Freelearning

Never too Late

My blog has lain dormant for almost four months.  Many of my entries have been about experiments in education.  They provide a context for my writing.  I think I am still looking for the kind of school I wish I had been able to attend.

I have spent the last three months working on a memoir of growing up in Michigan -- urban and rural, isolated and loved, breathing in nature and fearing industries.  I've captured each memory in a short, short story.  I've created 12-15 so far.  This focused, backward looking writing has overtaken my earlier experiment with a blog.

Now I'm ready to start up my blog again.  Barbara Ganley writes about her work with students at http://mt.middlebury.edu/middblogs/ganley/bgblogging/ .  She encourages the students she works with to blog their learning.  I aspire to blog my learning across disciplines, genres, interests, and roles I hold.  When I started my blog last summer, I read that it was important to pick a topic and to stick with it.  I tried to do that and found myself limited.  What I want to do is weave my personal/intellectual adventure into a distinctive fabric that reflects who I am.  I guess it is my person that will be the common thread.

I take out books from the library on a range of subjects each time I go.   Politics, religion, The Emperor's Children by Claire Messud (fiction), visions for the economic future of this country, a memoir of Hilary Clinton,  a biography of David Mamet, how to begin to do watercolors,  politics, and religion.  I use Amazon.com to read reviews of books if I want to get the gist quickly; sometimes I read the professional reviews but more often I find the users'  comments more  helpful.

I am throwing off the strictures I put on myself about keeping to one topic and having several hyperlinks in each post and doing everything "right" (when I don't even know how to get the computer to do what I want it to half the time).  I'm going to write for myself, in public, for a while and see what develops.

Traditional Language and Advanced Technology

Seminole elders used money from their casinos to set up a school for their children that uses advanced technology and teaches the traditional ways.

Students at the school, which opened in August and cost $10 million to build, are learning how to navigate the 21st century while still retaining their culture. So in one classroom, children learn language arts -- by podcast. Down the hall, others recite words in Creek, the Seminoles' language. Outside, just beyond the school's fence, cattle graze.

Children use laptop computers and ipods.  They have classes in beading and other crafts.

Classes are small and the children enjoy learning.  They teach their parents the Seminole language and ask their grandparents for help with pronunciation. This is an experiment to see whether traditional ways and modern technology can both exist in a culture.

I wonder whether internet contact with other original peoples would increase the value students place on their language and culture.  Would interest from students in another part of the US who are curious about the Seminole students' way of life lead to mutual respect for native ways?

Successful Inner City School

Edutopia reports on an inner city school in Baltimore that is successfully meeting the needs of its students.  Out of 570 who have ever attended the Baltimore Talent Development High School , only 11 have dropped out.

An HBO series called The Wire has reported on the problems in city schools.  In its fourth season it tells the true story of a successful school.

. . . Located in the same West Baltimore neighborhood as the fictional school in The Wire, one small learning environment, Baltimore Talent Development High School, is doing this imagining in real life.

"The premise of the model is double dosing," says Robinson. Citing academic failure as the most significant reason for dropouts, he explains that Baltimore Talent students double up on classes in key content areas, taking the equivalent of two English courses and math classes in their ninth-grade year, with skill-building courses in the first semester. Because most Baltimore Talent students come in below grade level, this schedule "better prepares them to succeed and pass and move on to tenth grade," explains Robinson.

The principal knows every student by name and interacts with them lightly as he walks through the halls.  Adults separate the rules of the street, which they do not try to tell students how to deal with, and the rules in school that are to be respected.  University and community members meet with students to review their report cards and make plans for improvement.  Successes large and small are celebrated.

This school is more traditional than many I have reported on here.  It has the advantage of showing how schools might become more successful working within the school environment.  This example does not require a revolution.  It does show respect for students and a sincere desire to see them succeed, meeting them where they are.  Though it is not an example of "free learning", I suspect that the students graduate with confidence in their ability to learn.  Future lifelong learners.

Learning Centres Replace High Schools

No more school as council opens 'learning centres' Independent, The (London) - Find Articles.

