tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-78047412035444046502024-03-13T23:03:42.402-07:00Thomas Steele-MaleyThomas Steele-Maleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13033774492302700093noreply@blogger.comBlogger227125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7804741203544404650.post-65206723577789558192011-07-28T10:34:00.000-07:002011-07-28T10:37:10.700-07:00Weaving a DreamIn his book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Mabel-McKay-Weaving-Portraits-American/dp/0520209680">Mable McKay: Weaving the Dream</a> (1994) Greg Saris tells an ethnohistorical story about Mabel, a Pomo basket maker while also discovering his own heritage in the process. At the end of the book Saris asks Mabel why she allowed him into her oral history which so few outside the Pomo knew. Her response...."because you kept coming back".<br />
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In our education circles we are very busy dodging, planning, creating, and dealing seemingly "against" a system that is hell bent on making the corporate and managerial school a model for reform that is palatable to our communities. I see in your tweets, blog posts and videos that education innovators are struggling and letting it be known. It is a rough and emotional road.<br />
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In a recent <a href="http://thedisruptiondepartment.org/blog/?p=198">blog post</a> and Monika Hardy forwarded to me along with some sage advice coupled with my last few days at PFUNC 11 I am reminded that all of our wranglings in education need not loose site of our learning communities, and the humans behind them. We need to come back, consistently to young people. Do you remember beyond the banter of struggle what the noise of young people learning sounds like, looks like....? Do you remember the feeling you had; the heartache of happiness, body and mind full of hope.....hope. Do not loose these feelings, even in your radical reform work to help, political struggles and battles in education. But do not rest in your classrooms, learning centers and other space of education either.<br />
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Keep coming back to the learner: not the standard, model, curriculum....Weave your dream with learners as a learner, and never forget that they are there, watching, waiting, worried and hopeful. Listen to young people and they will do more than follow your lead, idea, design....they will lead, ideate, and design. Your dream will be successful, inspirational and world altering precisely because you kept coming back....to what matters to us all.Thomas Steele-Maleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13033774492302700093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7804741203544404650.post-43066472488688282302011-07-04T02:59:00.000-07:002011-07-04T03:20:12.011-07:00A nLearning Ecology Core Design<div style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">A Networked Learning Ecology (NLE) <span style="font-size: small;">Core Design</span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image: <a href="http://wikinlena.net/index.php?title=Networked_Learning_Ecology">Wiki|Networked Learning Ecology</a></td></tr>
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This Core design exists within a framework of socially driven integrated curriculum, and at a nexus between place based and international learning.<br />
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<div style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>A Vision:</b></span></div><br />
Building a Networked Civic Culture for an interdependent world.<br />
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</div><div style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>A Strategy:</b></span></div><br />
An integrative and integrated curriculum enabled through eLearning in a series of new spaces for learning . The NLE is a powerful answer to the myriad of questions that face the failing infrastructure of the traditional school in the twenty-first century.<br />
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<div style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Methods: </b></span></div><br />
A Nexus of Curriculum Integration and Networked Learning (nLearning)<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Curriculum Integration</span><br />
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Building on work and scholarship since 1904, NLE will seat its core design in the frameworks of curriculum integration. Most recently, the clearest voice for this visionary approach to learning is Dr. James Beane (retired Professor of Integrated Studies, National Lewis University). The following sections on curriculum integration weave the work of Beane (1997) and specifically his salient discourse in Curriculum Integration: Designing the Core of Democratic Education into the overall discussion. This approach to learning will be inherently learner centric.<br />
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<b>Integrated Curriculum</b>: Young people involved and engaged in an enormous range of knowledge, from information to values clarification, and including content and skills from several disciplines of knowledge integrated in the context of themes and activities within them. Organizing centers are are significant problems or issues that connect the curriculum to the larger world. These centers serve as a context for unifying knowledge. Knowledge in turn is developed as it is instrumentally applied to exploring the organizing centers (Beane,1997).<br />
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<b>Integrative learning:</b> Collaboratively planning a curriculum <i>with</i> young people (Beane, 1997).<br />
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An integrative integrated core curriculum with problem[/passion] based central themes, and meaningful concepts to drive authentic activities where ideas are explored and acted on (Beane,1997).<br />
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Personal Knowledge:<br />
Addressing self concerns and ways of knowing about self (Beane, 1997).<br />
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Social Knowledge:<br />
Addressing social and world issues, from peer to global relationships, and ways of critically examining these (Beane, 1997).<br />
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Explanatory Knowledge:<br />
Content that names, describes, explains, and interprets, including that involved in the disciplines of knowledge as well as commonsense or popular knowledge, (Beane, 1997)<br />
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Technical/Twenty First Century Knowledge:<br />
Ways of investigating, communicating, analyzing, and expressing. Finding,Validating, Leveraging, and Synthesizing Information; Communicating, collaboration and problem solving in a technologically rich environment (Beane, 1997).<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> nLearning: From Curriculum Integration to Learning Ecology</span><br />
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The approach to learning embodied in an integrated and integrative curricular core will be intensified through nLearning. This nexus between highly student based curriculum and nLearning will provide the learning community with a new learning ecology. This ecology will embody the NLE vision as it allows young people and their communities both local and around the world to connect in authentic, effective and exciting ways.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">nLearning systems</span><br />
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Project based and collaboration rich software will enable our learning spaces to have a flexible web 2.0 enabled system to work within the NLE's many project based learning endeavors. Throughout our first year of operations and then on a continual basis, the whole community at NLE will find and validate new nLearning tools for the proliferation of our learning spaces. This integrative process will allow for young people to use and develop the technologies they see as integral to their learning.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Mobile Learning (mLearning)</span><br />
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NLE learning ecologies will provide the frameworks necessary to utilize mLearning in expansive ways. Mobile Learning using, iPhones, netbooks, and other portable tools will offer the learning community a chance to take learning in highly dynamic situations to a new level.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Assessment</span><br />
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Networked ePortfolio (nPortfolio) assessment will be a way to weave assessment into the learning ecology as a learning tool. The design and flexible structures offered through the use of nPortfolios will enhance the learning spaces of NLE by allowing the whole community access to research and learning outcomes while at the same time providing a personal and learner centric environment for growth. NLE nPortfolio's will provide the community with an in-depth look at student passion, interests, intelligences, growth, and accomplishment.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">NLE Learning Ecology</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Foundations for Learning: The Learning Community and Space</span><br />
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Learners working via nLearning in project pods locally and internationally in blended learning settings. <br />
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A learning Mesh that inspires and houses the NLE learning community<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Organizing Centers Core Curricular Design: IGCC Whole Learning Ecology Programs</span></b><br />
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The core design of NLE organizing centers will emerge out of learner outcomes in Whole Learning Ecology (WLE) programs. WLE programs will be both integrative and integrated and serve as methods investigations in learning how to learn. <br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Twenty First Century Literacies (TCL)</span><br />
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Learning how to find, validate, synthesize, leverage, communicate, collaborate and problem solve. What is essential about the TCL's is that the investigations will engage learners through a practice of relationship building. How to approach an interdependent world will be the focus of these sessions. Learners may be involved in active listening workshops, architectures of empathy workshops, or design and research methods courses. The goal of these investigations will be to ready IGCC participants for the innovative and world changing work they will do in their learning spaces and toward their organizing centers.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Integrated Learning Center (ILC)</span><br />
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ILC programming will emerge out of the special needs or interests of learners. This program is currently being created as a space for intensive individual study, travel, or invention/business creation outside of the organizing centers that will drive most of the learning spaces in the IGCC core. <br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Organizing Centers Core Curricular Design: NLE Organizing Centers</span><br />
