Moving to a place of reflection : descriptive, self and critical.......

photos by Gregory Colbert site ashesandsnow

The next step of our university studies 'envolves' some in depth reflective journalling . I have been carried by the spell of virtual technology to a positive feeling place about computers, and I am interested in the shift from describing education in terms of Knowledge Economy to Creative Economy (as Richard Florida has brought to the limelight through his book "The Rise of the Creative Class").

Here is the link to my Semester 2 blog.

CREATIVEBANK
DRILLING FOR THE OIL OF TRANSFORMATIVE THOUGHT:
REFINING DELIVERY

DREAMING FESTIVAL

WORLD CUP SOCCER, RON'S CAFE - AT THE DREAMING FESTIVAL

COMBINING WITH THE INDIGENOUS SHOWCASE OF:

"feature film & literature, performing arts, New media and Digital technologies, comedy, ceremony, exhibitions, performance artists, physical theatre, Visual arts, craft workshops, music program, street performers, musicals and a youth program."

& A YR 11 CLASS TRIP

It was a TOTAL Global Human Community Interactive Event
&
A huge thank-you to 'Sabine Pinon' - photographer extraordinaire!
and all the other photographs contibuted to illustrate this blog.

INSPIRATION MAP
Q3.

This inspiration mind map was created as I contemplated the exam blog's questions and explored my initial responses to them. I had not conceived the openness, the 24/7 engagement, and the way that more and more ideas would unfold. Constant revelation, and though the thrust of this blog is that physical reality is preferred to a virtual situation, I cannot ignore the joy and celebration of creativity, through this medium. It's so fast, it's so clean and incredibley immediate.

When I surfed the web I noticed that consortiums involving creative subjects- the arts, visual design, music, performance etc combined majestic interactive possibilities and the individuals involved, synthesised powerful digital skills.

Have a look at this line up of talent and contribution
from a Brisbane conference in 2003.


& this
powerpoint given by Sara Diamond on an interactive physical and virtual environment created by BLAST THEORY

Blast Theory is renowned internationally as one of the most adventurous artists' groups using interactive media. Lead by Matt Adams, Ju Row Farr and Nick Tandavanitj the group has a team of seven and is based in London. The group's work explores interactivity and the relationship between real and virtual space with a particular focus on the social and political aspects of technology. It confronts a media saturated world in which popular culture rules, using video, computers, performance, installation, mobile and online technologies to ask questions about the ideologies present in the information that envelops us.

As technology and global military needs evolve so to does the ADL initiative. ADL is growing beyond SCORM to provide a complete platform of support tools and services to the Department of Defense, Federal Agencies, and the Distributed Learning Community.

Find out more about this initiative click below:

ADVANCED DISTRIBUTIVE LEARNING

OUR COUNTRY

Q3 MOSH BUS - MOBILE DLE

Describing a 24 day journey on a 24 seater bus with 20 Yr 9 students and 4 adults from Northern NSW to Darwin and back, as a Mobile Distributed Learning Environment could be a "reconstruction error". (thanks sallyd) A reconstruction error being when we fill in the gaps of our understanding with logical, though incorrect thoughts.

However I would prefer to call it the gathering of existing ideas and the application of reflection to create/construct part of an eclectic piece of work. The Darwin adventure's Mosh Bus - Mobile DLE taught me a lot about teenagers (inc. that they are always hungry), how to use a mobile phone and what an incredibley vast country Australia is.

For the kids it was a lot more corporal than hanging out in 'MySpace', a virtual online meeting place. The bus became the Yr 9's space, adults were relegated to the front seats. I pods were plugged into the bus stereo system, mobile phones activated at every town we drove through or stopped at. Internet Cafes at towns were another possibility. That's as virtual as we got.

The bus was a safe retreat when the physical demands of the geography were too overwhelming. Or a place to sit during those interminable waits for everyone to ready.

It was very socially interactive, people had to make room for each other, make compromises, peck away, assert their needs etc. It was uncomfortable and went through varying stages of mess, rough, lost items and reserved seating. Nobody could not participate, everyone was engaged somehow. A sense of humour essential.

Sleeping under the stars in our swags - the night sky was our space and the swag the only personal space left.


Urban Highlights
Darwin's Supreme Courthouse - a very informative tour.

An exhibition of Insider Art from the Darwin jail with the art facilitator and curator being there by chance.

An open air free concert, part of the annual Darwin Festival,
being in an environment where aboriginals were the dominant presence.

Country Highlights

The view at Kakadu

Longreach Rodeo

Swimming in amazing water places

FOLLOW this link to a Class 9 - 3wk Mechanics Course



Does a Distributed Learning Environment
have to include ONLINE
or do we have an OFFLINE definition ?

