Archive for the 'Ideas' Category
January 21st, 2008 by Jorge Goncalves
Unlocking the promise of open educational resources: The Cape Town Open Education Declaration. ‘The Cape Town Open Education Declaration arises from a small but lively meeting convened in Cape Town in September 2007. The aim of this meeting was to accelerate efforts to promote open resources, technology and teaching practices in education.
Convened by the Open Society Institute and the Shuttleworth Foundation, the meeting gathered participants with many points of view from many nations. This group discussed ways to broaden and deepen their open education efforts by working together.
The first concrete outcome of this meeting is the Cape Town Open Education Declaration. It is at once a statement of principle, a statement of strategy and a statement of commitment. It meant to spark dialogue, to inspire action and to help the open education movement grow.’
The Declarion (excerpt): We are on the cusp of a global revolution in teaching and learning. Educators worldwide are developing a vast pool of educational resources on the Internet, open and free for all to use. These educators are creating a world where each and every person on earth can access and contribute to the sum of all human knowledge. They are also planting the seeds of a new pedagogy where educators and learners create, shape and evolve knowledge together, deepening their skills and understanding as they go. [continue reading]
Related: Stephen Downes Criticizing the Cape Town Declaration
You can sign the Declaration here
January 20th, 2008 by Jorge Goncalves
Big Think. ‘bigthink.com is a new and growing website, currently in its private beta version, with a simple mission:
This is a digital age, one in which a wealth of accessible information empowers you, the citizen-consumer. But where is the information coming from? How accurate and unprocessed is it, really? Ask yourself this: how empowered do you feel debating a television screen or a newspaper?
Big Think’s task is to move the discussion away from talking heads and talking points, and give it back to you. That is Big Think’s mission. In practice, this means that information is truly interactive. When you log onto the site, you can access hundreds of hours of direct, unfiltered interviews with today’s leading thinkers, movers and shakers. You can search them by question or by topic, and, best of all, respond in kind. Upload a video in which you take on Senator Ted Kennedy’s views on immigration; post a slideshow of your trip to China that supports David Dollar’s assertion that pollution in China is a major threat; or answer with plain old fashioned text. You can respond to the interviewee, respond to a responder or heck, throw your own question or idea into the ring.’
January 16th, 2008 by Jorge Goncalves
Knowing Knowledge Wiki. From the Preface: Why does so much of our society look as it did in the past? Our schools, our government, our religious organizations, our media—while more complex, have maintained their general structure and shape. Classroom structure today, with the exception of a computer or an LCD projector, looks remarkably unchanged—teacher at the front, students in rows. Our business processes are still built on theories and viewpoints that existed over a century ago (with periodic amendments from thinkers like Drucker2). In essence, we have transferred (not transformed) our physical identity to online spaces and structures.
This book seeks to tackle knowledge—not to provide a definition—but to provide a way of seeing trends developing in the world today. Due to the changed context and characteristics of knowledge, traditional definitions are no longer adequate. Language produces different meaning for different people. The meaning generated by a single definition is not sufficiently reflective of knowledge as a whole.’
Related Links: Knowing Knowledge site and blog (links to book reviews).
November 8th, 2007 by Jorge Goncalves
Exploratree & Enquiring Minds. ‘Exploratree is a free web resource where you can download, use and make your own interactive thinking guides. Thinking guides can support independent and group research projects with frameworks for thinking, planning and enquiry. We’ve provided a set of ready-made guides which you can print out or use online. All of the guides are completely customizable or you can start from scratch and make your own! You can share them and work on them in groups too.
The Exploratree web resource has been developed by Futurelab and emerged out of our work on the Enquiring Minds project. It provides a series of ready-made interactive ‘thinking guides’ or ‘frameworks’ which can support students’ projects and research. Thinking guides support the thinking or working through of an issue, topic or question and help to shape, define and focus an idea and also support the planning required to investigate it further.’
Enquiring Minds. ‘Enquiring Minds is an approach to teaching and learning, developed by Futurelab, that takes students’ ideas, interests and experiences as its starting point, and provides them with more responsibility for the direction and content of their learning.’
October 18th, 2007 by Jorge Goncalves
The Economist Debate Series:
First Debate, Oct. 15th-23rd, 2007: Effectiveness of Technology - Does new technology add to the quality of education?
In favour of the proposition is Sir John Daniel, President and CEO of The Commonwealth of Learning. Opposing the motion is Dr Robert Kozma, Emeritus Director and Principal Scientist at SRI International.
Second Debate: National Competitiveness - Should countries compete to attract qualified students regardless of nationality and residence?
Third Debate: Social Networking - Does it bring positive change to education?
October 14th, 2007 by Jorge Goncalves
This post is a little bit far away from online learning but it is Sunday and a friend has called my attention to this concept and I like it! A Spanish immersion school located at Costa Rica (Playa Tamarindo) offers not only Spanish language courses but also surf and scuba diving programmes. The overall idea is to study Spanish in the morning and take surf or dive classes in the afternoon. Very refreshing and motivating! Learn Spanish & Surf Partnership School offers several options, the site is very informative and is undeniably an original option for those interested in Spanish immersion learning.
October 2nd, 2007 by Jorge Goncalves
Sketchcast. ‘Sketchcasting is a new way to communicate something online by recording a sketch, optionally with your voice speaking. Any sketch can then be embedded on your blog/ homepage for people to play-back, and you can also point people to your sketchcast channel here (or let them subscribe to your sketchcast RSS feed).
Sketchcast is new but it’s based on an old principle: the whiteboard (or the napkin in a bar) on which you sketch something to get a concept across… or to just have some fun. Sketchasting was invented by Richard Ziade on July 23rd, 2007.