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NLE will offer learners a chance to create their own authentic experiences through fully integrated organizational centers (OC's). These OC's will blend all of the NLE learning ecology together for projects that have lasting impact on the world. All of the OC's designed will have real world application and deal with the issues of living in an interdependent world. The outcomes of these projects will meet not only the curricular needs of knowledge acquisition but apply all learning to the real world. The goal of all organizing centers is focused on integration of self into interdependent world systems for a sustainable future.<br />
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Related Posts: <a href="http://thomassteelemaley.blogspot.com/2011/02/networked-learning-project-connected.html">A Networked Learning Project: The Connected Day</a>Thomas Steele-Maleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13033774492302700093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7804741203544404650.post-81688132360328696402011-07-03T19:31:00.001-07:002011-07-03T19:31:28.713-07:00A new blog site.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6T1z_jSdFZs/ThElybumUkI/AAAAAAAAAB8/ks7vrmpr9DI/s1600/human.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6T1z_jSdFZs/ThElybumUkI/AAAAAAAAAB8/ks7vrmpr9DI/s1600/human.jpg" /></a></div><br />
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Well, Tumblr was getting more action than my old Wordpress blog and <a href="http://steelemaley,net/">steelemaley.net </a>needed to become what it was meant to be....a network aggregation space for me. So here's to Blogger for inspiring me to move my writings and networked learning. I look forward to it. Thomas Steele-Maleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13033774492302700093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7804741203544404650.post-59195683080965525232011-06-18T00:56:00.000-07:002011-07-03T04:39:07.015-07:00Networked Learning Ecologies Part 1A Vision: <strong>Networked Learning Ecology</strong>: A mesh of open, free and participatory media (ICT's+) <em>and</em> situated learning that liberate humans to create networks for social, economic and ecological resilience. Voices: (Please add more in comments)<br/><br/>Leigh Blackall: <a href="http://leighblackall.blogspot.com/search/label/illich"></a><br/><ul><br/> <li><a href="http://leighblackall.blogspot.com/search/label/illich">On Illich</a></li><br/></ul><br/><ul><br/> <li> <a href="http://leighblackall.blogspot.com/search/label/networked%20learning">On Networked Learning</a></li><br/></ul><br/>Stephen Downes:<br/><ul><br/> <li>Slideshare: Groups vs Networks: The Class Struggle Continues</li><br/></ul><br/><ul><br/> <li>Stephen Downes identifies significant differences between networks and groups, along four major axes. Drawn but not discussed at the Future of Learning in a Networked World event in Aukland, New Zealand. This short video explains the drawing at <a title="http://www.flickr.com/photos/stephen_downes/252157734" dir="ltr" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/stephen_downes/252157734" target="_blank">http://www.flickr.com/photos/stephen_downes/252157734</a></li><br/></ul><br/> <br/><br/>Florian Schneider:<br/><ul><br/> <li><a href="http://www.e-flux.com/journal/view/128">On Ekstitutions</a></li><br/></ul><br/>Roberto Greco:<br/><ul><br/> <li><a href="http://robertogreco.tumblr.com/writing">Writings</a></li><br/></ul><br/>More to come....Thomas Steele-Maleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13033774492302700093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7804741203544404650.post-14965152821441422812011-06-15T00:54:00.000-07:002011-07-03T04:39:07.015-07:00On Networked Learning<a rel="attachment wp-att-1106" href="http://steelemaley.net/2011/06/15/on-networked-learning/networked-learning/"><img class="size-full wp-image-1106 alignright" title="networked learning" src="http://steelemaley.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/networked-learning.jpg" alt="" width="275" height="183" /></a><a href="http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User:Leighblackall/PhD">Leigh Blackall presents a new view of learning that is critical, open, networked and participatory through his research</a>. In a recent twitter stream and <a href="http://leighblackall.blogspot.com/2011/06/what-is-definition-of-networked.html">blog post</a> he is asks for collective and open deliberation for <em>a</em> definition of networked learning. As a participant involved in networked learning research and praxis I will offer the following as an entry into the collective imaging and deliberation.<br/><h2><strong>Definitions</strong></h2><br/><strong>Open: </strong>Learning is free from institutions or understood to be actively participating in non-institutional learning.<br/><br/><strong>Critical:</strong> learning does no harm or actively works for social, economic, and environmental sustainability and resilience.<br/><br/><strong>Participatory:</strong> learning is integrative and inclusive of participants regardless of skill level or pre-determined social hierarchy.<br/><br/><strong>Networked:</strong> learning happens in a blended mesh. Learners, pedagogues, and others are nodes that exchange information to different degrees, depths and forms both online and in the field.<br/><br/><strong>The best defense of these definitions I have found is presented here by Steven Downes</strong>:<br/><br/><iframe src="https://docs.google.com/present/embed?id=df5qftjp_0ccqqggfq&size=m" frameborder="0" width="555" height="451"></iframe><br/><br/>Image above: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small-world_network">Watts and Strogatz model/small world network graph</a>, credit: <a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Watts_strogatz.svg">Arpad Horvath</a>Thomas Steele-Maleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13033774492302700093noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7804741203544404650.post-2477225065507239772011-05-27T05:25:00.000-07:002011-07-03T04:39:07.015-07:00Kenai Fjoirds National Park, AK....Pep Talk<a rel="attachment wp-att-1083" href="http://steelemaley.net/2011/05/27/kenai-fjoirds-national-park-ak/photo-on-2011-05-27-at-09-50/"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1083" title="Photo on 2011-05-27 at 09.50" src="http://steelemaley.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Photo-on-2011-05-27-at-09.50.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="480" /></a><br/><br/>Found this picture today of a conservation work crew of amazing young people I Co-Led with my wife in Alaska. Everyone was quite uncertain about our pending 1500 foot assent in 1 mile with this 20 foot plank (to fix a bridge damaged in spring melt)....Que pep talk.<br/><br/>24/7 with young people in the back country of AK=ubiquitous learning.Thomas Steele-Maleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13033774492302700093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7804741203544404650.post-20434982914689210442011-05-24T01:15:00.000-07:002011-07-03T04:39:07.016-07:00Readings: UNESCO<a rel="attachment wp-att-1075" href="http://steelemaley.net/2011/05/24/readings-unesco/logo_echarter/"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1075" title="logo_echarter" src="http://steelemaley.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/logo_echarter.gif" alt="" width="420" height="81" /></a><br/><p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.unesco.org/education/tlsf/TLSF/theme_a/mod02/uncom02t05s01.htm">UNESCO-Earth Charter Initiative</a></p><br/><a rel="attachment wp-att-1076" href="http://steelemaley.net/2011/05/24/readings-unesco/birthright-of-man-image/"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1076" title="Birthright of man image" src="http://steelemaley.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Birthright-of-man-image.jpg" alt="" width="174" height="289" /></a><br/><p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://unesdoc.unesco.org/Ulis/cgi-bin/ulis.pl?catno=29&gp=0&lin=1&ll=1">Hersch, J (1969) The Birthright of Man</a></p>Thomas Steele-Maleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13033774492302700093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7804741203544404650.post-4664309324906675612011-05-14T07:29:00.000-07:002011-07-03T04:39:07.016-07:00A razor's edge<div class="youtube-video"><object height="355" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/DwyCAtyNYHw&feature=youtube_gdata_player"> </param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"> </param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/DwyCAtyNYHw&feature=youtube_gdata_player" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="355" width="425"> </embed> </object></div><br />Listen closely to the "lesson I want to get across" at minute 6:31...."There is no opting out of new media....it changes a society as a whole....media mediates relationships....the whole structure of society can change....we are on a razor's edge between hopeful possibilities and more ominous futures...."<br /><br />At min 8:14 Wesch describes what we need people to "be" to make our networked mediated culture work, and the barriers we are facing in schools. Wesch is right on. Corporate curriculum, schedules, bells, borders, and "teaching/classroom management" are easily assisted by technology. Yet to open learning and deschool our educational system represents the hopeful possibilities Wesch imagines and has acted on. What we accept from industrial schooling, how we proceed in our educational endeavors, and what we <i>do, facilitate, witness, and promote </i>in our actions in education mean so much to learners of today and the interconnected and interdependent systems we are all a part of.<br /><br /><br /><br/><br/><p class="scribefire-powered">Powered by <a href="http://www.scribefire.com/">ScribeFire</a>.</p>Thomas Steele-Maleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13033774492302700093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7804741203544404650.post-2188445967520507922011-05-12T00:22:00.000-07:002011-07-03T04:39:07.016-07:00Young People, Action and EducationI was moved today by a video of young people taking action in support of indigenous rights, cultural rights and self determination:<br/><br/><iframe width="560" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/tPZxCDMbZec" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br/><br/>This example of student driven action goes well beyond adult organized marches, or adult driven activity for social justice. Many of these young people show an enduring understanding of their interdependence and interconnection with a nation and the world. For example, at minute 11:00 in the video a young woman articulates a distinct article of the <a href="http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/en/drip.html">UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples</a> (<a href="http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/en/declaration.html">More on the declaration and UNPFII here</a>!)<br/><a href="http://steelemaley.net/2011/05/12/young-people-action-and-us/unpfii_logo170obx/" rel="attachment wp-att-1058"><img src="http://steelemaley.