VIRTUAL vs PHYSICAL

WORLD of WARCRAFT, SIMS, DIGITAL SONGLINES

WORLD of WARCRAFT - A a massively multiplayer online game, World of Warcraft enables thousands of players to come together online and battle against each other. Players from across the globe leave the real world behind and undertake new quests and heroic exploits in a land of fantastic adventure. Find out more about "WoW"

SIMS 2 - 'The Next Generation People Simulator' THEY'RE BORN. THEY DIE.
What happens in beween is up to you. Take your Sims from cradle to grave through life's greatest moments. view what else Sims creater"aspyr" designs for children.

DIGITAL SONGLINES - is a 3d simulation that engages the player in exploring the Australian Aboriginal landscape in quests for knowledge, food, weapons and items of cultural significance.
go to "digitalsonglines" website to find out more.


What motivates programmers creating online and computer game material for children?

What sort of 'culture' are we creating for future generations?

Will there only be a virtual reality to dialogue with, or will we be able to walk in a rainforest, swim in the sea, and visit real people for a cup of tea?

CHINA : CLASS FIELD TRIP vs WEBQUEST

http://goconstructivism.blogspot.com/2006/06/social-constructivismlearning-foreign
is the address to a humble entry from an extraordinary teacher whom is Mistress of 'The Class Field Trip' - Last year she took approx 30 Yr. 10 students to China. Their experiences were extraordinary, and all changed and matured in some way as a result of the trip.















One of their class, Emilie spent an extended period as an exchange student in China at their only Steiner School in Chengdu, and now we have the pleasure of the company of Rui Rui, our Chinese exchange student at Shearwater. Rui Rui went on this year's Class Trip to The Dreaming Festival, she is becoming more and more acquainted with Australian ways.

In the last week of Term 2, I was privileged to be present at a talk given to our College by the the staff from the Chinese Steiner School on a whirlwind trip they have made to Australia to visit our school and attend an Anthroposophical Conference in Sydney. Their presentation was so inspiring. I was very moved by their dedication. I cannot find the words to describe my experience, or a memory of the facts to elucidate the reader. The situations that they face every day with their government officials, their translation of Anthroposophy to their physical and social environment is huge. Much of their effort is in educating adults to be teachers as is in their care and education of the young students. The ratio of adults to students was very high.

I cannot help but wonder how such a rich cultural and learning experience for these teenagers, which continues to build on itself with the exchanging of students and the introducton of a Mandarin language study group, could compare to a Webquest about China.?






The quest was designed by US educationalist Tom March. The students are asked to come up with a policy for the US Government in its relations with China.
Briefly, the students take a role each -

• Business Investor
• Museum Curator
• Religious Leader
• Human Rights Activist
• Environmental Activist
• United States Senator

Through a thoroughly scaffolded set of procedures involving the research of a variety of views on each topic via web links, the students then re-group, discuss and describe their findings: compromising, evaluating and looking for common goals etc. Finally coming up with a Government policy, followed by a real life action to contact relevant organisations and present their view.

Visit this "Webquest"

Though field trips are highly valuable learning experiences, one cannot deny the presence and popularity of technology - the potential is so exciting and so much more at the fingertips of young people than the older generations with failing eyesight and attachment to paper and printed media - the newspaper at the cafe rather than the screen at the internet cafe.

At one the possibilities are awesome, at two the potential for total manipulation from the would-be-dominant knowledge bearers of the world catastrophic : we may indeed create a flat planet.

And a comment from Tom March : "WebQuests aren’t anything new. What they are is a way to integrate a number of sound learning strategies while also making substantial educational use of the Web. Interestingly, while these educational theories have made good sense for quite a long time, it’s taken the Web and related communications technologies to chip away at the Berlin Wall of traditional education to make the above strategies not just good ideas, but essential. If you disagree with this, stop reading now and relax. It’s your students who will make all the adjustments: submit essays from Schoolsucks.com, send each other real-time exam answers by SMS, or quietly sit in class, heads bowed over books, listening to Pink Floyd on wireless headphones ("We don’t need no…"). From a safe distance it probably looks like what’s going on in many classrooms today…"

http://bestwebquests.com/what_webquests_are.asp



What do you think?

VIRTUAL vs PHYSICAL

World Cup Soccer

VIRTUAL = Indoor
Google automatic zeltgeist
virtual navigation
control - visual and sound
match highlights
photo galleries
2d live to air - dark hours

PHYSICAL = Outdoor

queues and crowds
smells physical proximity
noise - surges roars music song
eye contact - facial expression responses
3d live action - sunlight
human warmth
world cup soccer hub

Q2. DLE & ACTION RESEARCH

Distributed Learning Environment

http://techcollab.csumb.edu/techsheet2.1/distributed.html

"Distributed learning is not just a new term to replace the other 'DL,' distance learning. Rather, it comes from the concept of distributed resources. Distributed learning is an instructional model that allows instructor, students, and content to be located in different, noncentralized locations so that instruction and learning occur independent of time and place. The distributed learning model can be used in combination with traditional classroom-based courses, with traditional distance learning courses, or it can be used to create wholly virtual classrooms."


