Donald Clark Plan B: 21st Century Skills are so last century!

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Donald Clark Plan B: 21st Century Skills are so last century!.

Hmmmm…

Wonder if formal Education (and the associated formal Educators) will be able to see the irony that’s being highlighted here?

I also like Steven Downes’ list:

My list is very different:
– emergent thinking: extracting patterns, rules, regularities, prototypes
– sensing value – finding meaning, truth, relevance, purpose, goals
– acting semiotically – using signs, signals, art, desig, etc., to do things
– seeing beyond – describing, defining, drawing conclusions, explaining data
– ecological sensitivity – placing in context, seeing frames, making meaning
– living in change – understanding flow, adaptation, progression
These are literacies that reflect the times and not simply the fact that we have a lot of machines.

I agree with Steven that the list really is grounded in 20-century perspectives, but I also suspect that this is the only way formal Education will be able to comprehend it. Like I’ve said before, formal education is profoundly broken. I really don’t see a century old system changing very fast, or very much, except around the edges.

Unfortunately for them, if they don’t change, many institutions will find themselves becoming extinct as ‘free’ people find more and more other ways to learn and as these people realize that formal schooling isn’t providing anything they need. Perhaps, formal schooling has had it’s time. Perhaps it’s time to look at getting rid of it entirely?

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Techno-toddlers: A is for Apple | Technology | The Guardian

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Techno-toddlers: A is for Apple | Technology | The Guardian.

Earlier this year, AVG Technologies, a firm that makes antivirus computer software, conducted a survey of mothers of children aged between two and five with internet access at home. They found that more of the children knew how to play a computer game than swim or ride a bike, and that more pre-schoolers knew how to use a smartphone than tie their shoelaces.

Interesting…..

Once we develop the hoverchair, those kids will be all set…  (http://pixar.wikia.com/Axiom)

Srsly, I don’t see anything wrong with little tykes knowing how to use the technology that surrounds them, so long as there is balance. In other words they should also know: how to play in the dirt, climb trees, build forts, and be a duck. They should know what a worm feels like in your hand, how to make a snow-angel, what happens when you kick a dandelion in seed, how to make a snapdragon talk, and much, much more.

 

To these kids, the tablet is NOT “technology”, it is merely part of their world. The challenge for us is to make sure that those things we cherish and deem important are ALSO part of their world.

 

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Cats and Rabbits (and getting people to do what you want)

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Rabbits are prey animals.

They are easily frightened – and for good reason. They are yummy and there are few meat-eaters who would refuse an opportunity to eat rabbit. (NOTE: this is not an animal welfare post – I’m building a metaphor – so bear with me)
The way to make a frightened rabbit settle when holding it is to hold it tighter.
They feel secure cradled in your arms with their heads tucked tightly under your arm.

Cats, on the other hand, are predators.

They may be cautious, but they are much less easily frightened. They are among the group of critters that like to eat rabbits (I’m told it is almost the only thing a lynx will eat).
The best way to hold a cat is to apply as little pressure as possible – often, the tighter you hold them, the more they will struggle to get free.

People are much more like cats than rabbits.

The more freedom you can give them to move as they see fit, the more likely you are to get what you want from them.

Some of that is about trust.

Perhaps some of it is also because we too are predators.

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Slouching toward a bananapocalypse? | Grist

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Slouching toward a bananapocalypse? | Grist.

All commercial bananas are of the same variety. They’re also seedless – which means they are not only the same kind but they are also the same plant. If something infects one instance of that plant, it can infect ALL OF THEM. 100% infection because they all share the same genetics; the same resistance; the same susceptibilities.

This is why we need to preserve as many different breeds as we can. I’ve talked about this before here and here.

 

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No More Swikis: End of the Constructionist Web at Georgia Tech « Computing Education Blog

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No More Swikis: End of the Constructionist Web at Georgia Tech « Computing Education Blog.

I’m seeing similar edicts coming from other universities too. I moved all of my university-related stuff to my own private domain several years before I actually left the university because I found it increasingly difficult to do collaborative and cooperative work with and for my students using the university web-spaces. I even set up my own Moodle site on my domain so I could deal with grades and content that could not be publicly posted.

If the formal institutions do not realize that they need to become more open rather than more protectionist, they will become the agents of their own downfall.

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What if the Secret to Success Is Failure? – NYTimes.com

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What if the Secret to Success Is Failure? – NYTimes.com.

I’ve been saying this for years!!!

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Democratizing Programming

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Just came across a great quote by Chris Crawford….

“What we need is a means of democratizing programming, of taking it out of the soulless hands of the programmers and putting it into the hands of a wider range of talents.”

(p.359, The Art of Interactive Design, 2003)

That’s right along the lines of what we’re trying to do with our book due out in December. We’ve put up a website for the book: books.minkhollow.ca. There isn’t much there yet beyond a brief overview and the table of contents, but this is where we will post color versions of the images, code snippets, and other resources to go with the book.

ISBN 1118009231

Published by Wiley

Wiley’s Book Site

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#UnschoolingRules: Places to Learn

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#UnschoolingRules: Places to Learn.

Well said Clark Aldrich.

The activity of farming teaches ethics as well as business and science. Many corporations today seem to be run by near-sociopathic MBA’s who think in terms of cramming, gaming the system, extraction, and winning for the sake of winning (95% of people in a survey thought L.L. Bean was now on the wrong track, as an example), all the attributes developed and rewarded by the current industrial school system.

Now consider the activity of family farming over writing term papers or studying for tests. Farming takes patience, physical work, stewardship, and the ability to react to a dynamic, real system.

I would add that it is also a system where most parts are out of your direct control. You cannot buy or sweet-talk the weather, the plants, or most animals.

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