sharing things or sharing thoughts
we teach kids how to share things, we never have to teach them how to share their thoughts [even tacit?]
1999 - shawn fanning sharing napster to share mp3 files freely, within 3 mos, millions of college students freely trading music, the idea of copyright and music piracy didn't enter their heads, it was all about sharing
when you connect people together they will automatically share the things they care about
for the first time, we can now share
same way steam engine did to human muscle power 200 yrs ago
in 2001 - here comes wikipedia
knowledge seems to have an almost gravitational quality, now just under 3 mill articles
wikipedia is only the most successful in producing a collective intelligence
wikipedia leaves us smarter - gives us opportunity to load up on facts, the best possible facts
if we peel off all the tech of wikipedia -
wikipedia is an agreement to share what we know
[yes - so can't that be our measure.. what have you shared back in wikipedia]
its that agreement that historians will be writing about in 100 yrs time, because that agreement
that agreement is one of the engines that is driving our cultures forward
1999 - teacher ratings dot com. like wikipedia it grew slowly, and became
rate my professors, owned by mtv
[perfect model for how we determine who's together in a room in your school design it]
10 mill readings of 1 mill profs
changes the power balance within the university
sharing has destabilizing all of our institutions
something big, all being driven by our ability to share
3 big events that will revolutionize ed in australia in the next decade - a compressed wave of change:
1) australia lives with medium to low broadband speeds, because of metering, since 1990's
the hidden lesson of the last 15 yrs is that the internet is something that needs to be rationed very carefully because there's not enough to go around. plans: 100 megabit per second connections to every home, business and school - govern wants this to be unmetered, they want the internet to be freely available
we don't know what will happen with that. critics say there's no good reason for it,
but there are schools often block youtube, not because it's distracting, but because they can't handle demand for bandwidth
broad band is the oxygen of the 21st century, once we can breath freely new horizons will open up
no predicted napster or youtube or skype, before we had access, those who say it's not important haven't watched history
2017 - 100 megabit/second will be medium
2) computer to every student in yrs 9-12
radically alters the power balance in the classroom, more students had more facility than their teachers
schools don't have budget or time for prof develop
students don't realize power - good or bad
currently, they're bling, not being used for what they can be
3) the national curriculum [of course i question this - help me guys - i don't see it]
math, science and history ready for 2011, the core elements
dr evan arthur, commonwealth dept, he describe the docs as a greenfields, a series of strings that could be handled like strings of a christmas tree.. so every educator in australia working to the same strings.. opportunity to start again, throw out old rule book and start fresh.
national curric with all the above 1&2 could fundamentally alter the future of ed in australia
another path
rather than doing nat curric as a done deal, what if wiser if offer as open invitation, what but not how, teachers are free to pursue their own pedagogical ends. everyone is going to be pulling in the same direction, so makes sense to share that experience [ok - this is better, but i still see compromise, less buy-in, like finally getting the chance to swim in the ocean but deciding it would be safer if you let your brother do it and tell you about it]
board of studies.org, rate teachers.com, blogs, etc, but if it all happens out there... we would miss out.
teacher preps at beginning of year.. checking into resources for nat curric string that other teachers have shared - ie: education.edu, podcasts, lesson plans, etc
that ed needs to create an effective experience for students, then they share what they did back
curriculum becomes a focal point for organization - a point of contact rather than a point of order
[why can't wikipedia become the focal point? then there's something for everybody, and if not, they create it]
students can use those strings to contact other students
know where to go for help and advice
doesn't constitute peeking at the answers.. gives them every advantage of working through the standards [ugh]
[this is not an ed utopia - because the learner is still not learning per choice.. they are learning per a given set to choose from.. am i missing something?]
i think there is an even better path -straighterline.com $99 a month - tertiary - could take it down to secondary
not just about ed, but about assessment - always open global market for ed
[so i ask my friends in australia.. what do you think of the national standards in australia
whatedsaid @monk51295 It's restrictive for a school like mine. There are things that are good, but it's very prescriptive.
whatedsaid @monk51295 I don't like the history section, it's very content based.
jennyluca @monk51295 @suewaters worried it will become the testing regimen you experience in the US. Has potential if bureaucracy stays out of it.
i just wonder why we think learning has to be predetermined. i'm thinking that compromises so much of the power the web now allows.
it really does seem to me like words published in light.. we're missing the potential..
i just see whenever we decide on any content, not everyone will agree. nothing is for everyone. that's how we've gotten to too little time to cover everything... everyone keeps adding what they think, or interpreting how they think. so amazing is rare. we just don't have time. and with a given prescription, the urge to measure is ginormous.
it seems, since we can, the curriculum - or glue - that holds us all together should be - how to learn, practiced over and over no matter what you are learning - detox. (unless of course you don't need detox, then you wouldn't have needed a curriculum, as you are in the zone and pure and still haven't squelched that natural learning within you)]
random posts on the national curriculum in australia
a nat curric
mary ann's awesome 6-12 english curriculum via ian
and more from mary ann on standards ASCD
from Mark's blog - everything old is new again
your brains have limited space to store all those relationships – it’s actually the most difficult thing we do, the most cognitively all-encompassing task. Forget physics – relationship are harder, and take more brainpower
That is precisely what Facebook gives us. It makes those implicit connections explicit. It allows those connections to become conduits for ever-greater-levels of connection. Once those connections are made, once they become a regular feature of our life, we can grow beyond the natural limit of 150. That doesn’t mean you can manage any of these relationships well – far from it. But it does mean that you can keep the channels of communication open. That’s really what all of these social networks are: turbocharged Rolodexes, which allow you to maintain far more relationships than ever before possible.
Once these relationships are established, something beings to happen quite naturally: people begin to share.
[such good stuff here - read the post for sure]
love this part - rings of kevin kelly's what tech wants:
You’re going to need good tools to make this ambitious project a reality, and you’re going to need them for two entirely contradictory reasons: first, to be able to listen to everything going on everywhere, and second, because that chaotic din will deafen you. You need tools to help you find out what’s going on, but, more significantly, you need tools to help you winnow the wheat from the chaff.
and i think this is huge.. it's all about conversation, conversation and community:
don’t think of the Web as an advertising medium. Sure, it had a few good years where a business presence online was simply a great way to get your marketing materials out there inexpensively, but those days are over. Today everything is about engagement. Engagement begins with conversation.
__________________________________________
