Wednesday, March 31, 2010

In PBL land: about to launch i...

In PBL land: about to launch integrative investigations using Basecamp. Server is set for Internet radio!

Friday, March 26, 2010

Youth Activism/Climate Change

Just saw the most inspiring presentation on youth activism and climate change/sustainability/transition!  500+ young people rapt.


Thursday, March 25, 2010

How are we hearing young people?

How do you hear young people? 

This morning my boys were in beautiful chaos, you all know it, chaos.  My response to this state of affairs was serendipitous. 

I smiled.  I deeply smiled about their chaos; and it was stunning.  Not stunning because I shun chaos, quite the opposite.  Stunning because I noticed and was so exhilarated.

Then, I started to think about my interactions with young people day in day out, project to project and their chaos.  I need to appreciate it more.  I certainly honor young people in spaces where the messiness of learning is very obvious. But I will now be listening to their chaos for what it is, youth energy, laughter, and yes soul. 

Let's work tirelessly to create learning spaces where we can hear young people. When we hear young people we learn so much. 

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Imagining New North American Spaces

Have a project in mind that may help young people of North America critically look at our collective histories: indigene and settler (European, Metis, African, Asian, Latin....).  What is our place? What do you consider your place?  Is it sustainable, is it resilient, is it open to change, is it wild?

Will be building out my wiki f...

Will be building out my wiki for the spring@http://bit.ly/bx85zw, as projects take flight I will tend with more rigor.

@hartastic My comments will be...

@hartastic My comments will be heard!

Students using google calendar...

Students using google calendars for project management. Leaning toward basecamp http://bit.ly/9piKPi for next year

Huge motion in current integra...

Huge motion in current integrative projects! I can see them taking control! Scaffold again and again, add culture....

Monday, March 22, 2010

Portland Maine teaching and le...

Portland Maine teaching and learning for an interdependent world! http://bit.ly/cvfqO0

Sunday, March 21, 2010

New project with a course sail...

New project with a course sailing! I have been guiding only/truly integrative, now, on to democracy....

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Discussions! RT @BIEPBL: #pbl ...

Discussions! RT @BIEPBL: #pbl Read BIE National Faculty member Suzy Boss's thoughts about 21st century project design http://bit.ly/d0O1IG

Sharon,Josh,Alex?RT @gsiemens:...

Sharon,Josh,Alex?RT @gsiemens: RT @RichWhite: Educational institutions: Get your discounted iPad 10-pack http://bit.ly/bsuira

Thursday, March 18, 2010

The Place in New eLEarning Environments

Just finished reading Siemens, blog post Changing the System at a National Level and am struck by the excellent writing and insight.  Especially rich is his discourse on blending technology, with learning spaces. I consider the place based component of learning, that which is on the ground and f2f that augments and is augmented by technology rich collaborative learning environments as vital in this deliberation also. These places are where the work of mobile learning field science labs are, where young people hike the wildlands and engage with environmental leaders to develop strategies for the sociology of wildlands conservation and restoration, students applying there integrated learning to help shape their future.  I want to see rich networks of students in India working on UNESCO projects or eco-villages connecting via elluminate with Midcoast Maine networks of students doing the same, the interconnectedness of global civic culture.

However, the social and moral spaces of learning are not happening at the traditional school. "Education" has not time for the heart, the culture, the visioning of new systems, the hard work of constructing democracy through deliberation and action. So we do need to be careful to craft arguments about reform not in terms of what new tool we can use to trick students into being "educated" but the spaces we must co-create for them to learn in.  Young people are nervous and bored with traditional spaces of education.

Time to create/co-create new spaces for learning; time to act.

To the book: J. Beane's Curric...

To the book: J. Beane's Curriculum Integration (again, and again), Godin's: Lynchpin....

Started co-planning process fo...

Started co-planning process for student World Studies Internet Radio using Diigo first hours here http://bit.ly/9KYnm7

Theme, Concept, Activity: some...

Theme, Concept, Activity: some trouble today in our PBL land, but the students I teach and learn with are brilliant!

@oldaily Thank you for your p...

@oldaily Thank you for your posts today, they are relevant to me and I have made connection and learned

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

OLPC/Neo-Colonization@http://b...

OLPC/Neo-Colonization@http://bit.ly/a6Rozy WS students just read and critiqued AU core docs, will add this element

Monday, March 15, 2010

Just blown away by Graham Attw...

Just blown away by Graham Attwell, thank you Nick!

Education without School/Ivan Illich

Suggested by Graham Attwell

A Special Supplement: Education Without School: How it Can be Done

By Ivan Illich

This apt and candid article by Illich on networks, certification and the disestablishment of schools is thought provoking, a challenge, so good.

From the Article:

"The alternative to social control through the schools is the voluntary participation in society through networks which provide access to all its resources for learning. In fact these networks now exist, but they are rarely used for educational purposes. The crisis of schooling, if it is to have any positive consequence, will inevitably lead to their incorporation into the educational process."



"I would like to have an A"

A sentiment that caused me pause today as I entered a number into a machine for a young person who has lived through trauma, alcoholism, and a culture that deems formal education for the other.  "I would like to have an A" is what the trimester reflection said; not I deserve that which I did not earn, nor anything else but their reflection on difficulty in learning in a system that I have bent so far....  I believe this young person, I believe him. 

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Reflecting on Helen Barrett sp...

Reflecting on Helen Barrett speaking on "Flow"

launched 2010 Tweetfolio addit...

launched 2010 Tweetfolio addition to integrative programs 2010 see tweets@GACtweetfolio....should ramp this week

Just threshed through Siemens/...