Richard Ziade blog: basement.org
October 1st, 2007 by Jorge Goncalves
Art Education 2.0 - Using New Technology in Art Classrooms. ‘Art Education 2.0 is for art educators at all levels who are interested in using digital technologies to enhance and transform teaching and learning in their classrooms. The aim of Art Education 2.0 is to explore ways of using technology to promote effective art education practices, encourage cultural exchanges and joint creative work, and support artistic projects and curricular activities deemed important by members. Art Education 2.0 is a social network created by Craig Roland on Ning.’
Ning in Education - Using Ning for Educational Social Networks: the social network for those using the Ning social networking platform in education.
Ning social networks tagged ‘education’
September 30th, 2007 by Jorge Goncalves
University of Manitoba’s Learning Technologies Centre’s Blended Learning Wiki. ‘There is no agreement on the definition of blended learning. The term is used in a wide variety of ways, and applied to a wide range of teaching and learning approaches.
Many blended learning definitions refer to conventional face-to-face teaching and learning activities (synchronous) that are mixed or blended with technology mediated learning activities not offered in real time at a specific location (asynchronous).
It should also be noted that in most formal educational settings (credit courses) there has always been a blend of space/time learning activities. Whether in the form of homework, assignments, or studying, almost all courses require independent or group learning activities to occur beyond scheduled instructional time.’
University of Manitoba’s Learning Technologies Centre (TLC). ‘Now in its second year, the goal of the Learning Technologies Centre (TLC) is to provide faculty and graduate students the resources and collaborative support to research, develop, and create pedagogically and technologically sound teaching and learning resources.’
Visit also: LTC Wiki
September 13th, 2007 by Jorge Goncalves
Stanford University International Outreach Program (IOP). ‘The Stanford University International Outreach Program (IOP), a new program under the auspices of Stanford’s International Initiative, supports the extension and adaptation of Stanford educational content and teaching programs for collaborative partnerships with tertiary institutions in developing countries.
Innovative teaching and learning approaches, multidisciplinary curriculums, appropriate uses of Information and Communication Technologies, in conjunction with building teaching capacity among partners provide the framework for directing IOP’s program activities.’
Stanford Report: Stanford expands distance learning across the globe. ‘Researchers at Stanford and at universities in Africa and Latin America are pushing the boundaries of distance learning to develop new collaborative models that will prepare students to work in an increasingly borderless world.
Under the recently launched International Outreach Program (IOP), headed by Reinhold Steinbeck, Stanford faculty are helping to redefine the way students learn whether they are in high-tech classrooms on campus, in remote wildlife parks in Tanzania, in teacher-training colleges in Chile, or at a university in Cali, Colombia.
“What’s really exciting about this is that it opens a whole new chapter in engaging students in these countries in globally distributed courses,” Steinbeck said of these and other pilot projects supported by IOP, which is based at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) under the auspices of the International Initiative. “We are very determined to make this a collaborative process”.’
September 5th, 2007 by Jorge Goncalves
Edutopia: Academic Scrapbooking: Snapshots of Learning. ‘A social studies teacher uses photo journals to make learning more personal and immediate for her students. Here’s an assignment: Grab a stack of acid-free paper, some glue sticks, and a few photographs, and set your students to work on a scrapbook.
Sounds a little like arts-and-crafts time? Perhaps, but academic scrapbooking is actually being used as a powerful classroom tool to help students better connect with the subject at hand, from lessons on ancient Greece to an exploration of themes of love in literature.
Heidi Willard, a social studies teacher and enthusiastic advocate of academic scrapbooking, describes it as “personalizing the curriculum.” Students get away from the textbook - but not the lesson - and complete a hands-on assignment that allows organized classroom movement and results in better retention of the material. “My experience as a teacher has taught me that it is the activity in the classroom they remember,” says Willard, who has used scrapbooking with both special-needs and traditional students.’
September 2nd, 2007 by Jorge Goncalves
OECD Policy Brief: Lifelong Learning and Human Capital (PDF). Introduction: The world of work has seen enormous change over the past couple of decades. Manufacturing jobs account for an ever smaller percentage of the workforce in most developed economies. Indeed, salaries in manufacturing have generally fallen behind those of other sectors. Today, “knowledge workers” – a category covering everything from call-centre workers to architects, teachers and financial employees – are increasingly pivotal to economic success in developed countries.
The potential for individuals and countries to benefit from this emerging knowledge economy depends largely on their education, skills, talents and abilities, that is, their human capital. As a result, governments are increasingly concerned with raising levels of human capital, chiefly through education and training, which today are seen as ever more critical to fuelling economic growth.
However, formal education, which usually runs from about the age of 4 or 5 to the late teens or early 20s, is only one part of forming human capital. In many ways it is more useful to think of human capital formation as a life-long learning process rather than as education.
From an economic and employment perspective, this human potential for lifelong learning is assuming ever greater importance. Old jobs are migrating to places where labour is cheaper. Meanwhile, fast-changing technologies are creating new jobs unheard of only recently or radically altering what workers need to know to perform their existing jobs. Consequently, people now need to continue developing their skills and abilities throughout their working lives.
This Policy Brief looks at the concept of human capital, its increasing importance to economic growth, and how governments and societies can work to develop it during early childhood, the years of formal education and adulthood.
Thoughts Aside: Certain training and testing systems have been aimed at life long learning and the development of human capital (000-077). A major attribute of these courses is the ease of use and flexibility with respect to learning (000-078) and pricing options. Employers can subscribe to an employee education and training program (000-190) by simply signing up and paying per session (000-222) as and when needed.
