learn for life: nonscholae
In 2005 educonnect internet blocking software was rolled out in South Australian schools, causing aggravation to teachers who want to use the read/write web in their classrooms. By default educonnect blocks all write access to the web. I've bundled three articles that I've written about this recently and blogged them at nonscholae.
James Farmers edublogs service was also blocked in many schools around Australia.
In response http://nonscholae.org/ has been setup, based on a Latin saying, "We learn, not for school, but for life"
In his fear trilogy (fear of transparency, fear of losing control, distrust breeds fear), Darren talks about how new technology can dramatically improve human relationships but that requires some risk taking and trust from administrators. He has had a low key but fascinating dialogue with Miguel on this issue, with Miguel playing the devil's advocate from an administrators perspective. Really valuable. Darren has also opened my eyes about how to prepare students for safe blogging on the internet. Finally, I was really impressed by the fact that he has his maths students blogging about maths in both individual and group blogs. You can find all these excellent resources, with comments, in one place here.
Ewan blew me away with a presentation (28 MB) he gave about the transition from the one way web to the two way web and what this will mean for education. It is a very exciting presentation. I felt that the bit at the end where he linked 9 educational principles to the guided use of blogs, podcasts, etc. represented a bridge between the traditional and the new that could have a wide appeal. I plan to take it to school and ask who wants to watch.
James Farmers edublogs service was also blocked in many schools around Australia.
In response http://nonscholae.org/ has been setup, based on a Latin saying, "We learn, not for school, but for life"
We believe that these tools (blogs, photosharing, podcasts, web hosting, educational games, instant messaging and other social software) and resources should not be blocked or banned from schools. As educators, we should be familiarising learners with these technologies, supporting and facilitating their responsible use and equipping our students with the skills to keep them safe and savvy in the online world.I've been looking at some of the work by Darren Kuropatwa and Ewan McIntosh today who are supporting this initiative.
In his fear trilogy (fear of transparency, fear of losing control, distrust breeds fear), Darren talks about how new technology can dramatically improve human relationships but that requires some risk taking and trust from administrators. He has had a low key but fascinating dialogue with Miguel on this issue, with Miguel playing the devil's advocate from an administrators perspective. Really valuable. Darren has also opened my eyes about how to prepare students for safe blogging on the internet. Finally, I was really impressed by the fact that he has his maths students blogging about maths in both individual and group blogs. You can find all these excellent resources, with comments, in one place here.
Ewan blew me away with a presentation (28 MB) he gave about the transition from the one way web to the two way web and what this will mean for education. It is a very exciting presentation. I felt that the bit at the end where he linked 9 educational principles to the guided use of blogs, podcasts, etc. represented a bridge between the traditional and the new that could have a wide appeal. I plan to take it to school and ask who wants to watch.
posted by Bill Kerr at 6:39 PM
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2 Comments:
Hello there
Just to let you know, Ewan gave this presentation to our students and it provoked a very favourable reaction. When I told them he was re-recording the audio because he wasn't happy with the version he delivered, and that he thought he could do it better, the standard response has been an incredulous, "He thinks he can make it better!" :-)
If you want to see as well as hear Ewan in action, I've posted a link to the video of the lecture he gave at the end of a fairly lengthy post. Enjoy!.
Bill - just to let you know I found your blog through the link on Ewan Mcintosh's blog. I think this posting and the related nonscholae articles summarise and highlight this fundamental issue in educational use of ICT with a real example rather than the geenric approach I took for a recent post.
I look forward to following developments and how it pans out. Best wishes and good luck from the UK.
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