The style of learning will be completely different. The new centres will open from 7am until 10pm in both term-time and what used to be known as the school holidays. At weekends, they will open from 9am to 8pm. Youngsters will not be taught in formal classes, nor will they stick to a rigid timetable; instead they will work online at their own speeds on programmes that are tailor-made to match their interests.

A school district in England, where many students had low test scores, has decided to develop an unorthodox approach to "school."  They are in the process of transitioning their high schools to a learning centers approach. 

Learning From Pre-scientific Cultures

In the push to distribute a laptop to each child in the world, we are risking the destruction or extinction of valuable knowledge.  Native American children were found to know nothing of their natural environment because the only knowledge they thought was valuable was what was found in books.  They had not learned from their grandparents because they had come to value books to the exclusion of oral history.

If children come to see (parts) of the internet as a higher source of knowledge than information passed down orally, then local knowledge about ways of growing food on nearby land will be lost.  Knowledge of medicinal plants may no longer be available.

The scientific approach looks for what is verifiable and can be observed over time.  Science that is most revered is that which can be generalized the farthest.  Laws of physics are taken to be universal.  I believe that attention to knowledge at the abstract level to the exclusion of location-specific knowledge will lead to the loss of valuable information.

A Slow Alternative School

Link: A Dangerous but Powerful Idea - Counter Acceleration and Speed with Slowness and Wholeness : The Knowledge Tree. 

Geetha Narayanan worked with the designers from the MIT Media Lab who developed the after school Computer Clubhouses for inner city children to create an education that would work for slum children in Bangalore, India.

The need seemed to be to re-envision and to design a new system - one that supports both personal and social transformation and creates 21st century learning. This thinking resulted in the birth of Project Vision.

The Project Vision Learning System is dynamic and is made up of four distinct, distributed, interactive and inter-related components that work in coordination with one another.

1. The Community Learning Centres (Spokes-located within each slum community)
2. The Idea-Media Centres (Hubs or Workshops-which serve different purposes and are common and shared spaces)
3. The Expedition (Using the complexity of the real and the natural as sites for introspection, contemplation and active, participatory learning)
4. The Network (Wired/wireless- links that integrate the Drishya Community members with each other and with the outside world)

This conception and actualization includes nature experiences and computers.  It includes ideas and hands on learning.  Topics for learning include student and community priorities.  Art and science are combined.  Learning is done in a slow fashion (a la Slow Food movement) based on rhythms of nature, not technology.  Times for centering and thought are included as part of the learning system.

What is Teaching?

This comment by David Warlick on Jamie's blog points to a reason for why teachers resist Professional Development (PD).

This need for re-imaging could be the basis for great interview questions of school stakeholders, including the teachers, using an Appreciative Inquiry protocol. 

clipped from davidwarlick.com I think that we need to figure out a way to re-image teaching, for the community.  We need to project it as a dynamic profession that is more than just teaching the same old thing.  It’s about crafting learning experiences for students that introduce them to the world that they will inherit.

clipped from davidwarlick.com I think that we need to figure out a way to re-image teaching, for the community.  We need to project it as a dynamic profession that is more than just teaching the same old thing.  It’s about crafting learning experiences for students that introduce them to the world that they will inherit.

Learning by Doing: House Painting

A large crew of painters is tackling the house next to me.  They call back and forth to each other or talk with the man on the next ladder.  Spanish and English.  Now quiet.  Now loud.  Everyone seems happy.  No grumbling, no cursing.  Radio at moderate volume. 

The crew manager talks with a young man on a ladder.  "I want you to paint only three boards at a time.  See you've missed some over here.  Others may paint that way but we don't."  The younger man climbs down.  With only an 8 feet gap between the houses, I hear the manager say quietly, "I don't want you to get discouraged."  And the younger guy says, "Yeah, I know.  I'm okay."

Here is a workman being taught how to paint by someone who is patient, clear, and concerned that the student not be disheartened.  I hope the young people at the Met schools get equally skillful mentoring on their internships in the community. 

When someone chooses a mentor, patience, clarity, and encouragement are all important.

Sarah Puglisi describes the mentoring she received that got her blogging and using technology in the classroom.