Just threshed through Siemens/Downes eLearning space for connectivism @ http://bit.ly/9pTRSk I will check out CK10

Thursday, March 11, 2010

ePortfolio's: Assessment for Learning

My thoughts are on adding to my ePortfolio presentation for this summers small conference series.  What keeps coming to mind in 9-12 learning environments is the leap ePortfolio's are for most schools.  ePortfolio assessment takes the learning community away from the school as factory mentality, the bell, the one right answer, the turn-it-in-grade it-its over addiction that so many schools have (and many LMS along with them).  Learning with ePortfolio's isn't the 9-5 teaching job or the 60 minute class period.  Learning with ePortfolios is a lifestyle and culture; it can be interwoven into every aspect of life.

ePortfolio's provide us with the opportunity to record learning as it is being constructed.  That learning might be hard to define in its messy, or rather human forms.  The heart of ePortfolio assessment is a definition of learning by the individual learner.  The definitions weave inquiry, failure and reflection for growth.  That growth is measurable through the highly individualized, personal, and vivid learning nexus that ePortfolio's enable.

Steven Hepple has the amazing reflection in Learn to Change Change to Learn that "children today are living in a new space....nearly now.... its a really interesting space because its not adversarial its not pressured, its a place where people; its all the R words, they can reflect and retract and research and repeat, its a very gentle world, i'll tell you, its a great world for learning."

The learning communities I am a part of are living Hepple's insight with ePortfolio's. The learning is palpable, enduring understanding is common, learning is everyone's culture in the community. Young people construct expectations for themselves and seek the help they need to meet them, from teacher, peer, parent and community to create meaningful projects. The process is not without flaw's for sure, "is that an A", procrastination, and the exhaustion that go along with the shopping mall high all play into the difficulty with integrating ePortfolio's into the traditional school. The work is more difficult for students, connected, challenging, peer driven at times.

I love being a part of this process.  I see the possibilities of lasting structural change with ePortfolio driven eLearning.  I am inspired!



Wednesday, March 10, 2010

National Tech Ed Plan: trend t...

National Tech Ed Plan: trend towards digital PLP's--read ePortfolio--yet seems as expected light.

Retool administrator education...

Retool administrator education programs to provide training in technology decision making and organizational change.

Empower students’ participat...

Empower students’ participation in the planning process.!!!! http://bit.ly/96os2T

http://bit.ly/bZRt1s We do nee...

http://bit.ly/bZRt1s We do need to listen to our students and learn, everyday

National Ed tech Plan. Test, T...

National Ed tech Plan. Test, Test Test, online, instant, test....collaboration?learning?interconnectedness?I read on.

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

@oldaily Moodle fits SAMR@ S a...

@oldaily Moodle fits SAMR@ S and A http://bit.ly/aRkjRk issues are in user control/huge leap with Sakai however 6-20!

Students are getting more and ...

Students are getting more and more hooked on integrating Mindnode and Freemind into ePortfolio writing, I like it.

Monday, March 8, 2010

Excellent Resource: teaching,t...

Excellent Resource: teaching,twitter, research:http://bit.ly/buFnKC

Look forward to stretching Con...

Look forward to stretching Confluence more. PLN wiki?

Working on tweetfolio project ...

Working on tweetfolio project this eve. I will attempt to organize preflection threshing through student r&d via twitter

Introduced reflection/preflect...

Introduced reflection/preflection work today for World History http://bit.ly/bJmJFv gearing up for service learning!

Saturday, March 6, 2010

So good to have just caught @g...

So good to have just caught @gsiemens #TEDxNYED an inspiration! Hinting at Curriculum Integration ala Beane

Thursday, March 4, 2010

From UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development

Today any well-informed high school student could make a long list of ways in which humankind is causing its own demise. Gaining awareness of the extent of sustainability problems is only half the project of becoming educated these days. The second half is about appropriate skills to foster the regeneration of natural capital of soils, forests, watersheds and wild areas. It is about learning the social skills to restore broken communities and to create new communities that are working models of viability. It is about integrated design skills, which promote sustainable urban planning within the carrying capacity of our planet's resources. It is about relearning the practices of good farming; and learning the science of powering civilization on efficient and renewable energies, while creating long-term economic, political, and moral arrangements that secure the wellbeing of present and future generations.

More: Here

Just sent an email that made m...

Just sent an email that made my heart leap!

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

A day of battling the Lizard B...

A day of battling the Lizard Brain: Thank you Seth Godin http://bit.ly/cHmXDT and visioning the future!

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Finding student passion

Planning with young people is messy. Planning with young people who are pre-programed to the bell, can be heart wrenching--we reach a peak, the smiles of learning are apparent, ah ha moments like lightning bolts all around, we as adults find ourselves laughing--yes--laughing--at "school" and they slip away after busily packing  into the river of a hallway. But they do not leave the project they planned/co-planned, they do not leave there hard won essential questions, they do not fail to argue the merits of that one .com via the wall in Mahara, that one "so good for the point they are making" when they know we do not use them in our projects--yes the validate the source, usually down to the Professor behind the site and I give in. They leave each other Diigo notes, they revamp their profile page with a new and even more socially relevant youtube video, they post to forums at 3am--about anti-genocide, and international woman's rights.nbsp. They reflect again and again on their work, they take our courses conception of "failure" when it happens and turn it into learning, I cannot get over their candid writing, there growth, their insight and their hope.br /br /I work with these young people for one "class" at a time....I see so much more for the future, this type of learning is too powerful for four walls.

Monday, March 1, 2010

! Students using Diigo notes t...

! Students using Diigo notes to collaborate and converse on Mahara Views!

Assessment is a learners funda...

Assessment is a learners fundamental human right. So often the system takes the full potential away in favor of a #