Notes on being a student: a member of a cohort studying ICT and pedagogy in Education

The members have varied backgrounds and experience:

Under 7s (Family Daycare, Preschool & Kindergarten)
Primary & Secondary Education Teaching & Assisting
Parenting

Our Distributed Learning Environment has been our school’s library, its computer network, our Librarian as facilitator, and our blogging online team, cohort, or small community as described. Our cyber space has provided a great opportunity to explore a variety of personalities (eg ‘Kitty’, Jewels. Lotus Blossum, Fish to name a few) and an ‘open’ exam cyber situation. Each blog has presented a different take on the exam questions, a wonderful array of possibilities, new leads and new references in the construction of one’s own blog.

The necessity to integrate our newly acquired ICT skills has been perplexing and kept many of us in a serious ZONE of proximal development, sleep-deprived and occasionally arriving at a true moment of Butoh where real creativity begins in the twilight zone of the real dawn sounds of twittering birds. Hyper - I don’t have a word for it.

More questions than answers have arisen as a consequence of analysing the myriad possibilities of Constructivism. Trying to find a bloggable way to present research has been exceedingly challenging. I have often attempted to present polar views on a topic for example online vs offline – sense deprivation to sense overload - economic homoginised globalisation to human community globalisation – utilising image, text, colourful font, quotes and expedient hyperlinks. Accessing other team members’ insights has been invaluable.

In our DLE at the school library, much technical support has been available, talking to each other about our individual blog processes has been enlightening, and I have come to know my colleagues better, with the usual humour, keeping the experience very social and buoyant. Facilitated group discussions have been lively, and many different points of view have assisted 'broadening' my mind and encouraging deeper questioning.


Action Research

http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/envrnmnt/drugfree/sa3act.htm


“Action research is inquiry or research in the context of focused efforts to improve the quality of an organization and its performance. It typically is designed and conducted by practitioners who analyze the data to improve their own practice. Action research can be done by individuals or by teams of colleagues. The team approach is called collaborative inquiry.

Action research has the potential to generate genuine and sustained improvements in schools. It gives educators new opportunities to reflect on and assess their teaching; to explore and test new ideas, methods, and materials; to assess how effective the new approaches were; to share feedback with fellow team members; and to make decisions about which new approaches to include in the team's curriculum, instruction, and assessment plans.”

SWIMMING - Action Research
I have been thinking about how I could apply action research to swimming lessons, possibly involving the class in assessment of their water safety skills for example. I teach swimming from Class 1 through to the Bronze Medallion. I follow the standards of the Royal Lifesaving Society of Australia –

It is hard for me to assess how well the subject has been taught and integrated, in the sense that it would be only in a true emergency that one could realise the knowledge, truly experience response; to stay calm and act effectively is the ideal.

One aspect of teaching the efficient response to an emergency, after preservation of the self, is the effective use of ‘voice’. I consider the ‘use of voice’ to calm the person in difficulty, to give clear instructions and continue to reassure the person during a rescue scenario to be paramount. Of everything I teach I would like to have confidence that I have impressed this knowledge upon the students. It is even possible for an unconscious person to hear someone speaking to them.

To film and record each child demonstrating a basic rescue appropriate to their age level and then to play it back to the class with a score out of five, for the class individuals to give each student could be interesting. And I think the children knowing they were being documented would truly improve their effort. I would only do this from either Class 5 or 6 – leading up to their Bronze in Yr 8. I could then construct an excel chart – the score out of 5 could apply to a variety of categories including use of voice, speed and efficiency, correct use of stroke and most expedient steps taken. There is quite a bit to remember by the time the students reach Bronze Medallion or Star level and this knowledge will serve them in good stead especially if they choose to take up Marine Biology, where Scuba Diving is part of the curriculum.

SLOGGING AWAY ON THE BLOG

BLOG GOALS


learn how to upload video
get a grip on Google
create inviting blog for comments
team collaboration
virtual dance = digital corroboree
answer the questions
get a good mark

CIRCUS - A QUEST FOR LIFE

This link to an iMovie has been included in response to the physical/virtual discussion I have endeavoured to reflect upon and illustrate in a number of different ways throughout this blog. Hopefully the imagery and lyrics will speak for themselves ("We are the Love Generation" - Jamaica's Soccor theme song).

