Hmmmm. Yes Phil and Jim. I just come off a conversation with my 86-year old colleague and was exchanging email with another colleague who is now 89. I don't think of them as retired. I don't think they think that way themselves either. There has been no interruption, as I can see it, in their dedication to work on the issues about which they have always been passionate. Perhaps they now have the privilege of being less distracted by a couple of obligations that normally come with being employed. But there are others, below the retirement age, who have managed to create similar conditions for themselves. Besides, isn't it nice to work across those generational boundaries? In my view, WikiEducator is best seen as a transgenerational effort. I wouldn't like to be put in some sort of generational category. It doesn't make sense to me.
Incidentally, I'm 71. I retired from my UNESCO post at 62 (had to, no other option - they call it retirement age). It meant a few weeks vacation, and then it was back to work, applying the same effort as before, pursuing the same interests as before, developing new and related interests, but now with the advantage of greater liberty in making my own choices and creating my own environment. That's all the difference there is. Happy New Year to you all. Jan -- Jan Visser, Ph.D. President & Sr. Researcher, Learning Development Institute E-mail: [email protected] Check out: http://www.learndev.org and http://www.facebook.com/learndev Blog: http://jvisser-ldi.blogspot.com/ -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of jkelly952 Sent: Monday, December 28, 2009 5:45 PM To: WikiEducator Subject: [WikiEducator] Re: Phil.s rant Phil, For those of us approaching 70 your comments ring very true. Waiting til the year 2015 before showing the world what WikiEducator can provide is not only losing our knowledge base, but depriving the present generation of primary and secondary school learners. WikiEducator seems to have the philosophy that primary and secondary school programs can be suddenly created. Experience has shown that educational programs are conservative entities, they need to evolve over time otherwise as history has shown they will fail. New Math of the 1960's and 70's focused on new teaching methods and an average of a 8 % change in content and content distribution per grade level. Both of which were met with what the 80's called the “back to basics” movement, where much of what was done in the 2 previous decades was greatly reduced. While I enjoy technology as much as young people [Phil, you do not need to make “technology more friendly to older members” - we get it] – learning in my mid 60's enough HTML, PHP and MySQL to create my website www.k-12math.info which is the foundation for my Wikieducator contribution. We must understand that the media is not the message! The media's purpose, as dull as it sounds, is to delivery content and to frame it in the learner's reality (their language, economic and social environment). This personalization of knowledge is what it is about. Phil thanks. Jim Kelly Wikieducator contribution: http://wikieducator.org/K-12math.info_%28English_-_Espa%C3%B1ol_%E2%80%93_Fr an%C3%A7ais%29 On Dec 27, 5:55 pm, Phil Bartle <[email protected]> wrote: > The last rant of this year is now ready. It is about retired members, > with a message for those who are not yet retired. > > See:http://wikieducator.org/User:Philbartle#Phil.27s_Rants > > If the coach does the pushups, > The athlete will not get stronger > Community Empowerment:www.scn.org/cmp/ > WikiEducatorhttp://www.wikieducator.org/User:Philbartle > Twitter = Java_Bartle > Join our discussion forumhttp://groups.yahoo.com/group/Community_StrengtheningIfthe coach does > the pushups, > The athlete will not get stronger > Community Empowerment:www.scn.org/cmp/ > WikiEducatorhttp://www.wikieducator.org/User:Philbartle > Twitter = Java_Bartle > Join our discussion forumhttp://groups.yahoo.com/group/Community_Strengthening -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "WikiEducator" group. To visit wikieducator: http://www.wikieducator.org To visit the discussion forum: http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "WikiEducator" group. To visit wikieducator: http://www.wikieducator.org To visit the discussion forum: http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]
