Learning

Learning

Going the Distance to Calgary

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I’m in Calgary doing some client work where I also met with Camille Jensen, a fellow Informl Unworkshop participant and Editor of the Alberta Distance Education & Training Asssociation’s newsletter, The Distance. Camille gave me a quick tour of downtown Calgary, including these supposedly wind-reducing statues:

calgary.jpg

As free-agents in the same field, we discussed all kinds of topics, ranging from schooling to instructional design to what is the best descriptor for our chosen professions; all in the warm Alberta sun :-)
CamilleJensen.jpg

Camille has put together an excellent newsletter at ADETA (not just because I have an article in it) including a description of Connectivism by George Siemens. Camille’s overview of web 2.0 technologies for learning is perfect for anyone who needs a primer on this changing field. The other Informl Unworkshop participants who wrote articles for this edition include Dave Ferguson (Job Aids), Dave Lee (Pitfalls of web 2.0 apps) and Jay Cross (on the semantics of all this *2.0 stuff).

The newsletter (PDF) is available on the ADETA website.

Constellation W

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Via Jon Husband, one of the creators, is a new website called Constellation W. This bilingual, interactive information site looks at three threads of development – Technology, Economy, Society – that are currently entering new eras. The site lets you follow deeper explanatory links to examine the data, understand the past thirty years, and see what to watch for today. One of the aims of the site is to provide, “A space for citizens to reflect on our collective future.”

The site includes many diagrams and pictures and allows you to add comments in certain areas. This got me to thinking about the wiki textbook project at Education Bridges, and the desire to create useful educational resources where others can add to a knowledge base and let it grow organically. Constellation W is not all that interactive but I don’t think that it would take a lot of additional programming to open it up. I also find that the layout and navigation of Constellation W is more appealing than your average wiki. I’d encourage anyone in the Education Bridges community to check this out (that’s you, Dave).

Anyway, it looks very interesting and I intend to explore it some more. Constellation W could be an excellent web exploration site for students as well.

A few good books

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One of my first posts when I started this blog was a number of Book Reviews. Later that year, I listed some Books I would like to read, but I never got around to reading a single one of these. I did read several others, and wrote about this as Worthwhile Reading at the end of that year.

Bookshelf

Here is an updated list of books I’ve read and would recommend:

Seeing What’s Next by Christensen et al – if you haven’t read the innovator’s Dilemma or The Innovators Solution, you can jump right in to this book. It’s an excellent strategic perspective for start-up businesses.

The Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki. This is the bible if you are starting any kind of new enterprise, for profit or not.

Nine Shift by William Draves & Julie Coates. A look at the parallels between the beginning of the last century and this one. A fascinating read on what could happen as we transition to the Internet Age.

Solving Tough Problems by Adam Kahane. Short but powerful book on working with complex issues.
The Undercover Economist by Tim Harford. Economics for average folks. A fun read with plenty of insights on “why the rich are rich, the poor are poor – and why you can never buy a decent used care”.

A Whole New Mind by Dan Pink. Definitely one to read if you haven’t picked this one up yet. Pink’s book shows the importance of creativity and empathy as critical skills for future success in life. It may have you reconsider your child’s higher education options.

I’m currently reading Ideas, based on the CBC radio program and have just ordered read The Wealth of Networks [The most comprehensive analysis on our change to a networked digital economy. This is not light reading, but is a required resource for anyone seriously considering the implications of the internet age on our economy, our governance and our society.]

Update 2007

The Upside of Down by Thomas Homer-Dixon. Much of the book is dedicated to an explanation of the five tectonic stresses that we face as a civilization – population; energy; environmental; climate and economic. The main message of the book is that in times of crisis and destruction come opportunities for regeneration. This requires a “prospective mind” that can anticipate crises and prepare for them. Homer-Dixon encourages building resilience into our communities and economies, so that we are not dependent on tightly coupled global supply chains.

Informal Learning by Jay Cross. Even though I read several of the manuscripts, the book is much better. It’s synthesized, flows and has great graphics. I am a huge proponent of the importance of informal learning for our society and Jay covers a lot of ground in his book. This is a book that you can use as an introduction to the subject or as a reference. Highly recommended.