The celebration of a full sentiment for living life: the child's right to physical prowess, performance, play, innocence and joy............the sun will shine 'til eternity.

Click this LINK to see Gen Y......Because We Can
Spaghetti Circus Performance
iMovie produced by Simon Adams

HOME: 'The Ultimate Constructivist Learning Environment'

"........I could talk about having three children who have spent lots of time on the computer and in the case of Alex the more he had to do at school in Yr 11 and 12 the more time he spent playing computer games etc. "

Father of 3 Gen Y, 2 girls and a boy the youngest Anna still at School.




visit Steve's Website: "Howkins Homeware"



The teenage years are a roller-coaster ride as children turn into young adults.

But are boys, in particular finding it hard to stay motivated and or lashing out at parents and teachers as a result?

Educators worry that boys are falling behind at school and they're more likely than girls to be disruptive or expelled.

Boys take more risks, are accident prone and more likely to resort to physical violence.

But is this new or has this always been the typical pattern for teenage boys?

Click this link to PODCAST from
ABC Life Matters "Teenage Boys",
do take the time to listen to the
whole program.

Well done! Thought provoking and thorough.

GLO BALL ISATION

Neil Clark: A better world is the ultimate goal

The gathering of the soccer tribes epitomises a different form of globalisation

Extracts from Clark's article-


June 27, 2006

"REGARDLESS of how the Socceroos fared in this morning's second-round match with Italy, let's agree on one thing: the World Cup has been sensational. Not only for the quality of the soccer we have seen, the tremendous spirit of the players and the spectacular goals, but for the unprecedented way in which it has brought together people from across the world.

The fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the nuclear arms race were supposed to usher in global peace and understanding. Sadly, it never happened. Instead, since 1990 the world has become more divided, more dangerous, more unstable. The globalisation model that was adopted - involving the imposition of a one-size-fits-all political, economic and social template by the world's wealthiest nations, if necessary by military force - has not made the world a smaller, friendlier place. If anything, it has pushed peoples further apart.

The World Cup represents an alternative model of globalisation, and a far better one: it involves not the domination of one country or economic system over another, but the celebration of global diversity and respect for, rather than the destruction of, national sovereignty. All across the world, people are once again taking delight in their national identity, to the horror of globalists of the Left and Right. In Germany, flags are once more fluttering on rooftops: a sign that, 60 years after the horrors of World WarII, the country has at last returned to normality. The exuberant, attacking football Jurgen Klinsmann's team has played embodies the spirit of the new Germany: positive, confident, looking forward rather than back.

Australia, too, has advertised its finest, most admirable qualities to a global audience. The never-say-die attitude and buccaneering spirit the Socceroos showed in their matches against Japan, Brazil and Croatia will live long in the memory. Ditto the astonishing ball skills of the Ivory Coast, the best team not to make it to the knock-out stage.

My favourite images of the tournament include Argentinian and Mexican fans linking arms together in the stadium in Leipzig during their teams' second-round tie, and a stunningly beautiful German girl, her face painted in black, red and gold, blowing a kiss to the world's television audience during her country's victory over Sweden.

The legendary Liverpool manager Bill Shankly once remarked: "Some people think football is a matter of life and death ... I can assure them it is much more serious than that." He was right. The past three weeks have done more to engender a spirit of global community than any politician, pop star or secretary-general of the UN ever could."

Neil Clark is a lecturer in politics and history at Oxford Tutorial College in England.

TEACHING THROUGH THE SENSES

Within Touch - the internal response to a contact with the outside world
Within Life - this sense is the internal feeling of well-being, of being alive
Within Movement - being inwardly aware of the way body parts move in relationship to each other
Within Balance - this sense orients us to the world with respect to up, down, right, and left
Outside Smell - the sense that allows one to come in contact with the outside world via odors carried by the air
Outside Taste - a deeper connection with the outside world in which flavors are directly sampled
Outside Sight - the sense that takes in the exterior images of the outside world
Outside Warmth - with this sense we are aware directly of the warmth of another body
Outside Hearing - this sense can tell us more about the inner structure of an object than sight. When an object resonates, we learn about its deep structure from the sound we hear.
Outside Speech - the sense of speech or word or tone - which is the hearing that involves meaningful words
Outside Thought - this refers to the deeper sense of entering the being speaking through their words
Outside Ego - this is the sense of ego or I which enables us to turn our thinking towards the being of another and to behold their I, their unique individuality directly

from-
http://www.waldorfhomeschoolers.com/12senses.htm

CRIME TO THE SOUL/SENSE DEPRIVATION

Portrait - 'Kasper Hauser'

“The Enigma of Kasper Hauser” a film by Werner Hertzog

In Herzog's own words, the film "tries to define what we are as human beings as if a pure human being had fallen from outer space to this planet and come into existence here fully grown up." Far from being representative of man in his natural state, however, Hauser was the product of highly abnormal circumstances. He suffered sixteen years of solitude, anguish, and sensory deprivation. Those sixteen years were highly negative experience for Hauser, but they were nevertheless sixteen years of formative experience. Therefore, Hauser's circumstances provide no genuine basis for either affirmation or negation of science, religion, or logic as the "natural" state of man. 

