphics Exchange Magazine
Graphics Exchange Magazine (4th Anniversary Edition)
New Age Learning Model Drives Elementary School Production of Virtual Community CD-ROM Project
Written by Grace Visconti, 1995...
Virtual Community Project: Information Artist Model
Virtual Community: Index of Entries
- Introduction
- The Information Artist Learning Framework
- Media Coverage: Toronto Star Article
- Media Coverage: Graphics Exchange Magazine
The Information Artist Learning Framework
...The Information Artist model is a learning framework collectively designed, and implemented by my class of thirty-two grade seven students in 1994-1995. Through collective brainstorming and refinement we eventually arrived at The Information Artist Learning Framework...
Virtual Community Project: Introduction
"The teacher, particularly the teacher dedicated to liberal education, must constantly try to look toward the goal of human completeness and back at the natures of his students here and now, ever seeking to understand the former and to assess the capacities of the latter to approach it… For there is no real education that does not respond to felt need; anything else acquired is trifling display." (Allan Bloom, The Closing Of The American Mind, 1987)
The Virtual Community CD ROM was designed and produced by my class of thirty-two grade seven students at River Oaks School in Oakville, Ontario, Canada during the 1994-1995 school year. The Information Artist Learning Framework and the effective use of technology were critical components of that production. In other words, not only did the students design and produce the CD ROM itself; they were also intimately involved in the design and production of the learning framework they used to produce it. The phrase "Information Artist" was in fact the result of brainstorming within the classroom and captured our collective idea of what "learning to learn" meant at that time...
Virtual Community Project: Learning Environment
[Note: The following article appeared in the "Graphics Exchange Magazine" 4th anniversary issue. The author, Grace Visconti, is a freelance writer who tracked the development of the Information Artist model for two years. She can be reached at her website. While the phrase "network learning environment" was not used at the time, many elements in this description will inform later entires on that topic.]
New Age Learning Model Drives Elementary School Production of Virtual Community CD-ROM Project
By Grace Visconti, 1995
...
Virtual Community Project: Learning Model
The Information Artist Model
The Information Artist model is a learning framework collectively designed, and implemented by my class of thirty-two grade seven students in 1994-1995. Through brainstorming and on-going refinement we arrived at The Information Artist model (the term "Information Artist" is not my own but instead a decision the class made).
The model consists of four parts:
a) The Ecology of Learning
b) Strategic Exploration of Information
c) Theatre of the Mind
d) Pioneering New Media...
Virtual Community Project: Toronto Star Coverage
Virtual Community: Index of Entries
- Introduction
- The Information Artist Learning Framework
- Media Coverage: Toronto Star Article
- Media Coverage: Graphics Exchange Magazine
The Toronto Star
FAST FORWARD
Thursday, October 26, 1995, p. F1
Class act Oakville school is at the forefront in bringing hi-tech to ther classroom By Gerry Blackwell SPECIAL TO THE STAR ...