Getting to Maybe by Westley, Zimmerman & Patton. This is a book about social innovation in complex environments (our world). It covers the stories of many social innovators and discusses the various parts of a common path that many take. This is a path with no map and no destination. Getting to maybe, or “if only …”, starts with the first step of realising that here and now is the best and only place to start. A chapter is dedicated to each identified step, but these are more like checkpoints than actual steps in a process. There are no answers in this book but I think that it may be an inspiration for many who are on the journey of social innovation and need to know that they are not alone.

How Computer Games Help Children Learn by David Williamson Shaffer. This is an excellent book for anyone interested in learning and education, but the title is a bit misleading. It’s more about the theory and practice of authentic learning experiences than specific computer games. Many of games mentioned in the book, like the debating game, are not computer-based, but could be computer enhanced. Shaffer’s book is really about epistemic games, or games that are fundamentally about learning to think in innovative ways.

As knowledge expands

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Christian Long’s post on the required use of handheld computing devices (PDA’s) for medical students is a good indicator of the changing nature of knowledge in all professions:

Sometimes schools get scared and annoyed, banning Google searches and iPods in the classrooms. Sometimes they go the opposite direction, believing that technology may actually make the world a better place one PDA at a time. Over at Brown University, Providence, RI, the second tact seems to be the case.

As an assistant professor at the University of Rhode Island College of Nursing notes :

“If we had students buy a book, by the time the book hits the bookstore, it’s outdated,” Lauzon Clabo said. “And with using PDAs, they can update their software weekly.”

Learners need up to date information and access to knowledgeable people in their own, as well as other, fields. Textbooks no longer meet that need. Unfortunately for specialists and texbook writers, the digital medium is making many of them redundant. The texbook is no longer the primary source of knowledge; instead it’s the messy, disorganised worldwide web. A similar debate of whether experts and school boards should pre-authorise the content of wiki textbooks went on for a while at Education Bridges.

First it’s the professional schools, soon it will be public schools who reject the textbook and the small circle of experts who write and publish them. I look forward to this democratisation of educational resources. The more the merrier.

UK Debate over Relevance of Curriculum

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The UK Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) is proposing that there be no national curriculum for students under 16, instead opting for a locally negotiated course of studies based on competences rather than specific subjects.

“We need to give teachers the freedom to inspire youngsters so they want to learn, not just pass tests. We also need pupils to have the space to develop as rounded people, and that includes physically, emotionally, creatively, socially and ethically.”

So reports the Education Guardian, but also quotes opponents to this proposition:

But Alan Smithers, professor of education at the University of Buckingham, said yesterday of the ATL’s proposals: “This is disturbing nonsense. The point about testing is that we discovered quite shocking things about how few of our children could handle words and numbers properly at the age of 11. Without that testing we would have assumed that everything was ok.”

I can understand the opposition to this recommendation, in that students may “slip through the cracks”, but Smithers’ remarks are based on a supposition that teachers and the education system know what’s best for students. Here I strongly disagree. The current industrial educational model is inadequate from most perspectives:

  • Schools do not prepare students for jobs, because we don’t even know what jobs will exist in 5 to 10 years.
  • Many universities complain that students are ill-prepared for their first year.
  • About one third of Canadian school dropouts are A & B students, indicating that motivation is a key issue.

The needs of struggling students as well as gifted students are equally ignored by national curricula. Local control means that parents can get involved in discussions about what would work best. As it stands, teachers have no control over the curriculum, and are as helpless as parents and students.

Experts like Smithers do not know what is best for everyone and I question their authority as experts on every learner in their respective countries (see Dave’s post on experts). One cannot possibly set a national curriculum that addresses all the learning needs of every student. I’ve already mentioned how the death of curriculum could mean the rebirth of learning, and perhaps this move by the ATL will open up the debate on the constraints of curriculum.

Further resources on Public Education.

Skills for the New Workplace

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Skills needed by the current generation of students when they enter the workforce:

Because at the end of the day, the future belongs to those who can tell a great story, demonstrate passionate interest combined with the ability to problem solve and ‘figure it out’ on the fly, and who have the audacious ability to care enough to ‘go after it.’