Moreover, the science, logic, and religion that Herzog finds wanting, in relation to Hauser, were the early nineteenth century varieties of each.

Science, in particular, is constantly evolving, religion and logic less so. The science that exists today is far different than what existed in 1824. Science, as an epistemology, understands itself to be always incomplete and in flux. None of the so-called experts of Hauser's time served him adequately, but science, at least, keeps building upon itself and, as a result, its capacity to benefit people gradually expands. Hauser's most "natural" propensities were an inherent goodness toward others and an appreciation of the beauty of music.






A song about KASPER HAUSER by Suzanne Vega
“Wooden Horse”

I came out of the darkness
Holding one thing
A small white wooden horse
I'd been holding inside

And when I'm dead If you could tell them this
That what was wood became alive
What was wood became alive
In the night the walls disappeared
In the day they returned

"I want to be a rider like my father"
Were the only words I could say
And when I'm dead
If you could tell them this

That what was wood became alive
What was wood became alive
Alive
And I fell under
A moving piece of sun

Freedom I came out of the darkness
Holding one thing
I know I have a power
I am afraid I may be killed

But when I'm dead
If you could tell them this
That what was wood became alive
What was wood became alive
Alive




It may not be uninteresting to close this sketch with the consideration of a point of law raised
by Feuerbach in connection with the subject. It will be recollected that he calls his book "Kaspar Hauser. An Example of a Crime against the Life of Man's Soul." The crime committed against Kaspar Hauser was, according to the Bavarian code, twofold. There was the crime of illegal imprisonment, and the crime of exposure. And here Feuerbach advances the doctrine, that it was not only the actual confinement which amounted to illegal imprisonment, but that "we must incontestably, and, indeed, principally, regard as such the cruel withholding from him of the most ordinary gifts which Nature with a liberal hand extends even to the most indigent,—the depriving him of all the means of mental development and culture,—the unnatural detention of a human soul in a state of irrational animality." "An attempt," he says, "by artificial contrivances, to seclude a man from Nature and from all intercourse with rational beings, to change the course of his human destiny, and to withdraw from him all the nourishment afforded by those spiritual substances which Nature has appointed for food to the human mind, that it may grow and flourish, and be instructed and developed and formed,—such an attempt must, even quite independently of its actual consequences, be considered as, in itself, a highly criminal invasion of man's most sacred and most peculiar property,—of the freedom and the destiny of his soul. …In as much as the whole earlier part of his life was thus taken from him, he may be said to have been the subject of a partial soul-murder."

- JUDGE ANSELM von FEURBACH

http://www.feralchildren.com/en/pager.php?df=feuerbach1833

CRIMES TO THE SOULS/SENSE OVERLOAD

LILIPOH: Can we actually perceive anything spiritual in the senses?

RR: Definitely. When we look at a bunch of real flowers, even if we don't know it consciously, in the colors we can sense the sunlight that gave its energy to create that beauty in the first place. In fact, that points to one of the biggest problems nowadays—more and more we are moving into an artificial reality. In one year the food industry spent more than 1.5 billion dollars on artificial colors, flavors and preservatives. These artificial additives fool us into thinking that we are eating one type of food when in fact we are not. A purchased apple pie that needs to be reheated at home may hardly have an apple in it, but since it is flavored with the chemical ethyl-2- methyl butyrate, it will smell of fresh apples wafting through the house.

LILIPOH: How come we don't know when enough is enough?

RR: It really is a matter of training. Think of a small child that has to be put to bed and quieted down because, in spite of being completely exhausted, he will not know how to stop and may actually go until he collapses. In school, children need to learn how to value quiet time and the activity of the thoughts as opposed to merely outer amusement, instruction or command. The problem with not knowing when to switch off is that a lot of the sensory inputs become undigested islands in the soul life.

LILIPOH: What can we do to heal ourselves?

