writing in the open spaces » Uncategorized

Yes, they can

scm — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 13:55:34 +0000

via http://boats-against-the-current.tumblr.com/

iPad

scm — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 12:29:36 +0000

I never thought I would be linking to this….really. But I am finding I am spending more and more time with this thing. So here is a great resource for iPads in Education.

Symmetry of Life

scm — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 12:53:35 +0000

Symmetry from Everynone on Vimeo.

Breaking Some Rules

scm — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 12:54:24 +0000

http://www.flickr.com/photos/38075169@N00/2416875581/

Are you a rule-follower? I am. After all, I was an Army officer’s first-born daughter, raised to curtsy and and speak when I had something “nice” to say.
Now that’s not all bad. Rule followers and nice people can get pretty far in this world, so I don’t hold this against my parents too much. But after reading a recent article in Scientific American, I realize there’s much to be said for being a rule-breaker, or at least one who isn’t afraid to follow her own path.
Andrea Kuszewski shares her two hypotheses in the article:

1) Teaching and encouraging kids to learn by rote memorization and imitation shapes their brain and behavior, making them more inclined towards linear thinking, and less prone to original, creative thinking.
and…
2) Teaching kids to ask questions and think about problems before receiving the solution encourages more non-linear, divergent and creative thinking, to produce better innovators, problem-solvers, and problem-finders.

My own schooling was much of the first. Teachers who told me what and how to think. Schools where I was either ahead or behind because of yearly moves with my family (I attended 13 schools in 12 years!) Few opportunities to think on my own or, worse, fail and recover.

Years later, I remember the first time I really had to figure something out, and I almost didn’t make it. After staying home with my children for a few years, I decided to go back to the classroom. But first I had to renew my teaching certificate, which had expired. I signed up at our local college for two courses, one of which was BASIC programming.This was 1986, and I had never seen a computer. An English major who preferred humanities to math and science, I was taking these courses while I was teaching full time again with two small children at home. Not a pretty picture.

After three weeks of working in the college computer lab, I came home one day and said, “I quit. I don’t get it. It’s too hard.”
But something in my head said, no. Don’t.
So, I tried again, making my brain understand the code, the symbols, that needed to speak to that darn machine. And soon, I had created a short program that worked.

Yes! Such satisfaction.
The next week, I bought my first computer. I then taught myself DOS, and learned how to add hardware and software (do you remember installing the first Windows program that took about five hours and tons of disks?)

Most of my exploring happened as I said, “I wonder what will happen if I….” Sometimes in my playing around, I had to reformat the machine because I got myself in so much trouble. I figured out how to use Pagemaker and was the first teacher in my district to self-publish our school’s newspaper, and I moved online when the web was only text based, opening myself up to a world of research and global awareness. More often than not, I had no one to tell me what to do as I explored this new world. Technology became my window to becoming a self-confident, self-directed learner.

As Kuszewski said, “students that are more actively engaged are more intrinsically motivated to learn—no bribes or artificial rewards needed, just pure enjoyment of learning.” I was “in the flow.”

Over the years, I’ve continued to find ways to break rules and take risks. I don’t find it easy, and often retreat to safer places. But I know my journey from passive to active learner has resulted in greater work and life opportunities and general all around feelings of accomplishment.

I agree with Kuszewski who wonders why, with so much evidence, we continue to subject children to the kind of schooling I had. I love how she closes:

What is supposed to be the most critical learning period for shaping children into the leaders of tomorrow has evolved over the years into a stifling of the creative instinct—wasting the age of imagination—which we then spend the rest of our lives trying to reconnect with. The time has never been more ready for systemic change than right now, and we’ve never had better tools to achieve this level of creative disobedience, to successfully prepare our children for the big challenges that lie ahead. It might be uncomfortable and take a bit of work, but our future depends on this radical change in order to survive.

My life changed when I realized I could do whatever I wanted to do, and I didn’t have to wait for instructions. Don’t we want that for all our children?

Thinking About How We Think

scm — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 16:49:30 +0000

Finding wisdom to live and learn.

Isn’t that the most important skill we can teach our children? Then why don’t we do it?

Columnist David Brooks said in his book, The Social Animal, “Children are coached on how to jump through a thousand scholastic hoops. Yet by far the most important decisions they will make are about whom to marry and whom to befriend, what to love and what to despise, and how to control impulses. On these matters they are amost entirely on their own. We are good at talking about material incentives, but bad about talking about emotions and intuitions. We are good about teaching technical skills, but when it comes to the most important things, like character, we have almost nothing to say.”

Imagine a world where we all have healthy ideas of how our conscious and unconscious works, a world where children are helped to know who they are and why they act in certain ways. Carol Dweck in her book Mindset says mindset is the view we adopt for ourselves. But how can we adopt a healthy view without fully knowing ourselves? And how does resiliency play into this?

Dweck points out that “mindsets frame the running account that’s taking place in people’s heads. They guide the whole interpretation process.” And, the good news is, mindsets can be changed. Hard work, but possible.

Most people say that is it is the intellect which makes a great scientist. They are wrong: it is character.
Albert Einstein

There’s So Much Truth Here

scm — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 11:40:59 +0000

photo © 2008 Horia Varlan | more info (via: Wylio)
It’s often the wrong question:

G.K. Chesterton, one of the most influential English writers of the 20th century, distilled the phenomenon down to 13 words. “It’s not that they can’t see the solution,” he said. “They can’t see the problem.”

From Mitch Ditkoff’s blog…

Help! Which Way Should I Go?

scm — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 13:26:27 +0000

Here’s my dilemma: I own a nearly 3-year-old Macbook. I also own an iPhone (contract expires this June), but I find it hard to read and communicate on, though I do my best. (Bad eyes?) I want to have something (not just a Kindle) that is lighter and smaller (with more than wifi). The Macbook is actually fine, though it doesn’t have much memory and the fan races when I try to watch any videos.

Soooo, I am pondering these choices. I ‘d love to have you all weigh in on this.

Option One: Buy a new Macbook Air and keep the phone. Use the Air for most everything (I’ll buy a 3G card)

Option Two: Buy an iPad and keep using the Macbook. Take the data plan off the iPhone (don’t want two data plans)

Option Three: Buy a Xoom and keep using the Macbook. Take the data plan off the iPhone

I’m thinking I may also need a Kindle, but maybe not if I have the iPad or Xoom.

What’s the word?

Don’t You Love Book Recommendations?

scm — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 15:46:52 +0000

One of the best parts of this collective learning is hearing from others about “good reads.” Frankly, there are just too many books about learning and schools these days, and I don’t have time time to check each one out.

So I rely on folks I trust to point me in the right directions. Sheryl Nussbaum Beach, for example, led me to Charlene Li’s book, Open Leadership. Today, Will Richardson shared John Seely Brown’s new book, A New Culture of Learning.

I, too, have been following John Seely Brown for some time, and this book is one I don’t want to miss.

Invite: to increase the likelihood of

scm — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 13:13:09 +0000

photo © 2006 Zakwitnij!pl Ejdzej & Iric | more info (via: Wylio)
Some of us used FB recently to share our One Little Word of the year.

Mine is Invite.

Our words give us the chance to focus on intentions. For me, it means saying yes. Yes to opportunities. Yes to health. Yes to living a life that is meaningful.

Playwright George C. Wolfe once said “you have to be available to the invisible voices swirling around you.” To me, that means being open to possibilities, being aware of my feelings and reactions to things, and living each day with hope.

What’s your One Little Word?

More on those changes….

scm — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 19:56:11 +0000

Top 10 Mistakes in Behavior Change

View more presentations from Persuasive Technology Lab at Stanford.