Brilliant

New Blog

I set up another blog that is capturing some of my thoughts and research on elearning. I think you will find some of the posts interesting especially when it comes to collaborative learning

Top 100 Education Blogs

This is a must read post. If you have a feedreader take the time to populate it for all you are worth...

From a research perspective it doesn't come better than this

Roundsquare

A lady in Toronto called Linda Rosier that helped with some if the Ireland Fund program last year at Muskoka Woods was telling me about Roundsquare and what the school network stands for. Have a read at the website and let me know what you think. She is friends with these folks and mentioned connecting me for a conversation.

The other group she mentioned was free the children
This organization was started by a canadian guy and is growing substantially

Let me know what you think after you have a good read

Mark

FEAR IN THE CLASSROOM

Being a parent of a child who has just started school, I am surprised at the feeling of fear that I have regarding his pathway through the educational system. Will he fit in, what if he doesn’t keep up with the rest of the class, how will he cope with the workload. All reasonable and healthy fears for a first time parent, I thought.

Then I reflected on my years as a school-teacher and talking with the new intakes about their fears with moving into high school. Again similar issues coming up centering around belonging and behaving. Lots of questions about the ‘what if’s’ dominating their thoughts, taking away from the joy of moving through into a new phase in their life.

Recently I have been thinking about the climate of fear that pervades our education system of parents, pupils and teachers. A recent piece of research commented that over 51% of teachers provide their students in the UK with detailed essay plans for major state exams at the age of 16. Over 90% of surveyed teachers admitted that they would return coursework to students for a redraft in an attempt to improve grades. The era of league tables, age-group testing and a drive for some form of universal indicators have ensured that our teachers now operate in an atmosphere of fear. The class with the lowest grades is going to have the teacher called into question. The narrow critieria that is assessed through coursework and timed exams provides little room for innovation and creativity within the classroom.

Teachers who live under the cloud of exam results operate out of a fear for their professional reputation which breeds mistrust in a system, de-motivates the teaching profession and creates a must do better ethos. Society today is moving at such extreme paces today that to allow students to draft and re-draft work places them at a disadvantage in the workplace. Fear needs to be faced and teachers need the courage and skills to stand resolute at a time when the system wishes to force them to ‘play the game’.

Education and the longtail

I thouth that this one on Rob Paterson's blog was interesting enough to log for us

Learning and Social Networking

I think one of the key changes we need to consider over the next season as we develop new ways of enhancing learning is to recognize how learning happens naturally outside of the classroom. Bob Carlton fired me over a link which is a discussion with Danah Boyd. Here is the blurb about her:

boyd, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of California, Berkeley's School of Information, explores how young people negotiate the presentation of self in online mediated contexts. Her research focuses on how this young audience engages with "digital publics" - connected social spaces such as MySpace, LiveJournal, Xanga and YouTube.

Global Change

This is a video Adrian shared with the group about education. There is a lot more to watch so I thought I would log it for further reference

Course Design

I have justed added another category into the blog under eLearning. I think that we need to consider some more of the options and learn the trends with this as it is being reformed via some of the influence of social networks. There is a very interesting article on Tong Karrer's blog about course design that highlights the common mistakes of what is happening at the moment within many of the eLearning solutions.

Teaching or Learning?

I have been sitting here with the feet up reading “the answer to how is yes” by Peter Block. The book is leading me to think and reflect on all of the measurable things we get focused on in life. One of the things that I am pondering is education and learning. In some of our own conversations we have been questioning whether the current testing methods are effective and the best thing for children and youth which I would like to continue in here in this blog post.

What I am pondering is what is it that really lies behind testing? Is it to show who is better than another? Who is smarter than another? Who is harder working than another? Is it about measurements and statistics that can be reported back to authorities to maintain funding? Or is it about motivating children and youth to study and learn?

I suppose in some ways we cannot just choose one of the drivers and say “that’s it” but rather choose to explore each one as depending on what angle we come from we can find each present. I want to consider the last one listed which is whether one of the drivers behind testing is to motivate children and youth to study and learn more.

If this is the case then it seems quite sad that the modern world lost hope in people and in the natural passion and desire each person has to live and succeed. I have studied Douglas McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y with a corporate or workplace lense and am only thinking about it now within the context of learning institutions.

In his book, "The Human Side of Enterprise" (1960) Douglas McGregor examined theories on behavior of individuals at work, and he has formulated two models which he calls Theory X and Theory Y.

Theory X Assumptions

• The average human being has an inherent dislike of work and will avoid it if he can.
• Because of their dislike for work, most people must be controlled and threatened before they will work hard enough.
• The average human prefers to be directed, dislikes responsibility, is unambiguous, and desires security above everything.
• These assumptions lie behind most organizational principles today, and give rise both to "tough" management with punishments and tight controls, and "soft" management which aims at harmony at work.
• Both these are "wrong" because man needs more than financial rewards at work, he also needs some deeper higher order motivation - the opportunity to fulfill himself.
• Theory X managers do not give their staff this opportunity so that the employees behave in the expected fashion.

Theory Y Assumptions

• The expenditure of physical and mental effort in work is as natural as play or rest.
• Control and punishment are not the only ways to make people work, man will direct himself if he is committed to the aims of the organization.
• If a job is satisfying, then the result will be commitment to the organization.
• The average man learns, under proper conditions, not only to accept but to seek responsibility.
• Imagination, creativity, and ingenuity can be used to solve work problems by a large number of employees.
• Under the conditions of modern industrial life, the intellectual potentialities of the average man are only partially utilized.

When considering the theory X and Y assumptions it would appear reasonable to say that the current school systems at large are founded more on the assumptions of Theory X. This can be seen from the strict timing and bells to the formal seating in a classroom. My son Shaughan just turned 6 and his lunch break is from 12.39pm to 1.28pm. I think this is utterly daft. As if the one minute at each end really makes a difference. I don’t know how it works at home with you but precise timing hit the wall years ago. What is this doing to how a child views the day and what is important?

I do realize that children have a lot to learn and they need boundaries and limitations but this is more like a sandbox than a set of rules. Because of this perception/view teachers have been turned into managers instead of educators of facilitators of learning.

Many teachers are more focused on making sure they have delivered the curriculum that is the “right” and “proven” way to teach as if all children where the same. This is not a rant on teachers but rather a challenge to the institution to think about how they are thinking. When a group of people agree that there is a right and best practice of teaching then anyone who does not comply is seen as dysfunctional. The people who do not succeed in this system are seen as the “others” or outsiders. More effort rules and regulations are then established to make the dysfunctional more functional. The energy is focused on changing the children to fit within the establishment and to meet the institutions goals.

What would it be like if schools and learning institutions began to lie closer to the assumptions of theory Y? If teachers began to believe that all children want to learn and succeed and be their best then I believe that when a certain child was not learning the teacher would stand back and change their approach as many times as was necessary until the child learned.

The more that a teacher can believe that every child has a unique contribution and inner mission I believe that they will find the inner resource and commitment to become curious and flexible to help each succeed. This would allow the secondary non-test related measurables to come to the fore.

More later…

Coaching Youth

Let's get a bit of discussion going here. If youthworkers and teachers learned the art of coaching youth what would happen? What would it look like? What would be better that what exists today?

Mark Dowds