Alternatives to the Industrial Model

A telling quotation from the 2004 program evaluation on charter schools in the United States.  The failure to offer something comprehensively different to that which already exists can probably be held as the number one failure of the structure.  If there is no quantifiable difference in instructional strategies between Charater Schools and traditional forms of schooling then why support the the higher cost model during economic downturns? "Instructional Strategies. While charter schools have the opportunity to use alternative instructional strategies (e.g., distance learning), 91 percent of the charter schools surveyed in 2001-02 used classroom based instruction as their primary instructional delivery method" Report here

“What we’re moving toward,” Horn says, “is the realization that if our expectation is to educate every single child successfully, then we need structures that can individualize and personalize, and there’s no way to do it in the way we have historically approached this.” ( Davis ) We need options.   It seems that digital access offers learners the freedom and resources they need to maximize their learning potential.  But, what about those among us for whom the digital age symbolizes a loss of the tactile and a disconnect with the real world around us?  Aside from the reams of information and entertainment offered by Internet access, the increasingly sedentary lifestyle partly attributable to our global addiction to the screen – what about the learner who just doesn’t connect with computers?  What about the notion of Nature Deficit Disorder?  What about all of the research and writing that went into books like ...

For decades educators have been searching for ways to individualize education, researching methods for students to explore their own interests at their own pace. Unfortunately, our traditional structure of education makes this difficult. Even Vinny Chase from Entourage understands that we do not all learn the same, nor do we all have the same learning objectives,      Vince: So, how’s it look?      E: Your grammar’s horrible.      Vince: Who cares?      E: We were in the same class since we were six,         it’s shocking to me that you can’t punctuate.      Vince: E – it’s all stream of consciousness.      Turtle:  You can’t really spell either Vinn.                 Faithful is f-a-i-t-h-f-E-l.      E: No, it isn’t.      Johnny: It’...

It is often accepted that the advent of film led to a decline in the popularity of theatre. The movies and the stage are vastly different mediums, often identified by film’s ability to transcend time and place versus the physical presence of the actors in theatre.  It would be hard to argue against the success of film over the past century.  The talkies have become an unbelievably lucrative business while theatre, with few exceptions, relies on philanthropy for its survival. Could it be that online learning and the traditional classroom hold a similar relationship? As the Fringe Festival gestures on and the tents of Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan continue their white summer silhouettes by the riverside, the question seems timely.  The classroom may soon attain the nostalgic status of live theatre.  Like the writers who moved from New York to Hollywood, teachers will shift from schools to laptops, complaining as their predecessors did in theatre about ...

Consider the MOOC.  No, not Douglas Rushkoff’s Mook from Jackass - the MOOC.  Massive Online Open Course.  Less obnoxious, less male. In 1991 John Taylor Gatto published an article titled “ The Six-Lesson Schoolteacher ”.  The piece outlined six tenants of schooling that Gatto claimed were universal in traditional schooling.  If you haven’t read it - please do.  Click on the hyperlink.  Trust me.  You’ll laugh. Now, we know from Craig Watkins that to successfully master technology, access is not enough - scaffolding, mentoring and modelling are all necessary to increase learning potential.  And, one of the great travesties in education is the hierarchical access to learning around the globe.   Since this hierarchy leads to less mentorship for lower income learners, we need an alternative.   If we agree that the alternative also has to respond to Gatto’s six lessons - we must consider the MOOC:  1) Stay in the ...

Remember this guy?   His assertions garnered a deluge of responses - many countering his claims that post-secondary schooling was getting in the way of his education. Perhaps Dan Brown should have a look at the University of the People, a tuition-free online University.        Harnessing multiple pedagogical models, UoPeople changes the way        in which education can be accessed. We utilize open source technology      and open educational resources to provide access to educational material      from some of the most prominent institutions. Distance learning allows those      in all corners of the world to access information.( HuffingtonPost ) University of the People believes that online learning is the way to offer access to higher education for millions of people in developing nations. They believe that education can build a road away from poverty and oppression. There ...

The Ideology of choice, on which capitalism is structured, prevents social change. So, is my advocation of multiple systems for learning simply an ingrained capitalist desire for choice?  And, by doing so am I undermining the stability of the current system that offers little choice?   And, does the current system, by offering little to no choice help alleviate anxiety in youth? According to Professor Selecl, Choice creates anxiety in the three ways: 1) We choose what other people are choosing If I simplify Prof Selecl's argument I can see that students, due to peer pressure, elevated need for belonging etc, almost always choose what the other students are choosing.  Peer pressure in teens is well documented and perhaps if given the opportunity to choose a learning system, students would end up not in the system that suits their educational needs, but the one that their friends are in.  This would most likely lead to a student body as anxious as the o...