When you decide to go learn something who you encounter and how they treat you means a lot. If they treat you in a value additive way, you are compelled almost into your better self. And so I have been.. And as I made friends on-line this would happen in the last year a few more times as I talked to people in many walks of life willing to listen to me about education. This literally amazed me.

Bloggers have been very generous with me, too.  If I'm willing to ask, they are willing to answer my questions and help me along with comments and encouragement.

Is This Your Kind of High School?

Ewan McIntosh reports on a recent visit to the Met schools in Providence, Rhode Island, USA.  These are high schools initially funded by the Gates Foundation and now based on public funding.  He says:

The schooling here is based on four 21st Century education principles:

• Knowledge
• Application of knowledge and critical thinking
• Experiential learning: learning by doing
• Storytelling and presentation skills

In the MET, every teacher is a generalist, helping to scaffold learning alongside others: students, parents, local business. There's an emphasis on the practical hands-on connection to learning, something they have honed over the past 6-6 years.

Ewan tells how the students select their own learning topic that they will focus on each semester.  They work in groups with a faculty guide and stay with that person all four years.  It takes time for them to select a topic -- they have to be deeply interested in it.  They then find a relevant internship in the community.  At the end of the quarter, they give an exhibition on their project.  Their depth of study in one area is complemented by listening to the reports of all their group members on the topics they've chosen.  Read Ewan's detailed description of what he saw and asked. 

Big Picture has a video of one girl's "exhibition" i.e., end of quarter presentation and a discussion by students and faculty of what should be in anyone's exhibition.  Big Picture Schools is a non-profit organization created to develop schools based on the Met idea across the USA.  In this video they are using teleconferencing to help the new schools to understand exhibitions.

Dennis Littky is the driving force behind these schools.  He, with the help of Samantha Grabelle, has written about his experience in The Big Picture: Education is Everyone's Business.  The schools are based on the idea that the young people belong to the community.  They involve local employers in providing internships and parents in observing, assessing, and supporting the student's learning.

I attended inner city public schools in Detroit (Highland Park) as a young person.  School was traditional.  I found room to pursue an interest of mine by earning a Girl Scout badge on building design that was taught by an architect.  Though we were not in a work setting, he did teach us basic skills.  I can still draw basic floor plans of houses when I want to.  Looking back, I would greatly have benefited from seeing what architects do.  Immersion in that environment might have resulted in a different career choice.

My college roommate is an adult who found an internship outside of formal schooling.  She was Associate Dean of Admissions for the Business School at Columbia U. in New York City.  She became  interested in working on the stock market so she arranged to take on an internship-like position for 6 weeks.  At the end of that time, the Wall Street firm offered her a job.  She made arrangements and transitioned into stock analysis first in telephone companies, etc. and later in developing markets. 

How can we, as adults outside formal education, find ways to apply methods like those used at the Met to flourish as adults?  Can we select topics that really interest us and then find ways to pursue learning in those areas?  Can we find or create internships or similar active learning experiences so we gain skills and familiarity with the new field?  What other ways do adults have of doing hands on learning?

I'd love to know what your experience has been with learning about totally new fields.

Crazy Quilt Mind

When I'm too shy to post or too unfocused, I read some more.  I have almost 700 bookmarks on del.icio.us (in 5 weeks) and many notes in my Google notebook -- on items of interest and possible posts.

The result is that my ideas get more and more complex or is the word complicated?  I see relationships between things -- like global economics, self-directed learning, nature, and forces for innovation.   I find examples of model schools, insights into technology and the future, stories of children on a camping trip in Pakistan protecting baby sea turtles from predatory birds, and an account of a mayor demolishing an elementary school's garden to allow developers to put up affordable housing.

How do I talk about the relationships I see in just a few paragraphs.  I need to present some background and examples before I can launch into relationships between ideas.  If I waited until I could express everything clearly and succinctly, I might not get around to writing. 

A crazy quilt is made by adding one piece at a time and looking at what you've created to decide what to do next.  Edging stitches and embroidery are often used later to pull a quilt together.  Perhaps I need to build my blog one piece at a time and do more integrating after I see what designs emerge.