Best School...pasting my comments re: Web 2.0 conference
I'm quite familiar with Finland's leadership in the field of public formative education ... way to go - thanks so much for starting this discussion thread, M.A.!!
In an effort to save time ... I'm pasting my comments after viewing Web 2.0 online conference.
Having recently redirected my energy from a successful corporate management-sales career helping adults to understand and use the value of new technology towards contributing to the refreshing of youth education, I am excited with Web 2.0’s potential!
I am currently in the trenches so to speak … English language teacher-researcher in a public middle school in South Korea. So, as a practicing educator-coach-researcher, thank you - I’m glad I watched … the conference piqued my curiosity!!
I will begin to explore it further using the Great Google…
BTW … for the benefit of the few who replied that they couldn’t watch because of access problems - I was able to access after unblocking my firewall.
The session was geared to adults, which is great …
However … I wonder … could the learning have richer had there been a few savvy K-12 student participitants?
As for content vs technology vs whatever … instead of “either - or” … I’ve learned the value of approaching problems from a “both … and” perspective. Essentially, not everything that is “traditional” needs to be thrown out …
The teacher who highlighted the parents’ concern for their children’s learning outcomes was insightful.
Technology that systematically pays attention to K-12 learning outcomes will outpace its competition. After all, most reasonable people would agree that K-12 is a time for kids to build a strong foundation of knowledge and skills, especially, the development of communication, collaboration, and critical thinking.
I am currently completing the approval process of a Master’s thesis. My small-scale study explored how ‘emergent systems thinking’ behind public formative science curricula affects the grassroots’ movement towards a sustainable society.
Simply put, I studied the effects, over time, of a principled, systems-based, systematic decision-making approach to public formative science curricula on individuals and local communities’ from a global (social, environmental and economic) perspective.
Given the US’ “No Child Left Behind”program and its role as world leader in development, my study focused on US public science curricula. Unfortunately, this topic is vastly under-researched, perhaps because of the complexity of the human mind itself and the unconscious variables embedded in people’s decision-making process. In 2005, I found only two examples that fit my parameters … they were vastly disparate from many perspectives, especially in terms of SES, geographical locales, and decision-making approaches.
Above all, my study appears to underscore the validity of the African adage … that it does take a village to teach a child.
The statistics over a 13-year period revealed that students’ academic performance improved significantly under the power of a standardized, systematic, local community-driven, and mentorship approach to classroom learning … teachers, parents, students, the administration and the community-at-large were all collaborating together.
In contrast, the unsystematic, “let’s see just what technology works and go with the flow” approach that business professionals used to promote systems dynamics software into classrooms failed to deliver, let alone improve, students’ academic performance. According to consultants’ reports over time, the initial enthusiasm and hope expressed by parents and teachers in 1993 waned and dissipated. Furthermore, their unsystematic approach did not produce any statistics, valid or otherwise.
Given my Master’s programme’s global-local focus, I’m currently triangulating the US data with Finland and South Korea. Remarkably, according to the results of the OECD’s 2003 Programme for International Student Assessment of 15-year old students, those two countries lead the way in math, science and complex probelm-solving. In contrast, US results in 2003 faired below the OECD average.
Hope my feedback helps build a case for Web 2.0 and Classroom 2.0 involvement in the development of standardized content, lesson plans, evaluation procedures, and other methods, etc. … so that teachers can use it and parents can feel confident in its power to deliver academic performance.
PC …
A Canadian educator-coach-researcher in South Korea
In an effort to save time ... I'm pasting my comments after viewing Web 2.0 online conference.
Having recently redirected my energy from a successful corporate management-sales career helping adults to understand and use the value of new technology towards contributing to the refreshing of youth education, I am excited with Web 2.0’s potential!
I am currently in the trenches so to speak … English language teacher-researcher in a public middle school in South Korea. So, as a practicing educator-coach-researcher, thank you - I’m glad I watched … the conference piqued my curiosity!!
I will begin to explore it further using the Great Google…
BTW … for the benefit of the few who replied that they couldn’t watch because of access problems - I was able to access after unblocking my firewall.
The session was geared to adults, which is great …
However … I wonder … could the learning have richer had there been a few savvy K-12 student participitants?
As for content vs technology vs whatever … instead of “either - or” … I’ve learned the value of approaching problems from a “both … and” perspective. Essentially, not everything that is “traditional” needs to be thrown out …
The teacher who highlighted the parents’ concern for their children’s learning outcomes was insightful.
Technology that systematically pays attention to K-12 learning outcomes will outpace its competition. After all, most reasonable people would agree that K-12 is a time for kids to build a strong foundation of knowledge and skills, especially, the development of communication, collaboration, and critical thinking.
I am currently completing the approval process of a Master’s thesis. My small-scale study explored how ‘emergent systems thinking’ behind public formative science curricula affects the grassroots’ movement towards a sustainable society.
Simply put, I studied the effects, over time, of a principled, systems-based, systematic decision-making approach to public formative science curricula on individuals and local communities’ from a global (social, environmental and economic) perspective.
Given the US’ “No Child Left Behind”program and its role as world leader in development, my study focused on US public science curricula. Unfortunately, this topic is vastly under-researched, perhaps because of the complexity of the human mind itself and the unconscious variables embedded in people’s decision-making process. In 2005, I found only two examples that fit my parameters … they were vastly disparate from many perspectives, especially in terms of SES, geographical locales, and decision-making approaches.
Above all, my study appears to underscore the validity of the African adage … that it does take a village to teach a child.
The statistics over a 13-year period revealed that students’ academic performance improved significantly under the power of a standardized, systematic, local community-driven, and mentorship approach to classroom learning … teachers, parents, students, the administration and the community-at-large were all collaborating together.
In contrast, the unsystematic, “let’s see just what technology works and go with the flow” approach that business professionals used to promote systems dynamics software into classrooms failed to deliver, let alone improve, students’ academic performance. According to consultants’ reports over time, the initial enthusiasm and hope expressed by parents and teachers in 1993 waned and dissipated. Furthermore, their unsystematic approach did not produce any statistics, valid or otherwise.
Given my Master’s programme’s global-local focus, I’m currently triangulating the US data with Finland and South Korea. Remarkably, according to the results of the OECD’s 2003 Programme for International Student Assessment of 15-year old students, those two countries lead the way in math, science and complex probelm-solving. In contrast, US results in 2003 faired below the OECD average.
Hope my feedback helps build a case for Web 2.0 and Classroom 2.0 involvement in the development of standardized content, lesson plans, evaluation procedures, and other methods, etc. … so that teachers can use it and parents can feel confident in its power to deliver academic performance.
PC …
A Canadian educator-coach-researcher in South Korea
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