Hi Guys, This is such a fascinating discussion...
Is there any way to package this - and use it as the basis of some learning materials for a course on something.... :-) It's just such great dialogue.... I'm wondering how we can give it more life than simply in the google group.. - Randy On Sat, Dec 6, 2008 at 11:34 AM, Wayne <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hi Maria, > > That's a fascinating project. > > Do you have any links to any examples of the activities families develop? > Do the families produce resources/handouts that are used in the learning > activities? What tools do families use to generate and share the activities? > > I quickly scanned the list on google groups -- but admit due to time > constraints, I could easily have missed references to the examples :-(. > > As you suggest -- a wiki is a powerful tool to combine community activity > and engagement with both the creation and use of activities. If you're > interested -- shall we try a pilot? > > Cheers > Wayne > > > On Sat, 2008-12-06 at 06:33 -0500, Maria Droujkova wrote: > > I'd like to describe a system we have started to develop in the family > multiplication study. The "reusable objects" there are "small" according to > "The reusability paradox": > http://web.archive.org/web/20041019162710/http://rclt.usu.edu/whitepapers/paradox.html<http://console.mxlogic.com/redir/?1pd7aqbPab9JBUQsLCzAQsCzBYS0305SNIjAp_w0e02NeZS4rECzB5Ncszv00sr7PVKzvuwTxwDavHqJYqoJItgG7Y3zt-KOUqemnD6rICXCOci5mUmYKOjAImcdXKW8M8PaAWAO3MuW7IMsc5FxUUUMHJyIEjHgCtqF_00gkhHkyvV6dmRGsKrjd7a9EVd79J5ddVZNBddUSUYrdbo2OaO6A6XreIjiWq80nWhEw6mV7Eiwhd46Cy2zt9Xa6A3_d402zhEw30Q2Ph02v3VAaRaCy2k9jBIV6vdPYfDyN-OwrhdLCSnzhO-qen7zhOrk0wQ_6a4>Each > object (or, to using the "discover the multiplication planet" metaphor > of the study - not a Lego metaphor, hehe - a "multiplication planet site") > is a very brief, skeletal description of a project or activity. The only > requirement of an activity design is that it should invite each participant > to create, build, invent and in general author their own mathematics. A few > examples of the current multiplication planet sites: spirolaterals > (sequences, order, rotation can be investigated and designed), snowflakes > (folding, reflection, rotation, contents of each segment), mirror books (an > art project about symmetry and 2d transformations), design your own > multiplication war game (coming up with buff cards and other game rules). > This is the study's mailing list: > http://www.groups.google.com/group/multiplicationstudy<http://console.mxlogic.com/redir/?mjhOCyYOyOrpud7bVEVd79EVvdw0ycqJHkUzmF4_-nMz6HqSaJDPAIvaSPBm59JE5zt-KOUqemnD6rICXCOci5mUmYKOjAImcdXKW8M8PaAWAO3MuW7IMsc5FxUUUMHJyIEjHgCtqF_00gkhHkyvV6dmRGsKrjd7a9EVd79J5ddVZNBddUSUYrdbo2OaO6A6XreIjiWq80nWhEw6mV7Eiwhd46Cy2zt9Xa6A3_d402zhEw30Q2Ph02v3VAaRaCy2k9jBIV6vdPYfDyN-OwrjdLCSnzhO-qen7zhOrk0wQ_6a4> > > Participating families select an activity per week, then describe how it > went for them. Some families design their own, throw in design ideas, or > request a design: "something about World War II" or "whatever we can do > without writing" or "something to help us memorize." Parents describe > themselves and their kids - as an aside, you'd be surprised how little age > correlates with requested level of activities. Technically, after the study > runs for a while, you can collect activity descriptions, edit comments that > go with them, and publish a sort of "multiplication text." However, even if > we exclude the idea that the community designs new activities every week, > one goal of the study is to help future participants plan their own travel > routes on the multiplication planet, based on how previous people selected > activity sequences. I can't see a book providing such a service, because it > involves software analyzing a database. I envision somebody following a > friends' path, for example, or finding a family with similar philosophy and > structure and following their steps, or going from the Snowflake activity to > the Mirror book activity because both deal with symmetry and there are > strong topic connections that a lot of people followed before. I'd like to > see something like Amazon's book suggestions: "people like you read these > books" - except on activity-to-activity basis. It's too early in the study > to tell, but intuitively, it feels like the social aspects of the system > won't be easy, or possible, to capture in a book format. A book may