Mr. Krabs: "We've been duped!"
SpongeBob: "Duped?"
Mr. Krabs: "Bamboozled!"
SpongeBob: "We've been smeckledorfed!"
Mr. Krabs: "That's not even a word and I agree with you!"
As a curious edu_blogger I will affirm that in 2005 I was involved in (e) learning initiatives with; the Seven Dwarves, the Mistress of the Template, the (E)aster Bunny, the Ritalin Sheik, “Tintin in China”, the Jesuit, numerous Knights of Nuance and Innuendo, various Karaoke Icons, the Whore of Babylon, and Transitory Nomads in the vast Landscapes of Edu_speak. And I will admit that all these (e) learning encounters probably never led to more than fractured moments of actual classroom practice over the year.
"Since the advent of information-communications technology (ICT) decades ago, reseach on how ICT can be used in education has been incessantly conducted. Despite "decades of funded study that have resulted in many exciting programs and advances these have not resulted in pervasive accepted, sustainable, large-scale improvements in actual classroom practice, in a critical mass of effective models for educational improvement, or in supportive interplay among researchers, schools, families, employers, and communities." (Sabelli and Dede 2001). Looi, Lim and Hung 2005.
Yet I am not disillusioned, I am helplessly addicted to potential and I still believe that the interconnectivity of the web might well be a deus ex machina for education.
But we also need the possibility of cataclysm, so that, when situations seem hopeless, and beyond the power of any natural force to amend, we may still anticipate salvation from a messiah, a conquering hero, a deus ex machina, or some other agent with power to fracture the unsupportable and institute the unobtainable. --Stephen Jay Gould, Questioning the Millennium
As a curious edu-blogger I will affirm that merely imagining the pedagogical potential of the web for learning makes me feel like I have tasted salt laden air on a wild ramble through the west coast dune_scapes of Muriwai. Merely indulging in mind_drift and think _shift about ICT and teaching and learning makes me incautious, makes me blind to consequence, makes me unusually ignorant of Gatto’s insight.
#15. There is no reason to believe that any existing educational technology can significantly improve intellectual performance; on the contrary, to the extent that machines establish the goals and work schedules, ask the questions and monitor the performances, the already catastrophic passivity and indifference created by forced confinement schooling only increases. John Taylor Gatto
As a curious edu_blogger I will affirm that I secretly believe that the interconnectivity of the web might well address a deep seated educational malaise, might well address that youthful melancholy of enforced institutional irrelevance and non-learning that is captured so well in Autono blogger recent post. [Topical Dilbert cartoon, winters of discontent, and the purpose of this blog ]
As a curious edu_blogger I will affirm that a seemingly unlimited adventure and ability to make real edu_change is available on the web for the teacher wanting to facilitate learning opportunities that connect people in rich, relevant, and rigorous learning. And that these opportunities and social networking resources are growing in number, sophistication, and complexity at such an exponential rate that it is hard to keep up with them all.
As a curious edu_blogger I will affirm that many of these e learning opportunities have the potential to faithfully capture Ilich’s three purposes of education
A good educational system should have three purposes: it should provide all who want to learn with access to available resources at anytime in their lives; empower all who want to share what they know to find those who want to learn it from them; and finally, furnish all who want to present an issue to the public with the opportunity to make their challenge known. (Illich Deschooling Society)
As a curious edu_blogger I want to explore why proprietary controls, architectural limitations, a confusion of content with process, the need to recreate education as it is rather than what it might be, Ministry endorsement, and marketing hyperbole mean that the purveyors of LMS have so easily smeckledorfed and sidetracked us from Illich's three purposes of a "good education system".
Education was smeckledorfed long before Illich was a pup, let alone in SpongeBob's time. I'm more concerned about environments that reward bureaucrats, dolts and sociopaths who then rise to positions where they can influence and define whole educational landscapes - they're the learning management systems we need to revoke.
Ahem. :-)
Posted by: roseg | January 10, 2006 at 04:09 AM
Ahem ;-) I love this - provocation and insight tautly captured in a comment box - You are so right, my focus on ict and LMS is trivial, a cosmetic rethink of little consequence in that it avoids looking at learning management on a grander scale.
Norman: Earth is but a typo in the thesis of this universe,Gene. We are simply the spellchecker.
Posted by: Artichoke | January 10, 2006 at 09:02 AM
right on, all of uz!
http://teachandlearnonline.blogspot.com/2006/01/still-choking-on-artichoke.html
Posted by: Leigh Blackall | January 10, 2006 at 01:29 PM
Hahaha - I love the internet.
Artichoke I think you're one of the clearest and most entertaining voices I've heard online. I'm so glad Leigh found you.
Please send a toenail immediately so that we can clone you. Cos we can, you know. We're that smart.
(OK. I lied. But send a toenail anyway).
Posted by: roseg | January 10, 2006 at 08:49 PM
Artichoke - I do not think that your "focus on ict and LMS is trivial".
LMSes replicate the traditional classroom structure, which is an industrial model designed to pump out compliant workers content to work within hierarchical organisations and obey their superiors.
If we want to dislodge the bureaucrats, then we must promote pedagogical models that produce workers who are self-directed, independent, confident, flexible, who believe in collaboration and sharing and who scoff at rigid hierarchies.
And I believe that learning environments based on open social networking tools are much more likely to achieve this than LMSes.
Another way to describe this is in terms of power - there is a very different power dynamic between a teahcer and their students in a classroom (or LMS) than there is in a learning environment using social software.
The tools we use in education are very important and can make a big difference to the type of citizens we produce.
Posted by: Sean FitzGerald | January 11, 2006 at 01:22 AM
Hi Sean, Thanks for comment and the critique based on pedagogical models - I think I might pursue this "conversation with myself" a little longer.
and Rose your claims to have the ability to create a Dr. Hwang Woo Suk Snuppy equivalent of Artichoke both excite and delight me. However,I have read enough Willard Price "Boys Own Adventure" books to be alert to alternative uses for toenails, and will be guarding mine - socks and roman sandals for the rest of the summer
Posted by: Artichoke | January 11, 2006 at 08:19 AM
Dang! Back to the drawing board...
Posted by: roseg | January 12, 2006 at 05:57 PM