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/unpfii_logo170obx.gif" alt="" title="unpfii_logo170obx" width="170" height="170" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1058" /></a><br/><br/>For all of us who see open and free learning as a fundamental human right, it's important to recognize that there is global deliberation and decision making on issues well beyond neoliberalism happening in the UN and in other spaces....How we participate in these movements and with others around the world on these issues will shape the common bond we have as humans in the 21st century. As ecological and economic overshoot continues, understanding how to participate and network for education and global civic culture will increase in importance.<br/><br/>Note: <br/><br/><blockquote>Since [UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples] adoption, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States have all reversed their positions and now endorse the Declaration. </blockquote>Thomas Steele-Maleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13033774492302700093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7804741203544404650.post-54581522969590878162011-05-06T02:06:00.000-07:002011-07-03T04:39:07.016-07:00Collective Joy<img class="alignleft" style="max-width: 800px;" src="http://steelemaley.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Dancing-in-the-streets.jpg" alt="" width="160" height="243" />I was inspired today reading through <a href="http://blendedlifestyle.blogspot.com/">The Blended Lifestyle</a> a blog linked to the <a href="http://www.dark-mountain.net/">Dark Mountain Project</a> site. One of the things that drew me to Dark Mountain was the hope that <a href="http://dougald.co.uk/">Dougald Hine</a> (a project founder) exudes in his writing (site, blogs, Twitter). I have been digging into Dark Mountain and enjoying what I find. My research into the site took a pleasant and unexpected turn as I linked out, and perused the favorite movies and books at The Blended Lifestyle. After my last <a href="http://steelemaley.net/2011/05/05/critical-reflection/">post</a> of yesterday (writing that temporarily pulled me into a short malaise) I am overjoyed to get <a href="http://www.plumvillage.org/practice.html">present</a> and breath deep of my life today. I also look forward to reading Ehrenreich (2006) Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy....<br/><p class="scribefire-powered">Powered by <a href="http://www.scribefire.com/">ScribeFire</a>.</p>Thomas Steele-Maleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13033774492302700093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7804741203544404650.post-63209397391125614252011-04-28T01:21:00.000-07:002011-07-03T04:39:07.016-07:00Farewell EDT 400 Spring 2011<a href="http://steelemaley.net/2011/04/28/farewell-edt-400-spring-2011/mr/" rel="attachment wp-att-1013"><img src="http://steelemaley.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/MR-1024x685.jpg" alt="" title="MR" width="624" height="485" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-1013" /></a><br/><br/><br/><blockquote><br/>"Democratic Living is not given in nature, like gold or water. It is a social construct, like a skyscraper, school playground, or new idea. Accordingly there can be no democracy without its builders, caretakers, and change agents...."-<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Teaching-Democracy-Diversity-Multicultural-Education/dp/0807742724">Walter Parker (2003)</a></blockquote><br/><br/><br/><br/><blockquote>"Imagining how events could be otherwise than they are is a hallmark freedom and power of human beings. Making social imagination work for us involves us in new concepts and principles, in new ways of using our minds to grasp complexities we do not yet comprehend. Thinking this way helps us construct new social realities both locally and globally. Social imagination is not merely for the sake of of academic knowing; it must include our feelings, and it must include our acting."- <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Building-Global-Civic-Culture-Interdependent/dp/0815624875/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1304000186&sr=1-1">D. Bob Gowin in Boulding (1998)</a></blockquote><br/><br/><br/><br/>May the river you all navigate call for your best....always answer with passion.Thomas Steele-Maleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13033774492302700093noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7804741203544404650.post-72187375482313012782011-04-26T00:43:00.000-07:002011-07-03T04:39:07.017-07:00Conviviality, Autonomy, Interdependence<a href="http://steelemaley.net/2011/04/26/conviviality-autonomy-interdependence/hairymnstr_seasons_spring/" rel="attachment wp-att-1005"><img src="http://steelemaley.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/hairymnstr_Seasons_spring-300x300.png" alt="" title="hairymnstr_Seasons_spring" width="300" height="300" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-1005" /></a><br/><br/><br/>Illich, I. (1973). Tools for conviviality. New York: Harper & Row.<br/><br/><blockquote>The symptoms of accelerated crisis are widely recognized. Multiple attempts have been made to explain them. I believe that this crisis is rooted in a major twofold experiment which has failed, and I claim that the resolution of the crisis begins with a recognition of the failure. For a hundred years we have tried to make machines work for men and to school men for life in their service. Now it turns out that machines do not "work" and that people cannot be schooled for a life at the service of machines. The hypothesis on which the experiment was built must now be discarded. The hypothesis was that machines can replace slaves. The evidence shows that, used for this purpose, machines enslave men. Neither a dictatorial proletariat nor a leisure mass can escape the dominion of constantly expanding industrial tools.<br/><br/>The crisis can be solved only if we learn to invert the present deep structure of tools; if we give people tools that guarantee their right to work with high, independent efficiency, thus simultaneously eliminating the need for either slaves or masters and enhancing each person's range of freedom. People need new tools to work with rather than tools that "work" for them. They need technology to make the most of the energy and imagination each has, rather than more well−programmed energy slaves.<br/><br/>I believe that society must be reconstructed to enlarge the contribution of autonomous individuals and primary groups to the total effectiveness of a new system of production designed to satisfy the human needs which it also determines. In fact, the institutions of industrial society do just the opposite. As the power of machines increases, the role of persons more and more decreases to that of mere consumers......<br/><br/>I choose the term "conviviality" to designate the opposite of industrial productivity. I intend it to mean autonomous and creative intercourse among persons, and the intercourse of persons with their environment; and this in contrast with the conditioned response of persons to the demands made upon them by others, and by a man−made environment. I consider conviviality to be individual freedom realized in personal interdependence and, as such, an intrinsic ethical value. I believe that, in any society, as conviviality is reduced below a certain level, no amount of industrial productivity can effectively satisfy the needs it creates among society's members.....</blockquote>Thomas Steele-Maleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13033774492302700093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7804741203544404650.post-73281848158182526922011-04-20T13:27:00.000-07:002011-07-03T04:39:07.017-07:00Again....AstraI listened again tonight....as Lisa and I imaged our future.<br/><br/><iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/LwIyy1Fi-4Q" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Thomas Steele-Maleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13033774492302700093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7804741203544404650.post-6427597979963893562011-04-20T01:36:00.000-07:002011-07-03T04:39:07.017-07:00Exhibitions: open a human creation<blockquote>As citizens have new choices, new chances for learning, their willingness to seek leadership should increase. We may expect that they will experience more deeply both their own independence and their need for guidance. As they are liberated from manipulation by others, they should learn to profit from the discipline others have acquired in a lifetime. Deschooling education should increase — rather than stifle — the search for [people] with practical wisdom who would be willing to sustain the newcomer in his educational adventure. As masters of their art abandon the claim to be superior informants or skill models, their claim to superior wisdom will begin to ring true. -<a href="http://ournature.org/~novembre/illich/1970_deschooling.html#chapter6">Illich (1970)</a></blockquote><br/><a rel="attachment wp-att-980" href="http://steelemaley.net/2011/04/20/exhibitions-open-a-human-creation/cle1/"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-980" title="CLE1" src="http://steelemaley.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/CLE1-300x156.png" alt="" width="300" height="156" /></a><br/><h2>To Exhibit Learning</h2><br/>Exhibitions beautifully disrupt institutions <em>and</em> show deep learning. An exhibition, in short, is a public presentation of learning. Exhibitions are practiced at all levels of education and in all fields. A learner or group of learners publicly exhibit their understanding of knowledge territories and connect learning to relevant issues of today. This is important and hard work that shows the individual and group that learning does not only happen within the walls of an institution but is a matter for society in general. Inviting the public to view, question, comment, and participate in a learning community reveals, connects and networks learning communities. Exhibitions also decolonize the pedagogue. When educators open their process or teaching to the outside world they ensure an essential conversation to ensue on the import of the work they do. Whether you adhere to <a href="http://www.essentialschools.org/resources/237">Ted Sizer and the Coalition of Essential Schools vision of exhibitions</a> as assessment or just agree with performance assessment being public I have no doubt that you see the benefit of opening the learning process to communities outside of your institution, school, room.... in dynamic ways.<br/><h2><a rel="attachment wp-att-984" href="http://steelemaley.net/2011/04/20/exhibitions-open-a-human-creation/population/"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-984" title="population" src="http://steelemaley.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/population-212x300.png" alt="" width="212" height="300" /></a><br/>Enmesh our pedagogy with the world</h2><br/>Dynamism and the ability to imagine, collaborate, and co-design learning environments are hallmarks of effective pedagogues today. These are all skills that are not learned in the semester course on literacy or technology in education. Many of us face institutional constraints in our work in education and seek ways to open our learning communities. We work to collectivize, democratize, co-create and enable personal and group passions for flow in learning. Many of us have been, as a passionate educator once told me I would become prior to my first classroom experience, " a coalition in your own classroom" (sub whatever you want to imagine to replace coalition in your situation). But this is not enough. Learning is an ecology that is interconnected and interdependent. We must share our communities work, we must exhibit, the whole ecology must weigh its social imagination into the mix....We need to show learning, failure and iteration and ask for feedback, connect and network our work on new levels.... we must enmesh our pedagogy with the world.