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Comment by Avi Luxenburg on January 13, 2013 at 8:51

I enjoyed reading your article, Michael. A good reminder.  I have not read Papert's book, but will definitely put it on my "to read" list.

I have been absent from this conversation for a while as we try, at my school, to live Papert's concepts.  Among our ventures this year is a formalization of inquiry time as part of our weekly schedule, where we have separated inquiry from the limitations of course-based learning outcomes.  (Although inquiry can be just as powerful as part of any curriculum, we felt that it was too easy to "fall back" on our normal ways of doing things if we did not separate it from our courses.)  Student topics are so various that all we can do is try to help them access resources in their endeavors.  We have students learning to play the guitar, or trying to find out which is better, Tennis or Soccer, or learning a language, or learning to code... and the list is as long as the student list at out school.  We just try to keep up; and, isn't that the way we want it! I am loving the reversal, but am frustrated that many students are uncomfortable in the absence of our traditional spoon-feeding tendencies. 

We are all learning quite a bit from the process.  Exciting times.

Thank you for keeping this conversation going.  I agree that it is an important one.

Avi

Comment by michael maser on January 9, 2013 at 11:26

Thought I'd apprise about my essay in yesterday's Sun, a 20-year retrospective of Seymour Papert's visionary book, 'The Children's Machine: Rethinking Schooling in the Age of the Computer', found here. 

On re-reading I found this book - which inspired me 20 years ago when I first read it - fresh and compelling. Papert was a strong supporter - always - of personalized and self-directed learning, and he saw the computer as an adjunct to this. 

- Michael Maser

Comment by michael maser on October 31, 2012 at 11:26

Not sure why this topic seems to be so quiet. 

In my 25 year career as an educator and administrator I've striven to give students opportunities to be self-responsible learners; this is the future of learning IMO, but it's getting the cold shoulder from career teachers unfortunately, though PL, dressed up to give all the (power) tools of learning to teachers seems to be flourishing. 

This was on display, IMO, in Ian Jukes' keynote presentation a couple of weeks back at CUE-BC PD day. Jukes' passion for "21st Centuries Fluencies" is evident, but the key missing Fluency to my perception was Self-Responsible Learning. Otherwise, we may as well be talking about "20th (19th?) C Fluencies. I think it's time to really empower kids to thrive in an emerging world, and especially a world of work, that's very different than what we experienced. 

- Michael Maser

SelfDesign Learning

Comment by David Wees on June 13, 2011 at 19:29

Hi all,

 

Here is the archive from today's from the Twitter chat. Thank you all to whomever participated.

 

David

Comment by Avi Luxenburg on May 25, 2011 at 20:09

I watched a Grade 7 yesterday, "taught" by Jaki Braidwood, as each student found her or his own way to "back-channel" while a short video was being shown.  The class had 10 IPod touch devices that allowed the students to use twitter to share questions and ideas.  The wonderful thing was that I could use the hashtag to follow along.  I was very interested in the questions and comments by these students.  Being able to follow their thinking and questioning, as they watched this movie, brought home the power of providing a venue for an authentic voice.  

The Twitter stream is also embedded in the class blog, so their global audience (and they do have one) can share in the experience.

These students are "caring about their learning"... they see it as theirs.  If only they could hold on to that as they enter the world of high school.

Comment by Bonnie Jeansonne on April 19, 2011 at 12:17

There are a few factors here...

1- Provincial Learning outcomes.

2- Limited choice (students have difficulty with too many choices)

3- Manageable choices (length of project, time management, social interactions that hinder progress, students prior learning)

4- the need for tax dollars to measure a return on investment at a set time (ie. graduation rates).

 

I have used Kathie Nuneley's Layered curriculum with varying degrees of success.  Students just wanted to "get through school". The mandated learning outcomes were not relevant to their lives and I had a grade wide final exam. Students are conditioned to play school and complain that not enough teaching is going on. Still, those who bought into it saw the value. I was also able to integrate an adapted program.  It takes a lot of work.  Go slow. Keep it simple.

 

People need (including myself) to develop their own internal dialogue for metacognition. That is where the real learning happens.. not filling in the blanks on a test and not by finding a boat load of information on the internet and certainly not twittering  "OMG & LOL!"

 

Game analytics looks promising (See Learning Mate). The cost of creating an infrastructure that is responsive to individual students' learning needs cannot be done by a teacher alone. Rather, the system needs to include an interoperability model where fewer bureaucracies are balkanized. At the moment, the "choice" to select schools, particularly online environments creates competition between districts, schools and subject teachers. The first step, is a systemic change and committed investment to create commonly used learning objects.

Comment by Avi Luxenburg on December 3, 2010 at 14:39

My wife just sent me this quote:
A teacher is one who makes himself progressively unnecessary.
-Thomas Carruthers