Quote 7/19/07 #2

The great aim of education is not knowledge but action. Herbert Spencer (1820-1903)

Maybe this is where 2.0 comes into play. If we teach them in an interactive, collaborative way then maybe we can put them on course for using the learned knowledge and skills into positive and valuable use in the world.

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Comment by Laura Gibbs on July 19, 2007 at 10:58pm: hi Adina, that is a quote that really resonates with me! when students publish ONLINE, they feel like they are "doing" something - and they are: they are contributing to the giant shared publishing experiment called the Internet!

which is just the opposite of writing a paper, turning it in, getting the grade, and then just tossing it into the trash can.

the difference in my classes when students stopped turning in papers to me and instead starting publishing online was night and day, very much the contrast between knowledge and action - and they end up acquiring so much more knowledge in the process of actively publishing online, because their motivation, involvement, and commitment is enormously greater!

so while Herbert Spencer is a bit scary (!), the quote definitely works for me.

:-)

Comment by Adina Sullivan on July 19, 2007 at 11:29pm: Not exactly a follower of HS's philosophy, but I figure we all say something reasonable at some point ;-)

Comment by Daniel Bassill on July 21, 2007 at 8:59am: I agree with this quote. However, I also expand the idea of "education" to be one of "learning". In addition, my aim is to engage adults in learning about poverty and poor schools and ways they can get involved, so that more adults will do what they need to do to make more enriched learning and career opportunities available to kids living in high poverty and highly segregated communities.

While it's difficult to get adults to become on-line learners, I feel that educators can teach these habits to kids as they go through school, so we can create a new generation of networked leaders, who learn and act, on a daily basis, to make this a better world.

Comment by Adina Sullivan on July 21, 2007 at 10:07am: As a teacher in a school of low-income, second-language learners...Right on!

Comment by Ian Carmichael on September 4, 2007 at 8:41pm: I wonder whether "wisdom" is worth a look. Oscar Wilde, (of all people!) decried knowing the "cost of everything, but the value of nothing." Wisdom, I think, should be a bridge between knowledge and action. And in our crowded and rushed world, we still need space - and time - to get it.