<br/><a rel="attachment wp-att-985" href="http://steelemaley.net/2011/04/20/exhibitions-open-a-human-creation/community/"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-985" title="Community" src="http://steelemaley.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Community-300x297.png" alt="" width="300" height="297" /></a><br/><h2>Open a human creation</h2><br/>Exhibitions open education to the world. In the process of preparing for public participation in learning the individual looks deeply at the connections they are making....the common good in their endeavor....their learning moves from 8-3, 12:30-1:30, Tuesday and Thursday to their heart. When you face the public you face your heart....Yes nerves flash signals and the body quivers upon the thought of being on stage, but your heart tells the story. For the young person in high school the story might be "what does it mean to go to school in the 21st century....what is 'world history' 'literature', 'science', 'my life'.... For the pedagogue the story needs to be " 'what am I undertaking', 'what role do I have in society', 'who may look to me', 'how will I collaborate with the world'....". As one who believes in the commons and in learning as ecology I want to see more than a transcript and degree from any institution from "masters" of pedagogy or any field. I want to see a heart beating, a passion for learning....something different from books and sites....a human creation.<br/><a rel="attachment wp-att-988" href="http://steelemaley.net/2011/04/20/exhibitions-open-a-human-creation/molumen_world_map_1-2/"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-988" title="molumen_world_map_1" src="http://steelemaley.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/molumen_world_map_1-300x165.png" alt="" width="300" height="165" /></a><br/><h2>Find a learning ecology</h2><br/>Join me in finding ways to open education. Exhibitions are just one of these ways. We who have decided to be pedagogues as part of our learning ecology will benefit from making the learning communities we work within visible. This networking will help other communities change, become dynamic, and change again to make learning dynamic, resilient, and ubiquitous.<br/><h2>This week is exhibition week in one of the learning communities I work with</h2><br/>I look forward to being a part of this meaningful time.<br/><br/><a rel="attachment wp-att-959" href="http://steelemaley.net/2011/04/20/exhibitions-open-a-human-creation/edt400-exhibitions/"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-959" title="EDT400 Exhibitions" src="http://steelemaley.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/EDT400-Exhibitions-e1302543821789.png" alt="" width="400" height="517" /></a>Thomas Steele-Maleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13033774492302700093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7804741203544404650.post-10246696548701492702011-04-13T14:21:00.000-07:002011-07-03T04:39:07.017-07:00A learning mash-up.<a href="http://steelemaley.net/2011/04/13/a-mash-up-from-the-last-week/elearning-nexus-image/" rel="attachment wp-att-961"><img src="http://steelemaley.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/eLEarning-Nexus-Image.png" alt="" title="eLEarning Nexus Image" width="357" height="182" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-961" /></a><br/><br/><h1>Greco</h1><br/>We need them....dedicated and passionate teachers and learners who <em>see</em> learning as a design that the learner moves, shapes and feeds forward as positive action in our world....educational communities need them, those with social imagination....experts, yes experts. The more I get to know <a href="http://robertogreco.tumblr.com/">Rob Greco </a> the more he reminds me of Illich's <a href="http://ournature.org/~novembre/illich/1970_deschooling.html">(1970)</a> "people with special educational competence".<br/><blockquote>Three types of special educational competence should, in fact, be distinguished: one to create and operate the kinds of educational exchanges or networks outlined here; another to guide students and parents in the use of these networks; and a third to act as primus inter pares in undertaking difficult intellectual exploratory journeys....To design and operate the networks I have been describing would not require many people, but it would require people with the most profound understanding of education and administration, in a perspective quite different from and even opposed to that of schools.</blockquote><br/> <br/><br/>Greco lives his educational experiences with the learners in his communities....he sees the messiness in learning, breathes deep of the essence, and trusts in the human capacity for mutual aid....I witnessed the outcome of that journey in an Elluminate session on Tuesday. The middle level learners Rob guides worked as a community to exhibit what was important to them about learning and life. I was awestruck with joy and hope.<br/><br/> <br/><h1>Blackall</h1><br/>Leigh continues to amaze me. After a brief blogging hiatus, he is right back with thought provoking work, feeding forward amazing resources and inspiring. <a href="http://leighblackall.blogspot.com/2011/03/who-owns-schools-ubiquitous-learning.html">His recent thoughts on "ubiquity" </a>contribute much to the deschooling and networked learning conversation. Feeding forward Ian Hart's (2001)<a href="http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all~content=a930848362"> Deschooling and the Web</a> was welcomed reading this week.<br/><h1>Hine</h1><br/><a href="http://twitter.com/hrheingold">Howard Rheingold's</a> bookmark quest for P2P learning networks brought me right back to Dougald Hine's <a href="http://dougald.co.uk/soe.htm">School of Everything page</a>. I delved into his links on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midpeninsula_Free_University">Free U</a>, <a href="http://www.abcdinstitute.org/docs/abcd/LearningExchange.pdf">The Learning Exchange</a> and the <a href="http://www.youngfoundation.org/">Young Foundation</a><br/><h1>Littky</h1><br/><blockquote>If your not on the edge, you're taking up to much space</blockquote><br/>I have read, watched and learned from Dennis for many years....I am more amazed than ever.<br/><br/><iframe title="YouTube video player" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/UbpqVPtUIFQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br/><br/>See <br/><a href="http://www.bigpicture.org/dennis/">Big Picture Learning Profile</a><br/><a href="http://collegeunbound.org/">College Unbound</a><br/><br/>Much more....<a href="http://p2pfoundation.net/">P2P Foundation Wiki</a> <a href="http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/">Blog</a><br/><br/><br/> <br/><br/> Thomas Steele-Maleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13033774492302700093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7804741203544404650.post-86537959261215393352011-03-21T05:06:00.000-07:002011-07-03T04:39:07.017-07:00To Create, To Design<a href="http://steelemaley.net/2011/03/21/to-create-to-design/green_leaf_icon-2/" rel="attachment wp-att-944"><img src="http://steelemaley.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/green_leaf_icon-300x300.png" alt="" title="green_leaf_icon" width="300" height="300" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-944" /></a><br/><br/><br/><br/><strong>A video and education reform's 100 year failure</strong><br/><br/><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pNefN-xzSk">A timely video</a> inspired by Michael Wesch came across my desk today and it comes at an interesting time in my thinking on education. <em>The Future of Ed Reform? </em> weaves a very short yet potent story about the realities so many of us face who seek to radically change the structure of education from "places of schooling" to "places of learning". <br/><br/><iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/8pNefN-xzSk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br/><br/>I have written about critical education <a href="http://steelemaley.net/tag/criticaleducation/">in many posts</a> and realize that most of my ideation, design and praxis towards democratic education has met with the realities of institutions, schooling an societal structures around education and official knowledge. I would like to say I met these challenges and take the path I do now, knowing I stand on the shoulders of progressives and a hundred years of work from John Dewey, L. Thomas Hopkins et al., and their contemporaries James Beane, Micheal Apple, Deb Meir and <em>so</em> many others who are in the field not writing prolifically but fostering experiences and learning. <br/><br/>The Future of Ed Reform begs questions of reform and stasis in education. "If so many years of reform, (including some almost 100 years old that espouse the same reform we are seeking in education today) have failed why do we think it will work....this time." A good question and one I had with a <a href="http://robertogreco.tumblr.com/">visionary leader and progressive educator</a> in the field just yesterday: More on this in future posts. <br/><br/>The author of Future of Ed Reform is right to question these new "reforms" and their ability to succeed. The authors points at "the revolution failed" are right. The use of Dewey as an example is illustrative of the issues here. Dewey, Francis Parker, L. Thomas Hopkins et al. faced a backlash from an American society bent on order and standardization. Though their reform was brilliant and on the mark in many ways, <em>school</em> in the 20th century was an institution based on order and control just as it is today. Today as in the 20th century, linear schedules, corporate curricula, and the extra-curricularization of energy and interests still combine to hold firm what has been at the expense of what <em>is</em>. The School structure and its meanings are the issues of today just as they where a century ago.<br/><br/>Dewey did call for a revolution <em>from</em> schooling <em>to</em> learning, and espoused among so many brilliant ideas a call for deschooling on the grounds that control and order do little for learning. Dewey (1938) reflects, <br/><br/><blockquote>Almost everyone has had occasion to look back upon his [and her] school days and wonder what has become of the knowledge he was supposed to have amassed during his [and her] years of schooling....but it was so segregated when it was acquired and hence is so disconnected from the rest of experience that it is not available under the actual conditions of life. (p.48)</blockquote><br/><br/>We must reflect presently on the "reform" engines of today motoring <em>through</em>schools and quietly accepting the structures imposed in what amounts to seeing learners and their communities as commodities and economies of scale, versus dynamic realities of human possibility. The author of The Future of Ed Reform? is calling out the realities of societal structures and the school not the reform which may have similarity to our 100 year past. <br/><br/><strong>To Create, To Design</strong><br/><br/>It is no mystery to many that I favor <a href="http://www.nlena.net/our-vision">the design of new learning Ecologies</a> that leverage much of what Dewey et.al espoused <em>and</em> practiced in the fields of experiential and democratic education. I have also focused my work on the networking of blended learning ecologies. A combination of <a href="http://ournature.org/~novembre/illich/1970_deschooling.html#chapter6">Illich's learning webs</a>, the <a href="http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Mesh_Network_Details">mesh ideas of OLPC </a>and my roots in experiential and mobile learning in the big outside. This design like so many is at risk when placed against the onslaught of stasis in education. No Softballs here, we have heard them in detail. Yet I find myself asking are we ready for a networked learning ecology? Is society? What will it take? <br/><br/>So anthropologists, critical educators, deschoolers, unschoolers, reformers, what will make your vision work? Are you part of a revolution? If so why, and will that revolution be enough force to break the dam of traditional control and order schooling to create or recreate places of learning for society? I am interested in hearing your voice and working with you.Thomas Steele-Maleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13033774492302700093noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7804741203544404650.post-11341235025593867862011-03-11T01:53:00.000-08:002011-07-03T04:39:07.018-07:00Yong Zhao on Educational Risk and the Reason to Deschool<p><strong><img style="max-width: 800px;" src="http://steelemaley.