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By Dennis March 12, 2009 -- 11:57 PM
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I think you made a good point regarding how standards can get in the way of student-centric learning Barbara. "one size fits all" leaves too many gaps and disenchanted learners. I am looking right now at possibly leaving the current system and considering another option. A combination of online and in-class type of school sounds appealing to me both for the student's benefit and learning community's.
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By Dennis (fr Hawaii) March 14, 2009 -- 08:53 AM
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Well, not so much the Standards that is.getting in the way but the manner in which they are being addressed to clarify the above comment. Project-based learning connects learners with relevance and meaningful dialogue. I can't think of a better way to learn than dealing with real life situations and issues.
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By Barbara Bray March 14, 2009 -- 08:57 PM
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Dennis - I built My eCoach so teachers and students could design, publish, implement, and then showcase projects online. I’ve seen it where at-risk students not only get engaged in the learning process, they become so motivated that they don’t want to quit when the bell rings. Just imagine a school where learners of all ages write a proposal to be on a project - I mean, they really want to be on a project, work on it together. It’s not just for a grade or to learn how to take a test. A project where they can make a difference.
Ken - My eCoach was built with loads of tools and bells and whistles and now there are so many new tools like wikis and social networking tools out there that people are using. There are a few teachers (maybe 20%) that take risks and are collaborating with others around the world but with everything already on teachers’ plates, to make a project that they may not be able to implement because of standardized tests is frustrating. There are some teachers in My eCoach that have created projects with the hope that someday they can use them with their students.
Challenge to Administrators!
Will you let your teachers take some risks? Create collaborative project-based learning activities that are multiple grade-levels, that involve the community, that allow flexible scheduling? Maybe that’s too far-fetched for now, but let’s dream a little.
What do you think of a community learning center for learners of all ages?
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By Teresa Roebuck March 23, 2009 -- 11:28 PM
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I have also left the current system to teach online and f2f in community/private settings that emphasize the learning... not the test/teaching role. I have been slowly building an online community of professional development support for novice teachers and will be offering it nationwide within this year. My calling is to be a support/mentor to the teachers who will be the ones to create the newest paradigms in learning. Barbara, your challenge is both timely and pertinent! How can we begin to implement this challange? I would like to add my voice to Barbara's to push for a re-birth of what it means to be involved in educating for the future.
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By Carlotta March 26, 2009 -- 08:30 AM
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I love the idea of a community learning centre, but just wanted to point out that UK autonomous home educators certainly don't follow the transmissive/pedagogic model at all and haven't done so for decades. There are no teachers here, merely people offering tentative theories.
Autonomous learners are properly learner-centric: they decide what they want to learn.
Following on from this point, it is clear that no-one sets these particular learners a target or standard other than themselves should they so choose. And anyway it would be wise to accept that shoe-horning learning into pre-conceived standards is to foreclose on the possibilities, and implies a false epistemology in that one cannot predict the course of or measure the effectiveness of learning with any real reliability.
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