Are we helping them prepare?

From Christian Long, Think:Lab – who hasn’t stopped blogging yet ;-)

“We drive into the future using only our rearview mirror”

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A post in the Silicon Republic shows that Irish tiger has similar economic issues as many other Western nations, and that it cannot rest on its recent successes in information technology. The author states that the success of the IT sector stems from investments in education that were made in the 1960’s. Similar investments must be made now if the Irish economy is to remain competitive. He cites Seaghan Moriarty, “a former primary teacher who also works in the third-level sector and who has worked as webmaster for the Irish National Teachers Organisation and the Irish Primary Principals Network”:

“Not only should Irish pupils be learning technology but they also should be learning through technology. The Government is doing a huge disservice to the economy by having an ad hoc vision. The technology is here and the Irish are just not prepared,” Moriarty warned.

As I noted in my last post, it is obvious that agricultural work has tanked at below 2%, manufacturing work is decreasing and knowledge work is increasing. That means that knowledge workers will soon be the largest, and best paid, segment of our workforce. Local economic sustainability will be dependent on the presence of knowledge workers and almost all of these knowledge workers will use the Internet as an essential part of their business.

However, this Province and other regions are still graduating students without the necessary skills for the Internet Age. Schools still have outmoded computer labs, when no one in any workplace today goes to a lab to use a computer. Connected computers are essential for work today and should be an integrated part of all schools. If not, schools will continue their slide to irrelevance in the minds of most students and many parents.

Current initiatives, such as the New Brunswick government’s Quality Learning Agenda fail to address the critical issues of preparing our students for life and work in the Internet economy. Of the stated challenges to our education system, the report does not include the need for specific Internet Age skills, such as the ability to work in a virtual collaborative environment. Neither does the Department of Education intend to put a computer in the hands of every student. How then will our graduates be able to prosper in a flattened world without even the most basic of skills?

I’ll close with some words from Marshall Mcluhan, a Canadian who saw where our education system was going as print was being replaced by electronic media:

The school system, custodian of print culture, has no place for the rugged individual. It is, indeed, the homogenizing hopper into which we toss our integral tots for processing.

McLuhan also accurately described how, “We drive into the future using only our rearview mirror.“

Update: Just over the border in the State of Maine, they have announced the purchase of about 36,000 Apple iBooks for Grade 7 & 8 students, at a cost of $(US)289 each. One reason for the low cost is the use of open source software, such as the Mac version of OpenOffice, NeoOffice, as well as the Gimp image manipulation program. Looks like a sweet deal.

Knowledge Work and Schools

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I’m finally reading the book Nine Shift after subscribing to the blog for the past year. It’s one of my preferred reads and the book puts much more of the blog in perspective.

One reason it has taken so long for me to read the book is that my local bookstore gave me a price of $(CA)90.00, which I confirmed two weeks ago at Amazon.ca as $(CA)89.00. I finally checked Amazon.com and the list price was $(US)18.97, so I purchased the book from the USA. When I received it, the jacket price was “USA $29.00 – Canada $34.00 (go figure).

I won’t do a complete review now, but I highly recommend this book, which describes how 75% of our working days (nine hours out of twelve) will radically change by the year 2020. The signs are all here.

Shift One is that “People Work at Home”. As we shift from the Industrial Age to the Internet Age over the next decade, there will be more knowledge than manufacturing workers. I really like the definition of a knowledge worker, as it does not equate to someone working in an office.

Knowledge workers:

1. Are paid by their outcomes, what they produce, not by the time they devote.

2. Are only paid for products or projects that are valuable to the organization for which they work.

3. Bring something unique to the organization for which they work. Their value is not in being like other workers, but in being different.