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/leafmedium.jpg" /><br /></strong></p><p><strong>From: </strong>Yong Zhao » Blog Archive » A Nation At Risk: Edited by Yong Zhao. (n.d.). <i>Yong Zhao</i>. Retrieved March 11, 2011, from http://zhaolearning.com/2011/03/10/a-nation-at-risk-edited-by-yong-zhao/</p><p><strong>Indicators of the Risk</strong></p><br/><p>The educational dimensions of the risk before us have been amply documented in <em>materials read by this editor</em>. For example:</p><br/><ul><li><em><a href="http://www.newsweek.com/2010/07/10/the-creativity-crisis.html#" target="_blank">For<br/> the first time, research shows American creativity is declining. Since <br/>1990, Americans’ creativity scores have been on the decline <br/>significantly and most seriously among young children (from kindergarten<br/> through sixth grade).</a></em></li><li><em><a href="http://www.keepartsinschools.org/Research/Materials/CEP_NCLB_Feb2008.pdf" target="_blank">As<br/> a result of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), a significant number of <br/>schools in America have narrowed their curriculum by cutting arts, <br/>music, physical education, social studies, science, recess, or lunch. <br/>“Forty-four percent of all districts nationwide have added time for <br/>English language arts and/or math, at the expense of social studies, <br/>science, art and music, physical education, recess, or lunch.” </a></em></li><li><em></em><em>Meanwhile, our competitors such as China and Singapore <br/>have been decreasing their instructional time for math and increasing <br/>time for creativity, critical thinking, arts, physical education. For <br/>example, since 1999 China has decreased total instructional hours by 380<br/> for grades 1 through 6, reduced math instruction by 140 hours and added<br/> 156 instructional hours for physical education.</em></li><li><em><a href="http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=cheating+nclb&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8" target="_blank">Unethical<br/> and dishonest behaviors have become rampant in American education. <br/>Teachers, school administrators, and students have been forced to engage<br/> in all sorts of cheating to raise test scores and state governments <br/>lower standards to avoid penalties.</a></em></li><li><em><a href="http://www.stateline.org/live/details/story?contentId=272382" target="_blank">America<br/> spends $1.1 billion dollars per year testing their children under NCLB <br/>while many schools have to cut short instructional hours and or lay off <br/>teachers due to budget cuts. </a></em></li><li><em><a href="http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/nov06/vol64/num03/What-Are-NCLB%27s-Instructional-Costs%C2%A2.aspx" target="_blank">In<br/> 2004–2005, Wisconsin students spent a total of about 1.4 million hours <br/>taking state tests; with full implementation of NCLB testing, that <br/>number will more than double, to 2.9 million. These figures do not <br/>include the time spent distributing and collecting materials, taking <br/>practice tests, giving instructions, and addressing other logistics of <br/>testing. </a></em></li><li><em><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/03/06/why-blame-the-teachers/it-started-with-no-child-left-behind" target="_blank">American teachers’ morale has reached a crisis level.</a> <a href="http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/1001270_teacher_attrition.pdf" target="_blank">Over a quarter of teachers leave the profession within the first three years and nearly half leave within the first five. </a></em></li><li><em>Teacher unions, the last organized line of defense for public education, are being threatened across the nation.</em></li><li><em><a href="http://www.economics.harvard.edu/faculty/fryer/files/teacher%2Bincentives.pdf" target="_blank">Yet,<br/> the governments continue to impose policies that connect teacher <br/>evaluation with student test scores although research has clearly shown <br/>that such policies do not improve student learning, even measured by <br/>test scores.</a></em></li><li><em>American education has become a nationalized standardized <br/>education system. Locally democratically elected school boards have been<br/> rendered bureaucratic assistants of the state and federal government to<br/> enforce implementation of state and federal mandates rather than <br/>guarding the education of their children.</em></li><li><em><a href="http://www.actfl.org/files/ReportSummary2011.pdf" target="_blank">Less<br/> than 20% of American students are enrolled in a foreign language course<br/> while all Chinese students are required to study a foreign language <br/>beginning from third grade at the latest. </a></em></li><li><em><a href="http://www.ced.org/images/library/reports/education/report_foreignlanguages.pdf" target="_blank">Only 11 percent of twelfth graders nationwide demonstrated proficiency in U.S. history.</a></em></li><li><em><a href="http://www.ced.org/images/library/reports/education/report_foreignlanguages.pdf" target="_blank">More<br/> than 80 percent of New York City eighth graders did not meet the state <br/>standards in social studies in 2004. Moreover, the number of students <br/>meeting the social studies standards has decreased by almost 20 <br/>percentage points since 2002.</a></em></li><li><em><a href="http://www.ced.org/images/library/reports/education/report_foreignlanguages.pdf" target="_blank">25<br/> percent of college-bound high school students could not name the ocean <br/>between California and Asia. 80 percent of young Americans (ages 18 to <br/>24) did not know that India is the world’s largest democracy; 37 percent<br/> could not locate China on a map of Asia and the Middle East.</a></em></li><li><em><a href="http://www.ced.org/images/library/reports/education/report_foreignlanguages.pdf" target="_blank">The<br/> average number of languages spoken by American business executives is <br/>1.5, compared with an average of 3.9 languages spoken by business <br/>executives in the Netherlands.</a></em></li><li><em><a href="http://www.ced.org/images/library/reports/education/report_foreignlanguages.pdf" target="_blank">Business<br/> and military leaders complain about the lack of international and cross<br/> cultural skills of American graduates. “A 2002 survey of large U.S. <br/>corporations found that nearly 30 percent of the companies believed they<br/> had failed to exploit fully their international business opportunities <br/>due to insufficient personnel with international skills. The <br/>consequences of insufficient culturally competent workers, as identified<br/> by the firms, included: missed marketing or business opportunities; <br/>failure to recognize important shifts in host country policies toward <br/>foreign-owned corporations; failure to anticipate the needs of <br/>international customers; and failure to take full advantage of expertise<br/> available or technological advances occurring abroad. Almost 80 percent<br/> of the business leaders surveyed expected their overall business to <br/>increase notably if they had more internationally competent employees on<br/> staff.”</a></em></li></ul><br /><b>Time to <a href="http://ournature.org/%7Enovembre/illich/1970_deschooling.html#chapter6">Deschool</a></b><br/><br/><p class="scribefire-powered">Powered by <a href="http://www.scribefire.com/">ScribeFire</a>.</p>Thomas Steele-Maleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13033774492302700093noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7804741203544404650.post-56249784985039171152011-02-20T05:42:00.000-08:002011-07-04T03:03:07.220-07:00A Networked Learning Project: The Connected Day<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-E3pZb6NkxYs/ThGPzQ_pgfI/AAAAAAAAACo/6n__hadaH4Q/s1600/600px-Networked_Learning_Ecology.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-E3pZb6NkxYs/ThGPzQ_pgfI/AAAAAAAAACo/6n__hadaH4Q/s1600/600px-Networked_Learning_Ecology.png" /></a></div><br />
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<h2>A day in the learning ecology of Piper Hahn</h2><br />
Piper is a 15 year old who lives in Midcoast Maine, US. A year ago, Piper heard about a new way to learn, and decided to take part in a new learning experience called the Maine Networked Learning Project. Known as "the Mesh" to participants, this learning ecology offered Piper the chance to apply her passion for learning in highly experiential and collaborative ways with groups of young people of varied ages, adult and youth mentors with knowledge territory specialties and organizations focused on ensuring sustainable and resilient societies, economies, and the environment. This is a snapshot of her day.<br />
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<h4>A day in the learning ecology of Piper Hahn</h4><br />
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Piper gets ready for her week by sitting outside sipping tea and looking at her smart phone. She is checking project updates sent from the team she has been working with for the last two months on her Google Reader and Twitter feed. The project Piper is checking in on deals with food justice in the rural communities of her bioregion.<br />
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Seeing many updates, and much activity she decides to look at the overall "mesh" schedule for the day. She notices that the MNLP van will be moving across the local region starting in an hour. To get a ride on this local transportation system she has to ride her bike to a station stop or have her parents drop her off at the regional mesh meet-up location. But before deciding this she reviews her weekly schedule on her mobile.<br />