be a > nice souvenir of the past of the study, but it won't provide the services > participation in that community provides. > > This last paragraph is dreaming, brainstorming and wild speculation - > please take it as such. A claim: history and story (narrative) help us > understand and reify past activities for the purposes of planning the future > and dealing with the present. A constructivist claim: "In the beginning was > the deed" - to learn, do. A novice, in addition or instead of "catching up" > on the (dead, reified) past through narratives, can be active in creating > her own actions and adventures in active and adventurous current communities > of practice. This requires tools that support action directly - both > authoring action and social community action. A wiki can be such a tool, a > book - ? > > -- > Cheers, > MariaD > > Make math your own, to make your own math. > > naturalmath.com<http://console.mxlogic.com/redir/?ICzBd5VB5ASOYqenPhOqejhO-r01MSrstflSpfBPt-KOUqemnD6rICXCOci5mUmYKOjAImcdXKW8M8PaAWAO3MuW7IMsc5FxUUUMHJyIEjHgCtqF_00gkhHkyvV6dmRGsKrjd7a9EVd79J5ddVZNBddUSUYrdbo2OaO6A6XreIjiWq80nWhEw6mV7Eiwhd46Cy2zt9Xa6A3_d402zhEw30Q2Ph02v3VAaRaCy2k9jBIV6vdPYfDyN-OwrpdLCSnzhO-qen7zhOrk0wQ_6a4>: > a sketch of a social math site > groups.google.com/group/naturalmath<http://console.mxlogic.com/redir/?1pd7aqbPab9JBUQsLCzAQsCzBYS038NGSJjydqAj_Vv2cqJHp3pJNQZnpAPt-KOUqemnD6rICXCOci5mUmYKOjAImcdXKW8M8PaAWAO3MuW7IMsc5FxUUUMHJyIEjHgCtqF_00gkhHkyvV6dmRGsKrjd7a9EVd79J5ddVZNBddUSUYrdbo2OaO6A6XreIjiWq80nWhEw6mV7Eiwhd46Cy2zt9Xa6A3_d402zhEw30Q2Ph02v3VAaRaCy2k9jBIV6vdPYfDyN-OwrodLCSnzhO-qen7zhOrk0wQ_6a4>: > a mailing list about math maker activities > groups.google.com/group/multiplicationstudy<http://console.mxlogic.com/redir/?mjhOCyYOyOrpud7bVEVd79EVvdw0OcqJHkUzmF4_-nMz6HqSaJDPAIvaSPBm59JE5zt-KOUqemnD6rICXCOci5mUmYKOjAImcdXKW8M8PaAWAO3MuW7IMsc5FxUUUMHJyIEjHgCtqF_00gkhHkyvV6dmRGsKrjd7a9EVd79J5ddVZNBddUSUYrdbo2OaO6A6XreIjiWq80nWhEw6mV7Eiwhd46Cy2zt9Xa6A3_d402zhEw30Q2Ph02v3VAaRaCy2k9jBIV6vdPYfDyN-OwrvdLCSnzhO-qen7zhOrk0wQ_6a4>the > family multiplication study > > On Fri, Dec 5, 2008 at 10:48 PM, Wayne <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Hi Leigh > > In practical terms -- can you describe the teaching-learning system you > envisage in terms of the functions of teaching and elements of the system. > I'm not sure that I understand what you are talking about. > > Cheers > Wayne > > > > > > > On Sat, 2008-12-06 at 14:21 +1100, Leigh Blackall wrote: > > I'm not convinced we are pioneers at all. Illich is significant to me not > for hi Deschooling Society, but for his vision of learning webs. As he > describes it (in chapter 6 I think), Bolivia was rolling out OER in the form > of television. The cost of television back then meant that Bolivia could > afford 1 tv per 5000 Bolivians. Illich proposed a networked communication > through audio cassette recordings. At the time, he proposed that Bolivia > could afford 1 cassette recorder per 5 Bolivians > with enough money left over to set up a postal service to facilitate the > exchange of audio recordings being sent in by farmers and kids. He was > talking about audio blogging, where today the cost of achieving what Illich > envisioned is greatly reduced for us in the wealthy economies, but still > impossible for your average Bolivian I guess. Even with OLPCs the difficulty > of using a cassette recorder and postal service compared to an OLPC is > laughable. > > Illich was talking about networked learning, without the middle man. Our > OER efforts, and especially the production of text books with "learning > design" interwoven is more broadcast, middle man OER like Bolivia's TV idea, > distance learning, and to some extent the OLPCs.. nothing new at all. The > only thing "new" in it is the copyright and the technology.. and seeing your > historical reference predates modern history Wayne, even our new approach to > copyright is nothing new. > > Peter Rawsthorne and James Neill have been talking about student generated > content initiaties on Wikieducator for quite some time, and in many regards > this is similar to networked learning accept that it tends to focus on a > demographic we call students, that is typically made up in crude class > systems like K12 and everything in between - leaving out the contributions > that someone outside that class might have to offer - such as traditional, > subsistance, local even mystical. > > I'd hazard a guess that the