RR: I believe that ideas coming from Anthroposophy are very helpful. As you know,
Rudolf Steiner distinguishes between 12 senses, not just the five that are related to a very confined bodily experience. We actually have a sense for the ego. Just like we can see colors in the outer world, we can sense thoughts, words and so on. One healing activity that we can engage in is to consciously pay more attention to the seven senses that are balancing the five that we are commonly engaged in. Another extremely helpful activity is to periodically make a conscious effort to immerse ourselves in “true” sensory inputs that are coming from nature and have not been artificially created by man. Lastly, I would like to remind all of us of an original exercise that Rudolf Steiner gives whereby every evening we should review our day in reverse. For example, if, through the day, I went first to work, then grocery shopping, then sat down to relax in the evening—I should now imagine and see myself first sitting down to relax, then doing grocery shopping, then going to work, etc... There is a wonderful digesting activity in this.



..extract from:

ISSUE #40 | HEALTH & THE SENSES

Sensory Overload
An Interview with Ross Rentea, M.D.
LILIPOH #40 - Summer 2005: HEALTH & THE SENSES

WIKI EXTRACT RE: Q.1 /GARDNER x intelligences

The Twelve Senses
In the 1920s, at a time when conventional physiology only recognized five or six senses,
Rudolf Steiner proposed that there were twelve senses. Of these twelve, the first nine are now well-recognized: the equilibrioceptive (balance), proprioceptive (movement), nociceptive (sense of pain and wellness), tactile (touch), gustatory (taste), olfactory (smell), thermoceptive (warmth), visual and auditory senses. Steiner proposed three more senses as well: the sense of phoneme or language, the sense of thought and the sense of ego (the ability to recognize an ego outside of our own); he termed these three 'higher senses' that depended upon the healthy development of the foundational senses of balance, movement, pain/wellness and touch. Steiner's last three senses have not been confirmed by scientific research; in particular, sensory organs for them would have to be found, though Steiner sometimes suggested that the brain could be seen as a sense organ for thoughts.
[edit]

The Senses and Intelligence
Out of research into how creativity manifests in different individuals, Howard Gardner described multiple kinds of intelligence: visual, musical, logical/mathematical, linguistic, movement, naturalistic, kinesthetic, intrapersonal and interpersonal intelligences. Most of these correspond to particular senses - in fact, all of them may if Steiner's higher senses are included. Other senses (taste, smell) may also have their own particular intelligences (Gardner has said that his search for additional intelligences continues). The relationship between intelligence and sensory perception thus appears to be a close one.
The relationship can become too close, leading to a dominance of reactive over contemplative intelligence. Thus, highly intelligent people are often described as 'quick' and 'sharp,' suggesting the highly-tuned (even frazzled) nature of their nervous system.


Is there a 13th sense ?
THE DIGITAL SENSE

Where's my POST saved ?

copy paste copy paste copy paste copy paste copy psate copy paste copy paste copy paste copy paste copy paste copy paste copy paste copy paste copy paste copy paste copy paste copy paste copy paste copy paste copy paste copy paste copy paste copy paste............................

MODERN

ISM

culturalism pluralism deconstructionism hyperisms hypa-isms exceptionalism normalisms proto-type ism subjectivism objectivism polemicism devotee ism locationism liberalism labourism educationism vygotskyism latter day evangalism fruitism foodism candle ism flammatorism ignition postmodernism cubism modernism, pointalism, dadaism dante ism controlism leftism upism flatism virtual lee everythingism constructivism connectivism

try this link

"mccrindlism"



Add your own 'ism'......

"The roots of many constructivist beliefs are traceable to postmodern philosophies which depart from the rationalist, objectivist, and technocratic tendencies of modern society." (Can, Tunker BLOG 2006)

Postmodernism meaning and the validity of multiple perspectives. Key ideas Postmodern philosophy emphasizes contextual construction of include:

--Knowledge is constructed by people and groups of people;
--Reality is multiperspectival;
--Truth is grounded in everyday life and social relations.
--Life is a text; thinking is an interpretive act
.--Facts and values are inseparable;
--Science and all other human activities are value-laden.

Constructivism (Situated-cognition Flavor)
-Mind is real. Mental events are worthy of study.
-Knowledge is dynamic.
-Meaning is constructed.
-Learning is a natural consequence of performance.
-Reflection/abstraction is critical to expert performance and to becoming an expert.
-Teaching is negotiating construction of meaning.
-Thinking and perception are inseparable.
-Problem solving is central to cognition.
-Perception and understanding are also central to cognition.

http://carbon.cudenver.edu/~bwilson/postmodern.html

LUCY & LINA DREW THIS ONE SLOW HOLIDAY

GENERATION Y & Z CONSTRUCTING EDUCATION

RELEVANCE OF THE CONSTRUCTIVIST APPROACH TO EDUCATION
Q1. DISCUSSION 4134

In this article, you will see I am describing the constructivist approach to education, its relevance to Generation Y & Z students both in learning environments and with regard to their professional development, also touching on some of the ways constructivism in learning is relevant to the philosophy of Rudolph Steiner with regard to the education of children .

