Sorry for the late reply. My ISP lost control of it's bodily functions - and it was about as disgusting as that sounds... Responding inline.
Catherine Arden wrote: > Hi Tom > > I agree that the "sage on the stage in the brick space structure" is an > outdated model of education that perhaps has more to do with maintaining > power and control than teaching and learning....However, there are > nonetheless real challenges working within our new paradigm. For instance, > how do we value knowledge? Value. Knowledge. Loaded words, these. Present administration does more to equate value to costs and potential revenue than anything else, it seems, which seems fair considering that metrics of value are not clear and, perhaps, never will be. Maybe they could be if one were to consider value as a form of potential energy (Physics). Consider that a book could be seen as having a high amount of 'potential energy', and that tapping that energy is really the key. And the same applies to knowledge itself, really... But then, I believe that I am thinking well outside of established boxes... > How do we teach 'instrumental' skills such as > literacy and numeracy effectively and how do we know they are learned? Well, we never truly know... I favor fuzzy logic (the concept) in this - if something is learned, it is learned to a degree of truth. Fuzzy Logic incorporates truth values to establish how true something is. Unfortunately, bayesian probability is more liked in the United States and other parts of the world due to it's simplicity in being integrated in software - but I really believe that Fuzzy Logic excels in questions like this. It isn't a true/false question - it is a matter of how true we believe something is based on information available. > How > do we recognise scholarly achievement? I think that the large mass of people on the planet rarely recognize scholarly achievement other than little pieces of paper that are hung on walls - and sometimes to their own detriment (they pose a risk when they fall, and are typically not OSHA compliant). > How do we 'transmit' cultural > values? And how do we 'receive' cultural values? ;-) > Are these questions really still about hegemony and fear of losing > control or do we need to have some way of controlling education if we are to > further our human development and not find ourselves wallowing in a sea of > pseudo? > There has to be some control in a learning environment, but control does not have to wear latex and wield a bullwhip. While videos along those lines are inexplicably popular on the internet, I do not believe that there is a need for dominance/submission in education. Frankly, most of the things that I have learned that I am most happy I have learned have not come from a curriculum or a reading list provided by educational professionals - no offense to anyone. I believe in discussion, and discussion requires mutual respect. Where mutual respect lacks, discussion is impossible (which probably explains 93.6% of the Internet. I love making up statistics.). Where does mutual respect come from? Can we teach that? And can we get educational institutions to evaluate discussions, are have they become too much of businesses to use metrics that are less than tangible? I do not know. Some people require structure in their educations, others do not need the structure. Therefore comparing results boils down to comparing people's learning styles against educational institution knowledge transfer methodologies. And since no two humans are alike... -- Taran Rampersad [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.knowprose.com http://www.your2ndplace.com http://www.opendepth.com http://www.flickr.com/photos/knowprose/ "Criticize by Creating" - Michelangelo "The present is theirs; the future, for which I really worked, is mine." - Nikola Tesla _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@digitaldivide.net http://digitaldivide.net/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