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Piper notices that she and three others will be presenting at the local Veterans of Foreign Wars organization to a large group on the history of local food cultivation in the region. She and her Food Justice project group have spent a good deal of time completing ethnographic studies of the areas "locals". These participant interviews are seminal to their presentation as they show that local sustainability and resilience projects are not "outside" or "rich Peoples" pursuits, but can save local economies and the historical heritage this stakeholder group cherishes. The group has also been working in restoration crews on local farms as a service learning tie in to their studies. The project has been extensive. Piper and her group have covered mathematics, experimental sciences, writing, social sciences and much more in an integrated project framework. They have relied on their mesh mentors, local experts, and the internet for research, recording (writing, video) and exhibiting their knowledge and understanding to multiple community stakeholder groups.<br />
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As the project presentation pre-work is done, Piper contacts her group via twitter hashtag to remind all that they will need an hour to meet-up before the presentation <i>and</i> to ride their bikes to the VAW hall from the meet-up. Immediately she gets a response from three of the four other group members that they will meet prior to the VAW event. They remind each other that a collaborative learning session will be going on for applied algebra and trigonometry concepts at Noon. This session will be special, as an innovative regional planner from rural Scotland will be mentoring at the Self Organizing Learning Environment today along with their local quantitative reasoning/systems thinking mentors. She video chats with one participant letting her know that she will be at the SOLE, and is hoping to get a ride to her house after today's VAW presentation. That done, Piper checks with her parents and decides to ride her bike to a mesh station stop. She then rides the mesh van into town and catches up on posts and replies in her Reader on the way.<br />
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At the Meet-up location (a wide open space that reminds Piper of a open market of some kind), she settles in with the other young people in study, discussion and deliberation. Today she takes out her tablet and reads a work in global literature that was suggested by a mentor she has in South Asia. She will take notes on the work over the next hour and send those notes via blog post to the mentor. The mentor, other participants and Piper are involved in a global project combining cultural understandings of place into a wiki resource for future learners to use. She sees connections everywhere in her learning and after being inspired by an experience in India she's just read about, Piper adds content for today's VFW presentation to the shared presentation document for group review.<br />
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Piper takes a run with others from the meet-up, and then decides to review the quantitative reasoning skills that figure into the edible re-vegetation project from Scotland being discussed at the SOLE today. Piper will get another chance to apply her growing knowledge and understanding with today's SOLE because the re-vegetation work they are doing locally is based on the Scottish project being discussed.<br />
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After the SOLE, and successful VAW presentation the group meets at a Mesh group members house. The group has grown from five to seven now as the crew who filmed the presentation and ethnographies over the last monthes are with them to discuss editing and working on the script for the groups public exhibition of findings. Piper and her group know that the scientists, mentors, politicians, local, global participants, and their peers will attend the exhibition. This step in their project leads to funding and further action on their multi-year food security project. After Dinner with the host family, rides home for most, and ePortfolio updates the rest of the week will be full of networked, experiential, and mobile learning directly applied to creating solutions in an interdependent world.Thomas Steele-Maleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13033774492302700093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7804741203544404650.post-15182053975015489082011-02-20T03:51:00.000-08:002011-07-03T04:39:07.018-07:00Plasticity, Global Movements and Bioregion Change<div class='posterous_autopost'><p>Ideate on</p> <p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenotypic_plasticity" target="_blank">Placticity:</a></p> <p>From <a href="http://www.foreignaffairs.com/files/articles/natural_history_of_peace.pdf" target="_blank">Sapolsky (2006)</a></p> <p>"Thus the savanna baboon became, literally, a textbook example of life in an aggressive, highly stratified, male-dominated society. Yet within a few years, members of the species demonstrated enough <span style="font-size: medium;">behavioral plasticity </span>to transform a society of theirs into a baboon utopia. The first half of the twentieth century was drenched in the blood spilled by German and Japanese aggression, yet only a few decades later it is hard to think of two countries more pacific. Sweden spent the seventeenth century rampaging through Europe, yet it is now an icon of nurturing tranquility. Humans have invented the small nomadic band and the continental megastate, and have demon- strated a flexibility whereby uprooted descendants of the former can function eaectively in the latter. We lack the type of physiology or anatomy that in other mammals determine their mating system, and have come up with societies based on monogamy, polygyny, and polyandry. And we have fashioned some religions in which violent acts are the entrée to paradise and other religions in which the same acts consign one to hell. <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Is a world of peacefully coexisting human Forest Troops possible? <span style="font-size: small;">Anyone who says, “No, it is beyond our nature,” knows too little about primates, including ourselves</span></span>."</p> <p><a href="http://www.theeconomicsofhappiness.org/">The Economics of Happiness (2011)</a></p> <p>A new documentary we will be showing in the Midcoast Ecoregion this spring!</p> <p><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/VkdnFYDbiBE" frameborder="0" height="390" width="480"></iframe></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p>Deep Ecology, Deep Culture: Vital Movements</p> <p><a href="http://www.localfutures.org/" target="_blank">The International Society for Ecology and Culture</a></p> <p><iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/14344025?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" frameborder="0" height="225" width="400"></iframe></p> <p><a href="http://vimeo.com/14344025">Schooling the World: The White Man's Last Burden trailer</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user4458568">lost people films</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p> <p> </p> <p> </p></div>Thomas Steele-Maleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13033774492302700093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7804741203544404650.post-80478807638742774792011-02-18T05:54:00.000-08:002011-07-03T04:39:07.018-07:00Roles Interupted<p style="text-align: center;"><a rel="attachment wp-att-818" href="http://steelemaley.net/2011/02/18/roles-interupted/flickr-269611427-original/"><img class="size-medium wp-image-818 aligncenter" title="flickr-269611427-original" src="http://steelemaley.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/flickr-269611427-original-300x207.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="107" /></a></p><br/><p style="text-align: left;">After reading an illuminating <a href="http://joss.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk/2011/01/28/pedagogy-technology-and-student-as-producer/#comments">post today from Joss Winn</a> that articulated his et al ideas for an institutional shift, I was struck by how similar the vision is in many ways to my work with the <a href="http://www.globalciv.org/">Institute for Global Civic Culture</a>. Winn, explains in the paper entitled Pedagogy, Technology and Student as Producer that work towards critical networked learning environments can be powerful catalysts for change,</p><br/><br/><blockquote>“Student as Producer is not simply a project to transform and improve the ‘student experience’ but aspires to a paradigm shift in how knowledge is produced, where the traditional student and teacher roles are ‘interrupted’ through close collaboration and a recognition that both teachers and students have much to learn from each other.”</blockquote><br/>I look forward to following Winn's work and perhaps collaborating in the future on projects for teenagers. The learning environments Winn describes could be vital steps to address the failure of educational systems and institutions today.<br/><br/>Also very interested in finding more out with regards to Winn's et al work on <a href="http://joss.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk/tag/resilienteducation/ ">resilient education</a>.Thomas Steele-Maleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13033774492302700093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7804741203544404650.post-85248562284524154062011-02-17T10:18:00.000-08:002011-07-17T11:46:00.508-07:00Learning to change<h1 style="text-align: center;">Global Learning Ecologies</h1><br />
<blockquote>"Imagining how events could be otherwise than they are is a hallmark freedom and power of human beings" D. Bob Gowin (1988)</blockquote><br />
<blockquote>"a little girl came to the teacher after class and said to the teacher, "What did I learn today?" And the teacher said, "That's a funny question. Why do you ask me that?" The little girl said, "When I get home, Daddy will ask me, 'What did you learn today?' and I never know what to say." Seymore Papert: The Future of the School</blockquote><br />
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<b>First Words</b><br />
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The hierarchical, managerial, and corporate controlled curricular structures of the "school" are not adequate to meet the challenges faced by the worlds young people in the twenty-first century. Further, the one hundred year absence of systemic change in education provides an environment that is ripe for deep change. In 2010 global education systems still lack meaningful consensus on educational change. Though mainstream acknowledgment is <i>beginning</i> to solidify around the need for computers in learning to address the "21st century skills" (Hayes Jacobs ed. (2010); Bonk (2009) Davidson and Goldberg, (2009) the system of "schooling" is still static. The bulk of school and curricular policy remains dangerously static (Apple, 2010, Darling Hammond, 2010) and rooted in what Apple, Au, and Gandin (2009, p.3) have called "the ideological and institutional processes and forms that reproduce oppressive conditions". The realization that educational systems are harmfully unresponsive to needed change raises in importance when considering that our world systems are in decline and globalization operates without regard for much of the worlds cultures (Apple, ed. 2010).<br />
