I’ve been following Mark Federman’s work since he published McLuhan for Managers with Derick deKerckhove. Mark recently gave a presentation for TVO (video download) on No Educator Left Behind that ties together much of his work over the past few years. These include papers like Why Johnny and Janey Can’t Read and Why Mr. and Ms. Smith Can’t Teach (PDF) and the notion of ubiquitous connectivity and pervasive proximity (UCaPP). Other ideas sewn into this presentation include epochal changes; break-boundaries and the shift from the 3 R’s of education to the 4 C’s :
- Connections
- Contexts
- Complexity
- Connotation
The recent Facebook study group incident in Ontario is used as an example of Mark’s thesis. His presentation also questions the entire system of content-based validation and test scores as a remnant of the 17th Century that should be discarded. There is much in this presentation that should at least be considered by educators and those setting educational policies.