The Constructivist Approach to Education covers a large area of pedagogical research and psychological theory with regards to child development and optimum learning environments. By accepting Constructivist theory and its ideals, we describe knowledge as what we construct for ourselves as we learn. This mode of educations’ highest potential empowers the student to be skilful for this digital millennium, self-directed and motivated, goal orientated and goal achieving. Through guidance and facilitation from the educator the student evolves by a combination of synergistic social collaboration on the subject (eg discussion, negotiation, common understanding), and responding to learning environments designed to enhance:
Problem solving
Development of higher order thinking skills
Independent knowledge seeking
Acquisition of self-motivated learning skills and assimilation of knowledge
Understanding of the self through experience and objectivity
The mistake becoming a tool for further enquiry
Interdisciplinary learning
Exposure to a variety of viewpoints: individual and organisational
The ability to discern true authority on information source and content
Moral integrity
The teacher/facilitator is at once a mediator, a learner themselves capable of spontaneous response to what arises within the parameters of the learning environment – a guide to the students for deeper enquiry and through clearly devised scaffolding, a catalyst for the student to reach beyond their view of their own potential; to stretch beyond their comfort zone of understanding.
http://www.cdli.ca/~elmurphy/emurphy/cle3.html

Steiner emphasises that the teacher: the human being who stands in front of the class holds the quality of the educational experience through who they are as an individual and how they have developed themselves and continue to develop themselves. Thus the teacher guides each student through their own action research and self-reflection, bringing life to the content and process of learning herein we see a quintessential parallel between anthroposophy and constructivism.

Constructivist, Piaget maintained a lifelong interest in the field of education, though his published works proliferated in other areas such as biology, psychology, epistemology and logic. He spent many years as the director of the International Bureau of Education (IBE). (Ducret, Jean-Jacques 2001) Jean Ducret a close friend of Piaget also writes.....
“The idea probably closest to his heart was that educationists, while drawing on genetic psychology and other relevant sciences should independently carry out research enabling them to establish both a teaching system and the methods most appropriate to the goals envisaged.”

The relevance of Piaget’s understanding of Constructivism to today, in relation to education, is most pertinent in that he encourages the development of intelligence and all-round culture taking precedence over the acquisition of specialised knowledge. Generation Y prioritise their social needs and are multi-skilled and multi-tasking.

The lives of Generation Y (those born between 1980 and 1994 inclusive) are a mosaic of different roles, phases and careers. Today average retention rate per job per employee is just 4 years compared to 1959 when the Longitudinal Labour Market Study showed an average job retention rate of 15 years. 21st Century life is rarely linear and sequential. (McCrindle, Mark 2006 see "mccrindlism" hyperlink under Blog post ISM) Constructivist educational environments reflect our times; Generation Y are being educated now. The world ahead requires flexibility, lateral thinking, emotional literacy, competent ICT skills and more.

The nature of learning provoking the desire to learn more inherent in a Constructivist Education is supported by statistics –“89.6% of Generation Y agreed that if they received regular training from their employer it would motivate them to stay longer with the employer". And interestingly the training in relation to work they would like to receive is in the “soft skills” area (presentation skills, management and communication skills etc) as opposed to “hard skills”- technical skills and formal University courses. These “soft/people skills” are transferable across different workplaces and situations. (McCrindle, Mark 2006)

The social learning dynamics required through collaborative learning in a Constructivist educational environment elucidate the nature and individuality of Generation Y and the up and coming Generation Z. I believe these young adults, adolescents and children will need the ability to discern and commit to ethical choices to sustain our environment, both ecologically and socially.

From the following summation of Piaget’s thinking and suggestions in the education field (Ducrat, Jean-Jacques 2001), the importance and relevance of these guidelines in relation to the learning needs of Generation Y can easily be seen:
Creation of school careers - put off selection as long as possible to allow students potential to become sufficiently clear
Postpone specialisation as long as possible by teaching basic programmes
Maximise development of student’s intelligence and all-round culture to assist him manage large number of problematic situations and make a more organic whole of the different practical, technical, scientific and artistic aspects of social life
Teachers be trained in methods that increase awareness of the intellectual and moral development of pupils during childhood and adolescence
Educationist should carry out their own experimental checks as a means of verifying the aptness of methods or procedures to be used in teaching

Another Constructivist who made a great contribution to the understanding and implementation of a changed advocacy for the role of the teacher was Vygotsky.
His crucial insight was to recognize that education should not be seen as “a superstructure built on the foundations of psychological functions, [rather] educational activity is seen as a process radically changing these very foundations”(Kozulin, 1998, p.16)(Egan & Gajdamaschko, Egan & Natalia)