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Our interdependent world calls for a deliberative, culturally conscious, and collaborative generation. With this in mind the future role of education as a change agent has never been more important. In the following posts I will propose a new learning ecology that redefines rather than refines educational research, design and praxis. My thoughts are grounded in the seminal work of critical educators (James Beane, 1995,1997; Michael Apple, 1990,1996, 2009, 2010, Boulding,1988), Network Learning and Connectivist thinkers, designers, and practitioners (<a href="http://robertogreco.tumblr.com/">Roberto Greco</a> <a href="http://www.elearnspace.org/blog/">George Siemens</a>, <a href="http://www.downes.ca/">Steven Downes</a>, <a href="http://educationaltechnology.ca/couros/">Alec Curousa</a>, Martin Weller, <a href="http://www.pontydysgu.org/pontydysgu-and-people/graham-attwell/">Graham Atwell</a>, <a href="http://leighblackall.blogspot.com/">Leigh Blackwell</a> et al), Learning Scientists ( Mitra, Sawyer, Krajcik and Blumenfeld, Fishman Davis, (2006), and visionary leaders in many different fields, spaces and times (Illich (1971); Mitra; Jacobs; <a href="http://dougald.co.uk/index.htm">Hine</a>; Brazee; Maxmin; Alfred (2009).<br />
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The time for a deep change in education has come. As the world realizes ecological overshoot (Catton Jr., 1980; McKibben 2006, 2010), systemic global social crisis (UN millennium Development Goals, 2010; ICISS, 2001), and the exponential growth in global connectivity, education can and must help catalyze a new global civic culture through the radical restructuring of how we provide learning to our world.<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://steelemaley.net/2011/02/17/learningtochange/learnjumpmedium/" rel="attachment wp-att-811"><img alt="" class="size-medium wp-image-811 aligncenter" height="212" src="http://steelemaley.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/learnjumpmedium-300x212.jpg" title="learnjumpmedium" width="300" /></a></div><br />
<b>A reflection.</b><br />
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As we consider the slight arc of change in global education over the last one hundred years the fact that the world is facing an uncertain future is not surprising. Similarly when we utilize our social imagination, it is not surprising that we ideate about myriad new configurations, wishes and hopes for education: "if only we could...., wouldn't it be wonderful if....,we need to change....". The change we seek might ensure that those facing uncertain futures might do so with the tools necessary for the systemic change needed. I will advance that what we need is a deep and systemic change in education to promote learning that bypasses the traditional structures of the status quo; which today define the purpose and products of the educational system in the twenty-first century. This post will spend little time addressing the status quo, for as in the climate change debate where there is no quantifiable argument against the fact that the world is warming because of C02 emissions from fossil fuel consumption, there to is no quantifiable debate in education about what the deplorable conditions in education today. Yes, there are myriad proponents of structures in education who defend the bricks and mortar school. These educationaires grind on in there protectionism of command and control managerial structures in education with impunity. These strong educational polities have exhausted the last 40 years with nothing more than millions of dollars spent and subaltern communities further rooted in there societal malaise. Minimally changing the status quo in education through reform large or small is a noble but ultimately futile endeavor as the factors that reinforce oppressive educational conditions have colonized education to the point of full enculturation. Revisioning research, design, and practice in education is therefore a vital step to realizing real change. The potentials for addressing real change in global learning through a nexus of Critical Education, network learning, experiential learning, and emerging learning sciences are real. As Elise Boulding (1996)remarked, "the materia prima is at hand. We can join the company of persons-in-becoming who are working to give it shape, or we can stand on the sidelines wailing. The choice is ours". For this century our choice is vital. We must seize our moment and give it shape.<br />
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<b>An ongoing vision I have, what I want to be a part of....</b><br />
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Sanguine voices are heard on a coastal beach in Maine as a group of high-school age young people gather around multiple mobile devices that are networked to their peers in China, New Zealand, London, Uganda and Bolivia in a project called "The Interdependence of Global Water". This international project based learning pod are gathering, some waking at 1:00am to view sea run Salmon return to spawn on the Penobscot River in Maine, United States. These young people are doing more than watching; they helped make the Penobscot River viable for this process again through their combined research, writing, and service efforts. In partnership with indigenous communities, business interests, academics, local, regional and national governments, and conservation biology organizations they have joined a coalition to remove dams and restore native salmon spawning corridors. There study was intense, memorable and had lasting impact on all involved. As these young people wove service and action into their "core" themes of study: society, environment and economics, there lives were changed, and they helped catalyze a movement for new learning around the world. What we find out is that these young people are collaborating together on similar projects in all of the six world regions mentioned and in concert with each other in a new learning ecology. There are no "walls" in this learning ecology, rather these students learn year round, individually and in groups at regional based learning centers where they come to collaborate, problem solve and socialize with other project based learners. The bulk of the work these brave young people accomplish is done in the field, at home, or traveling in "mobile learning labs" utilizing the most innovative eLearning tools imaginable. The blended eLearning networks used to collaborate on the integrated global projects mentioned, where also leveraged to connect domain territory specialists and mentors to young people as they constructed an understanding of quantitative reasoning, social sciences, literature, experimental sciences, and visual arts in integrated project based learning. The ePortfolios of each learner on that beach in Maine and around the world would be constructed to exhibit learner mastery of knowledge territories and to meet international and national standards in education. This is international learning done across cultural, environmental and economic borders; creating a global frontier for critical education.<br />
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I know I have missed a few below (will update)....<br />
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Alfred, G. R. (2009). Wasase: indigenous pathways of action and freedom. Toronto, Ont.: University of Toronto Press.<br />
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Apple, M. W., Au, W., & Gandin, L. A. (2009). <i>The Routledge international handbook of critical education</i>. New York: Routledge.<br />
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Apple, M. W. (1995). <i>Education and power</i>. New York: Routledge.<br />
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Apple, M. W. (2000). <i>Official knowledge: democratic education in a conservative age</i>. New York: Routledge.<br />
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Apple, M. W., & Beane, J. A. (2007). <i>Democratic schools: lessons in powerful education</i>. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.<br />
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Beane, J. A. (1997). <i>Curriculum integration: designing the core of democratic education</i>. New York: Teachers College Press.<br />
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Boulding, E. (1988). <i>Building a global civic culture: education for an interdependent world</i>. New York: Teachers College Press, Teachers College, Columbia University.<br />
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Bowles, S., & Gintis, H. (1976). <i>Schooling in capitalist America: educational reform and the contradictions of economic life</i>. New York: Basic Books.<br />
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Catton, W. R. (1980). <i>Overshoot, the ecological basis of revolutionary change</i>. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.<br />
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Darling-Hammond, L. (2010). <i>The flat world and education: how America's commitment to equity will determine our future</i>. New York: Teachers College Press.<br />
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Jacobs, H. H. (2010). <i>Curriculum 21: essential education for a changing world</i>. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.<br />
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Illich, I. (1971). <i>Deschooling society.</i> New York: Harper & Row.<br />
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McKibben, B. (2010). <i>Eaarth: making a life on a tough new planet</i>. New York: Times Books.<br />
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Sawyer, R. K. (2006). <i>The Cambridge handbook of the learning sciences</i>. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Thomas Steele-Maleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13033774492302700093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7804741203544404650.post-42377389305483541032011-02-13T02:27:00.000-08:002011-07-03T04:39:07.019-07:00Apple (2010) Global crisis, social justice, and education<a rel="attachment wp-att-786" href="http://steelemaley.net/2011/02/13/apple-2010-global-crisis-social-justice-and-education/michael_apple/"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-786" title="michael_apple" src="http://steelemaley.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/michael_apple.jpe" alt="" width="287" height="221" /></a>For some time I have been deeply interested in the work of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Apple">Michael Apple.</a> Apple's writing on the politics of curriculum (specifically 1990, 1995, 2000), his work with James Beane on democratic schools (see 1995, 1999, 2007), and more recently his edited works in the field of critical education (2009, 2010) have helped me form some of my core values around learning, society and humanity.<br/><br/>Over the last month, I have also taken an interest in the work of <a href="http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User:Leighblackall">Leigh Blackall</a><a href="http://leighblackall.blogspot.com/">(Leigh's Blog)</a>. Leighs interests in deschooling, free schools and social change caused me to contact him. After looking over some blogged reading notes of Leighs, and having a short Twitter conversation with him I will be posting a few reading notes of my own starting with Michael Apple's newest work here. I hope they are helpful to those considering these topics.<br/><br/><strong>Apple, M. (2010). Global crisis, social justice, and education. New York: Routledge.</strong><br/><br/><strong>Synthsis</strong><br/><br/>This is a very important work for those seeking change in learning. Global crisis, social justice, and education is an affirmation of so much thinking and reading I have done on the need for a mutation in education. My doctoral research looks at a nexus of critical education and the possibilities of networked learning ecologies to fundamentally shift the non-democratic systems of education. This book has been a good resource in many ways. The silent power of neo-liberalism is easy to set aside in the world of internet freedoms. Apple helps us remember that as reseachers, designers, and practitioners in the field we have a role to play in international human rights, the common good, and as critical scholar/activists in our learning communities.