4. Have a marketable set of skills.

If this shift to knowledge work is a certainty, and I believe it is, then our education system is woefully inadequate for what will be the majority of the workforce. Our schools are still designed for declining and soon-to-be-obsolesced factory workers. Teachers and students are not rewarded according to measurable outcomes; if they were, many teachers would not get paid, some students would graduate in less than 12 years and others would never complete their schooling. Students are not valued for being different but for conforming to the standard curriculum. Many, if not most, teachers are fearful of Internet technologies even though most high-paid work already requires Internet savvy. This is most evident with boys:

The Internet terrifies most teachers, and some boys know more about the Internet than do many educators. Boys also exhibit those accompanying attributes which go with a future dominated by the Internet, like taking risks, being entrepreneurial, and being collaborative. Thus they are leading society into the Internet age.

The one-size-fits-all school is a twelve-year sentence with no eligibility for parole, but the good news is that as the workforce changes there will be demands for more relevance in the education system and it will change. Unfortunately for those with children in our current outdated education system (as the one room schoolhouse was outdated 100 years ago), we have to work with what we have. So how do we keep our children motivated and help them develop skills for the Internet Age, when we all know that the education system is obsolete?

Another factor in selecting a university

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Last night a number of fourth year veterinary medicine students from AVC visited us at the Atlantic Wildlife Institute. They were a very keen and motivated group, ready to embark on their new careers. This morning, faculty at the University of Prince Edward Island (where AVC is located) went on strike. Many of these students are only weeks away from graduation and some of them feared, with reason, that their final courses may not be credited and that they may not be able to graduate.

A couple of things have struck me since. First, I’m wondering how long the university monopoly can insist on payment of tuition up front, without a requirement for delivery of the service. If students were able to withhold some of their tuition fees until the course is actually completed, then they too would have some leverage in these events. As it stands, they are helpless bystanders. Secondly, I’m thinking about the time when we decide which university may be best for our children. One factor that I had not considered was the state of the collective agreement at any given institution. Knowing that a contract may be renegotiated during one’s period of study may have you reconsider a certain university. I know that I will use this as factor in evaluating universities, especially since our local university has had a few strikes in recent memory.

Does anyone know of a database that shows when university/college collective agreements are up for negotiation? Would it be a relatively simple bit of programming to create a wiki/matrix/DB to which this kind of information could be added? Perhaps this could be an additional service of Rate My Professor.

“Let them manage themselves”

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In a recent post on Learners as Contributors, which received some good comments, Bill Fitzgerald said that:

True student-centered teaching takes more preparation than traditional lecture because the teacher needs to be prepared for whatever outcome organically arises. Really, it requires an openness to possibility that many teachers feel uncomfortable with because they labor under the paradigm that they need to be the expert in any subject covered in their classroom. True student-centered teaching also requires teachers to explicitly teach critical thinking skills, media evaluation skills (a must for internet-based research), and a host of other skills that are necessary for life but are not directly measurable on a standardized test.

This got me to wondering about curriculum, such as Brian Alger’s comment that “Curriculum is a solution to a problem we created.” I also started thinking about the barnraising exercise that Dave is hosting on new media curriculum creation. I believe that it’s a good exercise but there is a more fundamental issue that really interests me.

What would a curriculum look like if you eliminated any specific CONTENT and any reference to particular TECHNOLOGIES and instead focused on universal cognitive PROCESSES? Many varieties of this “curriculum” could be created, using various content areas or communication technologies. I imagine a curriculum that is open to teachers’ expertise and learners’ needs, based on processes like:

  • Critical thinking
  • Problem solving, individually and as part of a group
  • Narrative development
  • Media analysis & critique
  • Self-expression
  • etc. (please add more)

What would be different about this more basic curriculum is that learners would be able to choose how they would learn these process skills and how they would show mastery. Self-expression could be shown through writing, blogging, art or mechanics. This approach would also free up a whole bunch of teachers in administrative curriculum development positions ;-)

Given the expanding amount of information and media that is available through the Internet, access to material should not be an issue. Of course, teachers would need to develop new skills, but just imagine what learners could achieve. As John Taylor Gatto wrote in Harper’s a few years ago:

After a long life, and thirty years in the public school trenches, I’ve concluded that genius is as common as dirt. We suppress our genius only because we haven’t yet figured out how to manage a population of educated men and women. The solution, I think, is simple and glorious. Let them manage themselves.