Month: May 2006

Saltwater Network

by

Met with Arthur Bull, Executive Director of the Saltwater Network today and learned about this bi-national organisation that “supports community-based marine management in the Gulf of Maine region”. Many of the issues that the Saltwater Network and the six resource centres address are similar to those that we want to look at for our Commons.

The stated principals of the network show an understanding of the problems …

WHEREAS, the nature of the threat lies not in a single simple factor, but in an overwhelming complexity of factors: transport and accumulation of land-based pollutants, loss of physical or legal access to the ocean, overpowering economic forces acting independent of biological realities, unsustainable fishing practices, increasingly massive and remote regulatory bureaucracies, and isolated model-driven science

.. and the actions are concrete and local:

  • Supported two existing marine resource centres
  • Helped four new resources centres to get started
  • Given funding support, through a mini-grants program to local organizations
  • Provided bursaries for staff from participating organizations to attend learning opportunities related to community-based management
  • Co-sponsored two Gulf of maine study tours: one that took representatives of Aboriginal and non-native fisheries organizations from Yarmouth to Cape Cod, sharing their knowledge and experiences, and learning about community-based management work in communities that they visited, and and a tour on community-based clam management.
  • Helped to bring several new grantmaking foundation into the Gulf of Maine region, both through Saltwater Network, and directly to local community groups
  • linked the resource centres by regular conference calls, and a workshop on developing sustainability strategies
  • Built collaborations with capacity-building networks and organizations in other regions and countries

There is much here to learn and it’s great to know that this network exists in our region.

Inukshuk Call for Proposals 2006

by

On May 29, 2006, Inukshuk Wireless launched the 2006 Calls for Proposals process in a number of region across the country. Under this process, Inukshuk Wireless invites you to submit:
EITHER
An innovative and creative project to develop multimedia and feature rich learning content, applications or learning environments for Canada’s learning communities;
OR
A Connectivity Project which results in the provision of wireless broadband internet access to un-served or underserved communities in the region. The goal of the connectivity projects is to bring wireless broadband connectivity to both public and private sector customers, including learning organizations.

Inukshuk Wireless, a joint venture of Bell Canada and Rogers Communications, is a provider of wireless broadband. As part of the Industry Canada licensing requirements, Inukshuk helps learning communities across Canada through the Inukshuk Fund. Proposal requirements and amounts available for each region are available on the website.

Next Informl Learning Unworkshop Starts Soon

by

Jay Cross has just announced the next Informl Learning Unworkshop, set to start on June 8th.

If you’re uncertain whether this is right for you, follow the links to the FAQ, or Jay’s online audio/slide presentation, or the excellent informal learning synthesis that Jay recently posted. We look forward to another interesting group learning experience before the Summer heat hits us.

Elgg update

by

I’m a great fan of the Elgg learning landscape and feel that this blogging, eportfolio, social networking platform is an excellent vehicle for informal learning and filling in the cracks created by those pesky LMS/LCMS that academic institutions insist on using.

This past year David Tosh and the Elgg community have been busy with several upgrades to the system. For instance, the Elgg-Moodle integration is moving ahead, as is Elgg-WebCT. Other improvements are listed on the Elgg roadmap. Another great resource is the University of Leeds Tour of Elgg and overview of blogging tutorial.

Learning about education in Africa

by

I spent the day at a workshop on education in Africa, featuring a presentation by William Saint, lead Education Specialist, Africa region, The World Bank. His presentation was interesting, but it was quite evident that it’s next to impossible for an independent consultant to get the type of international development work that was described. The bank specifically finances:

  • strategy development
  • innovation funds
  • curriculum reforms
  • staff development
  • library & information access
  • system support units

If you’re interested in this kind of work, it’s best to get connected with a large contractor. There’s more information available on The Development Gateway and the UN Business Website (New Brunswick companies can access this database by contacting BNB).

