RSS Feed

November, 2013

  1. Book Discovery – AHA – 2

    November 26, 2013 by Tunya

    Lesson Plan #2: Technology At The Forefront

    ► To appreciate the extent that technology is to be used in 21st C

      √     Internet to be used for searching for facts.

      √      Data will be gathered —attendance, assessments.

      √     Learning styles and attack skills possible to gauge through gaming.

    ► Concerns such as “privacy” and “data mining” are raised.

    ►Have you heard that teachers won’t be teaching “factoids” but will be “facilitating” inquiry-learning?  Evaluation of learning will focus on process, not content and book learning. 

    Cartoons are increasingly appearing that remark on the state of the dilemmas in education.  Some ridicule the changes, some pose questions, expose contradictions, and some simply tell it like it is.

     

    What is troubling — for me —  about this cartoon is that I found in on a list-serve of "consumers" of education.  Very few made any insightful comments.  Most just thought it was "cute", just the way it is.  Only one reader said in effect:  Books or no books, kids still need to learn to read.

    Significantly also, this comic is spreading on a nunmber of ethnic sites.  I can't read other languages so don't know the conversations.  

    This is a great comic and I would like to attribute the author, but my IT guy can't find the source.  Anyone know who to thank?

     

     

     

     

    Category Education Reform, Obstacles, Uncategorized | Tags: | No Comments

  2. Hypnosis Of Parents And Public – 3

    November 26, 2013 by Tunya

    Lesson Plan #3:  Back To Square 1

    ► To discuss if the “man in the street”, your average parent, or a university student knows what the issues are in education changes being implemented now or planned for the near future. Radical changes are called "common core standards" or 21st Century Skills, etc.

     √   The “man in the street” appears clueless that anything different is happening in schools, though repeating the common perception that students can’t add or read.

    √   The average parent  seems overwhelmed with childcare, juggling school paperwork, providing support for homework, and only vaguely hearing about “reform”.

    √   The university student likes the idea of “student-directed” studies but after Lesson #1 feels the teachers should be better prepared if students and teachers are not to get stressed.

    ► Recognizing that in a democracy the principle of consultation with those to be affected are to be involved — both for buy-in and for informed opinions to be applied to significant changes in social structures — we should find out if proper consultation has indeed been happening.

    ► What is the general state of public awareness and involvement in these changes?

     

    Hypnotizer

     

     

    Cartoonists are some of the most perceptive people around.  They are always looking for contradictions, hypocrisy, corruption or downright dumb or laughable situations.

    Kevin Moore, the author of the above cartoon had this to say, Oct 24, 2013, on the common core in the US, comments which would equally apply to 21st C Learning here in Canada

    “As a librarian at a community college in Oregon, I am starting to see the rollout in my own state. There are a lot of questions educators have about both the standards and the support we can expect to receive from the state to implement the necessary programs. One thing that concerns me is how long this trend will last before it is abandoned for a “better” one. Buy-in at the public level is low, as parents of students and other affected communities have really no awareness or understanding of CCS . . . the public at large is rarely invited to discuss CCS; mostly it’s a top-down education reform effort that goes on quietly at the administrative level. So, really, no wonder there are conspiracy theories.” (my bold)

    In his latest twitter on the topic, this is what he says:

    “Kevin Moore ‏‪26 Nov   I don't worry that CCSS will indoctrinate kids. I worry it's another fad that will waste time, money and alienate public from education.”

    What is Kevin Moore, librarian and super cartoonist, really saying in the cartoon above?

    Category Education Reform, Obstacles, Uncategorized | Tags: | No Comments

  3. The BIG Disguised Shift In Education

    November 16, 2013 by Tunya

    ►  What is the "Shift”, the "Transformation"  in public education K-12 in the 21st Century?

      √     Many Western nations are planning or are in the early stages of implementation.

      √    Common Core Standards, 21st Century Skills, Personalized Learning are names used.

    Huge thanks to two brilliant cartoonists — John Deering and John Newcombe — who vividly are giving us another tool to help decipher this new social experiment tossed into our laps.

     

    educ - Zack Hill - John Deering - John Newcombe

    Where Do They Get These Ideas?

    Is the school administration itself simply a parrot of even more distant managers?  Has some travelling lobby of consultants or change-agents been in town lately?  

    What is the literature brought forward that supports this SHIFT that puts students in charge?  And why?  What are the intended outcomes? 

    Is there, by chance, some international connection?  UN agencies?  International organizations?

    Well, this OECD news release (2003) gives more clues about an envisioned new global social order. 

    http://148.228.165.6/fpes/OECD.pdf

    Individuals are to learn to “function in groups and social orders”  to mobilize the “social and behavioral components including attitudes, emotions, and values and motivations.”

    IS THAT CRAZY?  Or some deliberate attempt to actually manipulate human behavior for a new world order?  Some people still consider human nature to be infinitely "malleable" !

    The shifts we are now seeing and talking about, 10 years after that OECD report are:

    √ from individual to collective,

    √ from “sage on the stage to guide at the side”,

    √ from content to process,

    √ from knowledge and skill based to inquiry/discovery-based,

    √ higher-order comnpetencies needed — creativity, collaboration, critical thinking

    √ from reporting to parents to communicating with parents,

    As a long time observer and activist in parent rights I am seeing these changes happening  — NOW — with very minimal preparation.  I worry about the psychological damage and meltdowns resulting from ill-equipped push already happening.  Parents and grandparents are witness to family anxieties.

    I worry the most because this shift is experimental and untested and questionable. There are no safeguards.  Protocols on human psychological experimentation are absent. And, it’s being foisted on an uninformed and uninvited public, without consent. In other words, why is this shift so hasty, stealthy,so programmed and giving the appearance of being shifty — surreptitious, dubious, devious and deceitful?

    “progressives are forever ready to mold and remold society at will and have no doubt about their ability to control events.”  – Albert Hirschman

     

     

    Category Education Reform, Obstacles, Uncategorized | Tags: | No Comments