Who's interested in reading Five Minds for the Future

Who's interested in reading Five Minds for the Future by Howard Gardner and putting our network onto evaluating and musing about what Gardner thinks? This book just came out. Howard Gardner's multiple intelligence theory proved more than useful. Now he's written "...his prediction for which mental capacities will be of greatest need in the increasingly globalized, rapidly changing 21st-century world." (Education Week, April 25th, 2007)

I know this isn't Book Club, but what if a core of us had a common reference point for discussing the thinking skills involved as we move forward with Classroom 2.0? We could infuse the network with attunement to the cognition of it all.

Also just out in today's Education Week:
"Teachers Unions Taking Professional Development Online"
Just scanned the article; it seems to be referring to a site that contains modules that teachers, particularly beginning teachers, can reference about how to do things, like manage a class.

Somehow that brings to mind the filmstrips we used to see in school. Oh wait--I'm dating myself! Does anyone else know what filmstrips are? (And how about "ditto machines"?!)

In the article, Kathleen McGuigan, an "assistant director in the educational issues department," acknowledges the fact that 56% of the teachers who registered on the site have more than 10 years experience. "That suggests to her that the next digital frontier for the unions will be adapting social-networking software for a community of educators. Think Facebook and MySpace for adult, professional purposes." (Education Week, April 25, 2007)

Seeing this issue of Education Week makes me realize that, thanks to Steve, we're on the cutting edge. Us, Classroom 2.0. Let's run infinity signs around the old filmstrips. Isn't it great to try things out on the pioneering side? So invigorating. Here we are, actively involved in a vastly significant cultural change. That make us scouts of some sort. Picture covered wagons, crossing the country, scouts going forth to sense out the surroundings, finding the way. Or we could shift images to the Hubble Telescope capturing 14 billion-year-old light from the edge of the known universe, shaping our understanding of what and who we are.

Whatever the image, we get to form it. (Other analogies would be very beneficial! Please post yours!) My proposal is that a number of us read this new book by Gardner, and start talking about it. It seems like it'd be relevant, and we may even have some fun.

What do you say?

Tags: Gardner, bookclub

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Permalink Reply by Elizabeth Davis on April 26, 2007 at 7:01pm

Connie,
I would be interested in participating in a discussion on this book (not that I'm not also reading 3 other books right now). I just looked the book up on Amazon and it isn't too expensive ($16.47 new). My library doesn't have it yet. Thanks for telling us about it. Now what else can I order so I can get that free Super Saver Shipping?

If you scroll down on the page, you will see that Amazon has just started something called Customer Discussions Beta, another interesting use of Web 2.0, with a capitalist edge: "Anyone who has purchased items from Amazon.com and is in good standing in the Amazon community can reply to an existing discussion or start a new one."

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Permalink Reply by Connie Weber on April 27, 2007 at 6:13am

Hi Elizabeth,
Thanks for the reply.
If you're really wanting to add to that pile of books (!), get Learning by Heart by Roland Barth--it would be a blast to have that one in our conversations, too. It's not about technology, per se, but is about making change. Some quotes from his book: "What is needed is an invitation to practitioners to bring a spirit of creativity and invention into the schoolhouse." "...What I believe is the trellis of our profession and the most critical element of any school's culture: an ethos hospitable to the promotion of human learning." "I think the most honorable, fitting title of any educator--teacher, principal, or professor--can assume is that of 'leading learner' or 'head learner." For when the adults in the schoolhouse commit to the heady, hearty, and difficult goal of promoting their own learning as well as that of their colleagues and students, several things follow: by leaving the ranks of the senior, wise priesthood--the learned--these individuals become first-class members of the community of learners; they build community; and when they come to take their own learning seriously, to value and promote it, so will students take their learning seriously."
Do you think that would be a good read?

Your idea about Amazon is interesting.

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Permalink Reply by Sylvia Martinez on April 27, 2007 at 6:34pm

Elizabeth - How about, "How Children Learn" by John Holt or "The Children's Machine" by Seymour Papert. Those would be good to balance Howard Gardner.

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Permalink Reply by Linda Loder on April 26, 2007 at 8:02pm

Great idea! Count me in.
Oh yeah, I remember film strips and ditto machines and I even went to three years of school in a two-room country school house.
Just call me 'granny' I guess. I tell the kids I work with (I mean the teachers, not the students!) that I perhaps can't avoid growing older but I refuse to become outdated!
;) L.

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Permalink Reply by Connie Weber on April 27, 2007 at 6:16am

Think of that blue juice we used to have all over our hands from the ditto machine!

And we're not getting outdated; we're finely aged!

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Permalink Reply by Nancy Cavillones on April 29, 2007 at 4:04pm

My hands may not be blue from ditto machines but they are black from riso machines.

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Permalink Reply by Tina Bulleigh on May 1, 2007 at 2:49pm

Linda . . .you will never become outdated! I think I might be able to join in in discussion if it is closer to the end of June as someone else mentioned. A lot going on at the end of the year!

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Permalink Reply by Connie Weber on April 27, 2007 at 8:51am

I'm getting the book today. Yes, I think it'll be fun for some people to get going on this. I've had a lot of luck this year with face-to-face meetings with colleagues who were willing to join in an experiment. We call it Fireside Chats. We read articles together (anyone can suggest articles; I happen to be the one who brings in most of them) and then meet by someone's hearth to talk about what we think. It's very informal and uplifting--and rather old-fashioned. What's new about it is working outside the system, just going off on our own and learning. Fed up with school meetings that never get to the philosophy of education, we found our own way.
Doing this on a larger scale, while learning all sorts of communication tools in the process and establishing new networks makes it even more exciting. Here at Classroom 2.0 we have a great setup for experimentation.
No, I wasn't that kid who organized the recess games, but I definitely am the teacher who does! I like to be the zany one who's ready to get things going, always trying new things. Will Richardson and Roland Barth talk about being "head learners." That seems right. Dive in and learn, and don't be afraid to show that you're learning. That's the way to model things for kids and each other-- Keeps us happy and humble.
Thanks for the comment!