Vygotsky’s main concern is that social interaction and social context, a world full of people, who interact with the child from birth onwards, are essential to cognitive development. He points out that the potential for cognitive development is limited to a certain time span, which he names as the “zone of proximal development” (ZPD) depends upon full social interaction. The range of skill that can be developed with adult guidance and peer collaboration exceeds what can be attained alone. (Can, Tunker BLOG 2006)

Vygotsky sheds light on consciousness which grows as a result of how individual development takes place in and is shaped by: social institutions, culture and history. Part of teaching skill is to identify the particular opportunities of task or activity, and then develop them into a learning experience for children (Cameron, 2002:5-20) The Social Development Theory of Vygotsky has many implications in many theories like Social Cognitive Theory, Situated Learning Theory and Constructivism. The guidance of the child from what is presently known to what is to be known is an important element to Constructivist education and Vygotsky’s view that student’s problem solving skills fall into three categories supports this process:
1. Skills which the student can perform
2. Skills which the student may be able to perform
3. Skill the student can perform with help

One of the aims of the Constructivist learning environment is to encourage the child to reach beyond their capacity with confidence and thus perform new skills with support. One of the means that Constructivism employs to advance the learner is scaffolding – tasks and questions in relation to the subject that will encourage higher order thinking and discovery.

Carl Bereiter is an education researcher, professor emeritus at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. In collaboration with Marlene Scardamalia introduced and developed the notion of ”knowledge building” in educational research. (.Wikipedia). He is one of the pioneers of Computer supported collaborative learning (CSCL). He is considered a modern thinker on education. His two main educational objectives are:
1. To increase the quality of the knowledge the students acquire
2. To develop their competencies in dealing with knowledge as an object.
Bereiter writes extensively on education with questions about youth and equipping them for the 21st Century. He writes “ I have some aversion to thinking of education in economic terms, but the predicted changes to which education is supposed to have a response are either economic changes, such as globalisation and the ascendancy of knowledge-based industries, or there are other kinds of changes with serious economic implications, such as changing demographic profiles of student populations and the workforce.” And as a solution, his whole thrust seems to be: reach the children online sooner ie. the younger you educate them with more the better – it reflects a kind of acquisitive panic in the world to be the most up-to-date with the most of everything the soonest.
Every individual contributes to a growing body of information
The creation of new knowledge is everyone’s most important work
Shared knowledge leads to innovation and growth
Bereiter in making education ‘relevant to the changing world’ completely embraces ONLINE LEARNING with all the constructivist educator’s terminology.
http://www.knowledgeforum.com/au

Jean-Jacques Ducret in his paper on Constructivism and Education Constructivist: Uses and Prospects in Education (PROSPECTS,vol.XXXI, no.2, June 2001- Issue Number 118) concludes -
“ ……….two of the main conclusions to be drawn regarding permeation of the education field by constructivist thinking. On the one hand, this penetration seems relatively ineluctable (unavoidable), to the extent that, as is now widely accepted, the only firmly acquired conceptual knowledge is knowledge that has been assimilated by the student. On the other hand, such permeation is no sinecure : constructivist teaching and application of the ‘new active school methods’ are much harder to put into practice than the traditional approach, which cares little about assimilation of knowledge. Thus the considerable difficulties involved in applying and disseminating constructivist education-financial cost, institutional transformations, personal commitment and various social pressures-make it easy to see how our education system succeeds in remaining broadly traditional and transmissive in terms of its methods and goals, especially at secondary level.”

Since 2001 there have been huge changes to the learning environments in schools all around the world – eg. "Vygotsky’s research" on the PZD and the influence of different cultures and languages on socialisation, individuation and learning in general has been explored in many countries including: Australia, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Israel, the Netherlands, Russia, United State, Brazil, Japan, Korea, and Mexico. (Rowe,Shawn review of book ~ VYGOTSKY’S EDUCATIONAL THEORY IN CULTURAL CONTEXT, 2004 . Anthropology & Education Quarterly.) And further this review indicates that Vygotsky’s work has moved from the periphery of educational thinking in 1986 to mainstream educational considerations and application today.

In conclusion clearly Piaget and Vygotskys’ contribution to educational environments and the understanding of the changing role of the educator make constructivist theory very applicable to the needs of today’s rapidly changing social milieu: the tribes of digital natives online. But there still is a lot more HOW to be explored and a risk of responding to the needs of economic globalisation rather than the intrinsic needs of youth to be whole, that is thinking feeling walking talking 3dimensional, not just a super virtual flat-screened personality chatting online.

Intimate community filled with human warmth nourishes the soul like the warmth of a candle’s true flame.