The second session featured a case study of a new private university in Guinea. The founder, Dr. Malo, spent several years in developing the business model before launching UDECOM in 2004. The university is focusing on the transfer of theoretical knowledge into practice and uses the local community (a rural region of about 2.5 M people) as a test-bed for educational programs. Students get involved and take ownership of their communities and the inherent challenges. Given the African tradition of universities as training schools for the public service, UDECOM is a refreshing change. The UDECOM bootstrap financing model may be one that Canadian institutions could emulate as well.

A Learning + Web Unworkshop

by

Interested in how to use blogs, wikis and other web tools for specific learning applications? Then join Jay Cross, Judy Brown and me for an informl learning unworkshop.

The format of the unworkshop is different from a typical online course or webinar and is focused on the working professional. First of all, it’s based on informal learning, the glue that keeps you learning before and especially after the formal training and education periods in your life. The unworkshop is all about responding to the specific context of your needs. The group is small, coaching is provided and you get to learn from your peers as well. It’s also a great way to expand your network and community membership continues after the unworkshop.

If you want to try some new web technologies for learning, then check out the unworkshop and join this growing community of practice.

Akismet fights comment spam

by

My akismet comment spam plug-in for WordPress is working overtime today. I had received about 1,000 comment spam since I installed it in late March, but today I’ve got over 500 more (so far). Akismet works well, and learns from any false positives that I mark as “Not Spam”, but with 500 in one day, I’m just block-deleting them. If you have made a comment and it hasn’t been posted in 12 hours, that means that I’ve accidentally deleted it – sorry.

Markets & Morals Retrospective – The Atlantic

by

In the April 2006 edition of The Atlantic are five past articles on the subject of Markets & Morals, all providing some guidance as I work on the development of a Commons (my current burning interest).

Henry Demarist Lloyd wrote in March 1881, “When monopolies succeed, the people fail …” and that “The nation is the engine of the people”, in his piece denouncing the practices of Rockefeller’s Standard Oil. There is little doubt today about the power and influence of the monopolies and oligopolies, and the Commons can be one small step in creating our own markets.

In 1967, John Kenneth Galbraith warned of the dangers of blindly having faith in our industrial/corporatist systems:

“The greater danger is in the subordination of belief to the needs of the modern industrial system … These are that technology is always good; that economic growth is always good; that firms must always expand; that consumption of goods is the principal source of happiness; that idleness is wicked; and that nothing should interfere with the priority we accord to technology, growth, and increased consumption.”

The Commons also will be a place to explore new business models, such as the Natural Enterprise, not based on a desire for expansion at all costs.

Another article by Peter Drucker in 1994 discusses the rise of the knowledge worker, a term that Drucker coined in 1959 [appropriately, the year I was born]. Over ten years ago Drucker already knew that the shift to a society of knowledge workers would not be easy:

“It is also the first society in which not everybody does the same work, as was the case when the huge majority were farmers or, as seemed likely only forty or fifty years ago, were going to be machine operators.

This is far more than a social change. It is a change in the human condition.”

The great work of The Commons will be to create a unique place from which our community can prepare for this change in the human condition and weather the coming storms.

Laptops improve learning in school

by

Jacques Cool summarizes (in French) the results of an 18 month laptop in the classroom initiative in northern New Brunswick, as told by the project director, Roberto Gauvin. [Here is my translation – any errors are mine alone]

The project brings people together (students, teachers, parents community).
Roberto’s approach changed over the past year from a focus on the technology to the pedagogy.
There were specific effects on learning, even if these were sometimes difficult to measure.
Even with access to some incredible resources, it was the teaching staff who made a difference, such as:

  • The discovery of individual talents (not just technology related)
  • The ability to surpass the constraints of the existing education system
  • The ability to seek out the timid students as well as the boys [read more about Smart Boys, Bad Grades]

The teachers moved from an initial phase of fear and apprehension to management of the tools and then to reflection on their teaching practices

I think that we’re starting to get beyond, “you don’t need any computers in school ’cause we didn’t have any”, to an understanding that portable computers open up a variety of pedagogical options not available in the industrial-age classroom.

Other posts on this site referring to laptops in school.