John Connell

Could diary.com be the step beyond that those of us who don’t like Twitter’s limitations have been looking for?

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“It is not only that learning is complex, but also that in order to understand learning more is needed than the kind of simple progression — linear in its design — that we have put together through the traditional educational system. The challenge is to take all of the elements that make it possible to live a rich and inquisitive life and place them into a context where they can be appreciated. In order to change that context, a new philosophical base has to be built, one that appreciates the transformative relationship between learning and change.”

From a review by Ron Burnett of Learners in a Changing Learning Landscape (eds. Jan Visser and Muriel Visser-Valfrey). Ron always writes intelligently and thoughtfully, and often with a left-field twist that makes what he writes interesting. His review of the book is no different and makes me want to get hold of it.

But - for all that his review makes me want to buy the book - the price tag in the UK of £88 is very steep. I’ll need to think about it - or maybe try to find a copy in San Francisco this week so that I can actually see it before I buy it.

Technorati Tags: learners in a changing learning landscape, jan visser, muriel visser-valfrey, ron burnett

David Gilmour, knowing my liking for The Onion, sent me this - 6-Year-Old Stares Down Bottomless Abyss …..

But is this really a spoof?

Postscript - note that David posted the link on his own blog too, before I did

Technorati Tags: david gilmour, the onion, school

Jeffrey Sachs’ words in his Guardian piece today - The digital war on poverty - are music to my ears:

“Extreme poverty is almost synonymous with extreme isolation, especially rural isolation. But mobile phones and wireless internet end isolation, and will therefore prove to be the most transformative technology of economic development of our time.”

Sachs believes there is real evidence to suggest that the global digital divide is starting to close, that digital information is now flowing to even the poorest countries in the world via mobile phones, text messaging and the Web.

He notes that:

“The digital divide is ending not through a burst of civic responsibility, but mainly through market forces.”

And he believes that education will be transformed by all of this:

“Throughout the world, schools at all levels will go global, joining together in worldwide digital education networks. Children in the United States will learn about Africa, China, and India not only from books and videos, but also through direct links across classrooms in different parts of the world. Students will share ideas through live chats, shared curricula, joint projects, and videos, photos, and text sent over the digital network.”

Technorati Tags: jeffrey sachs, digital divide, world poverty, education

Like many others, I’m sure, I have been fascinated by Caroline Gibson’s tales of her time spent earlier this year in Malawi, teaching in a school and living with her host family. From her first post in-country on July 1st right up to her most recent post her honesty, humour and commitment have shone through from the beginning. Caroline has been home since the end of July, but has been working through the diary she kept in Malawi. Husband, Neal, penned a few of the posts that appeared while Caroline was away on the basis of news received from his wife.

Caroline’s tales from Malawi definitely put my own travels into perspective, and into the shade! Where I get to see very little of lots of different countries, she has been able to immerse herself deeply within the life and schooling of a Malawian community, to the extent that the whole experience has got under her skin and she wants to be able to back again.

I am sure Caroline will have learned more about the realities of education in the so-called devloping world in her short time in Malawi than I have been able to learn from 20 months of spreading myself thinly across the globe. She and the thirteen other teachers from all over Scotland who went to Africa as part of the Global Teachers Programme should be proud of themselves, and I hope that others learn as much as they can from them about education in that part of the world, and maybe follow their lead in future years.

And, what’s more, Caroline even managed to keep her running programme going while in Malawi - now that is what I call madness dedication!

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It’s no wonder that Michael Phelps won all those gold medals in Beijing!

Technorati Tags: michael phelps, olympics, swimming, the onion

As TechCrunch says, this is a must-have tool!

Iterasi enables you to build an online archive of web pages, with each page saved - ‘notarized’ in Iterasi’s terminology - as an exact working copy of the original:

“…text, links, images, live forms, transactions, receipts, confirmations and, of course, all of your personalized content. “

It allows you to embed an archived page on your blog and also lets you email a page to a friend. Go see the video demo for a fuller outline. It works with IE in Windows and with Firefox in Mac Os or in Windows - just download the extension that adds 4 buttons to your toolbar to give you access to the full set of capabilities.

Technorati Tags: iterasi, techcrunch, web archive

If you want the inside track on the Presbyterian Ladies’ College, Sydney (see my earlier post), and its attempt to drag examinations into the 21st century, then you won’t get better than this - The Truth is Out There - from Chris Betcher, who teaches in the school. He has done a great job of explaining the thinking behind the initiative.

Chris is worried by some of the comments that have been posted in response to the Sydney Morning Herald’s piece on the PLC move. He has no reason to worry, unless, like me, he simply feels concern for the evidently lamentable understanding of the nature of knowledge and the purpose of education of all those who are criticizing the move.

I tried to add my own comment, but the SMH’s comment page would not let me post for some reason - so I append the comment I wrote here:

“If you want to understand the effects of the ludicrous examination systems we have been smothered by for so long, just read the comments here from all of those who believe that education should be about filling young people’s heads with ‘knowledge’ and that examinations are therefore surely about testing how much of that ‘knowledge’ a child can retain in his or her head and then vomit onto a piece of paper on command - with a pencil (a pencil !) - all within a very short space of time - and with no recourse at all to the wonderful and abundant sources of information available to us all today.

So, please ignore the bleating of those who talk of cheating and those who talk of laziness and those who think it’s all a joke, etc - they are fools who simply do not understand the realities of the world we live in. At least the students of PLC, if such eminently sensible practice can become standard practice, have the chance to grow up with a better understanding of the nature of knowledge, and the processes by which knowledge is applied in the real world, than any of the gradgrinds throwing their crass and negative comments around in this space.”

It would be good to see a few more positive comments in favour of the plain good sense of the college - click here and get writing. Let’s help ease Chris’s concerns about the world’s reaction to the wisdom and courage of his school.

Technorati Tags: Presbyterian Ladies’ College, chris betcher, examinations, assessment, sydney morning herald

Thank you to my colleague, Martin Stewart-Weeks for pointing this piece out to me from the Sydney Morning Herald - Phone a friend in exams.

The Presbyterian Ladies’ College in Sydney:

“…is redefining the concept of cheating by allowing students to “phone a friend” and use the internet and i-Pods during exams.

Presbyterian Ladies’ College at Croydon is giving the assessment method a trial run with year 9 English students and plans to expand it to all subjects by the end of the year.”

This just makes good sense, and I hope many more have the courage to recognize the wisdom and humanity in such a shift and begin to follow suit.

Technorati Tags: presbyterian ladies college, sydney morning herald, martin stewart-weeks, assessment

Thanks to johnthescone for this pic of the great Chris Hoy.

Like A-Level students in England, British athletes in Beijing are being given an easy ride compared to previous Olympiads. The Olympics must be dumbing down - there’s just no other explanation possible!

Technorati Tags: olympics, a-levels, dumbing down, beijing