funding is easily geared towards text books. > They are tangible and have established processes and protocols. But this > doesn't make it a good idea. A text book with "learning designed" in it, > over powers so much of what might be otherwise possible. A straight text > with a range of culturally appropriate "learning design" held seperately > would be far more scalable and versatile. Especially with strong learning > networks around each text. Strong networks like in Wikibooks and blogs for > example, or any number of offline networks > > Better would be a straight text with a learning network to go with it. In > the poorer countries this is obviously not through the Internet and > computers, but the ideas and models we have through the Internet could > inform new approaches to radio, newspaper, telephone, and postal services.. > even distance learning. > On Sat, Dec 6, 2008 at 1:25 PM, Wayne <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Hi Leigh > > > On Sat, 2008-12-06 at 08:57 +1300, Leigh Blackall wrote: > > Illich's Learning Webs idea for Bolivia, cited in his book Deschooling > Society - predating ODL, ignoring "instructional design", and predicting > post industrial society enabled by networked communications. Illich was > interested in networked communications empowering subsistance living. > > Illich's Deschooling Society is a seminal text and is a highly recommended > read for those dabbling in the future of OER. > > On a minor historical technicality ;-) Illich's Deschooling Society did > not predate the practice, research and publication in the field of DE/ODL. > I believe Deschooling Society was published in 1971. Their are published > references on DE dating back to 1728. However mainstream DE research as a > field of research endeavour started appearing in the literature in the early > 1950's. This followed the inception of the world's first single-mode > distance education university which began teaching in 1946 --- (The > University of South Africa). The detail of the actual dates is not too > relevant -- but rather the era in which these publications emerged. > > Deschooling Society was published shortly after the peak of > industrialisation after the second world war. DE/ODL is in fact a > consequence of the industrialisation of society. DE delivery was not > possible before the invention of the printing press and universal postal > services. It's also interesting to note that Illich's text was published > shortly after the student revolts of the 1960s and should be read within > this context. > > Illich was not the only author commenting or "predicting" on the emergence > of post-industrial society. For example, Daniel Bell's text on "The Coming > of Post-industrial Society" published around the same time. The notion of > "post-industrial" society was a pretty topical issue of the time. The > Fordist versus Post-Fordist debate has been well documented in the DE > literature (including for example: Raggart, Rumble, Farnes, Edwards etc.) > > Discontinuity theory is a contested concept in sociological terms --- Is > post-industrial society fundamentally different from industrial society, or > is it more of the same? Personally -- I buy into the theory of discontinuity > which would argue that the networked world is structurally different, but at > the same time I err on the side of caution with regards to how OER is > unfloding on our planet. I see many promising projects (WikiEducator > included) - but there is still lots of work for us to do before OER becomes > the default approach to education. > > Its going to be up to us to turn tommorrow's promise for OER into today's > reality! > > It's fun being a pioneer! > > > Cheers > Wayne > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > -- ________________ Randy Fisher - Change Management & Collaboration, Human Performance & Engagement, Sustainable Communities & Organizations * Engaging People in Teams, Communities and Organizations....and WikiEducator! + 1 604.684.2275 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.wikieducator.org http://www.wikieducator.org/Community_Media http://www.wikieducator.org/User:Randyfisher * Cool WikiEducator Video on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tc9-CNlIqsY * Can You Do the Wiki-Wiki? http://www.wikieducator.org/Wiki_Wiki Skype: wikirandy --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "WikiEducator" group. 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