<br/><br/>Apple uses Rosa (2008, p.4) in Global crisis, social justice, and education to introduce the seminal arguments of critical education (p.19):<br/><blockquote>Radical Democracy is not just born out of our option to participate in the ordinary political infrastructure. It is a process involving the ongoing democratization of civil society, the constant interrogation of how exclusion on the grounds of multiple markers occurs even when progressive projects are unfolding, and problematizing of conditions that fail to clal into question the various ways in which economic systems undermine political cultures, The term encodes democracy as unfinished. Educators need more exposure to such language given the reality of schools as highly undemocratic spheres where various oppressive ideologies converge in front of a captive audience. A democratic political system cannot com to fruition if the institutions of that society are undemocratic, anti-democratic, or fail to (re) create the structures and conditions that lead to further democratization. Democracy flourishes when democratic cultures are the norm.</blockquote><br/><strong>Overview</strong><br/><br/>In Global crisis, social justice, and education, Apple outlines an argument and challenge for critical educators and weaves the need for critical education (a nexus of scholarly endeavor: ideation, research, development, and activism), post-colonial mentalities and systems thinking to address the multifaceted pressures facing global education, in a globalized world.<br/><br/><strong>Thesis</strong><br/><br/>Apple et al. use four regional case studies, the US, Japan, the Israel|Palestinian state , and Latin America to prove that critical educators (teachers, researchers, learners) and social movements are needed to countervail the neo-liberal, and neo-conservative designs (against social justice and progressive education) surfacing as reform movements around the world as entrenched facets of globalization.<br/><br/><strong>Evidence</strong><br/><br/>Apple frames global crisis using a neo-marxist (world sytems theory) and radical democractic framework to explain how an integrated international economy effects core and periphery states. Global crisis emerges when the states both core and periphery adopt neo-liberal (market based reforms that further marginalize subaltern groups ,and place increasing power with corporations and business) and neo-conservative ( hegemonic control through militarism and economic policy). Apple argues that these forces denude social justice through "reform's". These reforms focus on socio-economic policy, and education. Apple argues that neo-liberal and neo-conservative "reform" actively sideline democratic and progressive education initiatives that foster awareness and action for the subaltern and state in favor of curriculum standardization (US, Israel, Japan), unfair distribution of educational resources to subaltern groups (Palestinian State, United States, Mexico) and in many cases human rights violations Palistinian State, Isreal). Apple et. al use this framework to highlight effective progressive movements working to counter neo-liberal and neo-conservative reform and to call on those in the field of education to proliferate the frameworks of critical education in research and practice.<br/><br/>Apple et al. illuminate the social movements, critical educators (p.40-45 Byrd Academy)(1), (p.55, role of "schools") and the power of new networked learning;(p.94-100),(p.136-153 see note 17 Caspi(1979) and <a href="BOW|http://www.handinhandk12.org/index.cfm?content.display&pageID=73">The Kedma School</a>,(170-185 CEAAL), that are challenging neo-liberal, and neo-conservative hegemonic proliferation. In doing so we are given both inspiration, and example of movements, projects and people working to address critical education and globalization. These progressive schools are unique according to Apple because they have risen in opposition to neo-liberal and neo-conservative "reforms" in areas where where these policies are prolific and well entrenched (The United States, Japan, Isreal/Palestinian State, and Mexico).<br/><br/><strong>Specifics of Interest: On Our Role as Researchers and Practitioners</strong><br/><br/>Apple states that the new critical educator may engage in research acting as secretaries to social movements centered around education....Apple et al provide reminders, ideas and resources both theoretical and empirical regarding critical education, and the role of the "organic",or "Public" intellectual. (He uses Gramsci from the Prison Journals well here (p.17).<br/><blockquote>"I and many others have argued that education must be seen as a political act"</blockquote><br/><blockquote>" The restructured role of the researcher--one who sees his or her task as thinking as rigorously and critically as possible about the relations between the policies and practices that are taken for granted in education and the larger sets of dominant economic, political, and cultural relations, and then connects this to action with and by social movements is crucial to what we are doing with this book."</blockquote><br/>Apple reminds us that education can and should be viewed as activism.<br/><br/>I have at my core a belief and share with Apple as a critical educator that education can be the determinant of peace and unity in our world. That said I believe that world systems theory and the economic division of the world described by Apple et al. has led to a very dangerous place for humanity. The huge division of wealth and access to resources in the world has led to radicalization and anti-democratic policy's in education.<br/><br/>How we recognize the role of critical education in our network learning ideation, research, design and practice is of concern to me. <a href="http://leighblackall.blogspot.com/">Leigh Blackall</a>,<a href="http://www.downes.ca/"> Stephen Downes</a>, and <a href="http://www.elearnspace.org/">George Seimens</a> and recently <a href="http://www.e-flux.com/journal/view/128">Florian Schneider</a> have all given me cause for hope.<br/><br/><strong>References</strong><br/><br/>Apple on Critical Education: this is a good Introduction (translation is edited out here) See original <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6P1FoymrHM">here</a>.<br/><br/>Apple, M. W. (1990). Ideology and curriculum. New York: Routledge.<br/>Apple, M. W., & Beane, J. A. (2007). Democratic schools: lessons in powerful education. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.<br/>Apple, M. W. (2000). Official knowledge: democratic education in a conservative age. New York: Routledge.<br/>Apple, M. W. (1995). Education and power. New York: Routledge.<br/>Apple, M. W., Au, W., & Gandin, L. A. (2009). The Routledge international handbook of critical education. New York: Routledge.<br/>Apple, M. (2010). Global crisis, social justice, and education. New York: Routledge.<br/>Apple, M. Theory, Research, and the Critical Scholar/Activist. Educational Researcher March 2010 39: 152-155)<br/>Gramsci, A. : Prison Journal's on Education and "selections 1st ed."(1971)<br/>Rosa, R. (2008) Savage Neo-Liberalism Education Review, 11, 1-17Thomas Steele-Maleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13033774492302700093noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7804741203544404650.post-63873460456962921142011-02-11T02:13:00.000-08:002011-07-03T04:39:45.002-07:00The past our memorials and mLearning<a rel="attachment wp-att-796" href="http://steelemaley.net/2011/02/11/the-past-our-memorials-and-mlearning/photo/"><img class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-796" title="photo" src="http://steelemaley.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/photo-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="225" /></a>The gift of mLearning is in unlocking the barriers to experience placed upon the learner in our "schools"....how interpretation through experience changes the learning process is ever-present in an mLearning event. There are the shades of a decolonization of learning evident....how students reflect, the mentors pace, the chance to dwell in a place is not remotely akin to the "school" experience of disjointed timed obsolescence in learning. mLearning is also more than a "field trip" to a museum. Phones, flips, video, collaboration, purpose, reflection, network, connection.....this organic experience is meaningful and lasting.<br/><div class="posterous_autopost"><br/><br/>Being in this Museum with learners who are engaged outside the borders of the school makes me preflect on a day when we will be mentoring mLearning trips to museums of learning where our past will seem painful because of the time it took to change education from a schooling process to a learning network.<br/><br/>I look forward to reading that memorial.<br/><br/></div>Thomas Steele-Maleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13033774492302700093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7804741203544404650.post-43453977060439532692011-02-10T07:53:00.000-08:002011-07-03T04:39:45.003-07:00What would they say to you if they could?<a href="http://steelemaley.net/2011/02/10/what-would-they-say-to-you-if-they-could/eye/" rel="attachment wp-att-775"><img src="http://steelemaley.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/eye.jpg" alt="" title="eye" width="385" height="256" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-775" /></a><br/><br/><br/><br/><strong>Would you listen? </strong><br/><br/><strong>A Note to an amazing group of teachers <em>and </em>learners....</strong><br/><br/>I have been encouraged by our meetings in EDT400 this spring semester. But today you showed the desire to innovate in clear terms. You saw that learning-not teaching is what <em>education</em> is all about. The barriers to <em>seeing</em> and <em>acting</em> to move learning from irrelevance into a networked, purposeful, fun, and useful....environment for the young and old are real. Your candor and imaging today gave me cause to be hopeful. Your passions will guide you well as teachers and learners. I also saw many ah ha moments today! <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_the_child_driven_education.html">If machines can replace teachers, they will</a>. Who will be replaced.....<br/><br/><iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/0VSymMbMYHA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br/><br/>Much for us to discuss.....networks in learning, opening the school, mLearning revolutions, design based learning.....<br/><br/><strong>Thank you all.</strong>Thomas Steele-Maleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13033774492302700093noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7804741203544404650.post-39636598383161652352011-02-07T05:34:00.000-08:002011-07-03T04:39:45.003-07:00Learning Structures as barriers to Connection<div class='posterous_autopost'><p>What do our "buildings" do to learning....</p> <p><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/O9AYiYE1-IY" frameborder="0" height="390" width="640"></iframe></p> <p>Thank you for feeding this forward <a href="http://ksuanth.weebly.com/wesch.html">Micheal Wesch</a></p></div>Thomas Steele-Maleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13033774492302700093noreply@blogger.com0