Tired of Education?

Seeing a tweet that said “I’m Tired of Education” was somehow compelling to me this evening, and I was delighted to read the post it linked to:

See it here:
http://educationontheplate.wordpress.com/2011/12/28/im-tired-of-talking-about-education/

Thanks Deven Black!

Social media as the bandstand?

Stefon Harris, in this great TED video, explains how the bandstand is a place where you are alive in the moment. He says it’s best when it’s about responding to others — perceiving, and reacting to, what someone else is doing as an opportunity for moving forward. I think what he’s saying applies to much more than jazz (which is intriguing me more and more lately). Awareness and acceptance! The creative flow that happens when ideas are not imposed.

Social media has that potential. A river of thoughts flowing by, waiting for our reaction. Unedited. The opposite of a centralized, censored media source. What you say might change something. How you listen is important too because you are part of something big — not an outsider.

Some of the comments to the TED video include:

“What a great lesson on collaboratively learning!”

AND

“being open to new possibilities and allowing things to go where they may as new people and new ideas are brought into the equation”

AND

“Wynton Marsalis explains jazz as a democracy, each member has a say in what is being created, it is the fairest form of music. Bringing a jazz group in is just another way to teach democracy to the listeners, and what a wonderful way to do it! We must listen to each other in order to create a fluid that will inspire others, and ourselves! Tolerance, compromises, praise and criticism lead to a rounded, comfortable group where there is no fear of being bullied”

AND

“Listening, faith, creativity, cooperation, acceptance – gives the freedom, strength and courage to progress together into the unknown. Really beautiful!”

I agree!

Work / Life

One of the instructional skills workshop participants I’ve been working with blogged on the topic of work/life balance by saying the following:

“Do we find what we do to make money so onerous that we wish to compartmentalize it away from who we are? Is work the way to make money and life what we use the money for? Is work so strenuous that what we call our life must consist of recovery, recuperation and preparation for the next onslaught of anguish/work?” http://thedarkcorridor.wordpress.com/2011/12/07/iswo-blog-5/

These are compelling questions, and I think they say a lot about our workplace and our attitude. I’m not quite sure who I mean here when I say “our”– but I think it might be anyone who works in an industrialized setting.

Where do I stand on this? I’m someone who’s about to take an early retirement and by February of next year (that’s just a few weeks away) I’ll be “free”. I love education and want to continue working in the field and for me, taking the pension offers the chance to be more selective about the work I do. I hate to say it but a lot of my time right now in my instructional designer role is spent nagging because courses have start dates and things need to be in place on time. Contract work (at least the kind I have lined up) is much different.

Overall, once retired I may actually work *more* — and some of that work will be a new focus related to glass. the hobby that I’ve tried to cultivate over the past several years as part of my own “work-life balance.” So my vision is for lots of variety. That too, may be part of the real secret to work/life balance. It seems to me that the workplace benefits when workers have a range of paths and can choose to grow when they’re ready.

And I believe that through social media I’ll be able to continue growing, keeping up with and contributing to the world of education. Contract work is one thing but I will almost certainly want to explore areas that I’m not “contracted” to do. And I’ll have the opportunity. Unencumbered! Willingly!

I think the whole concept is closely related to what Clay Shirky sees when he talks about cognitive surplus.

One of my favourite quotes of Shirky’s

“We have lived in this world where little things are done for love and big things for money. Now we have Wikipedia. Suddenly big things can be done for love.”

http://elizabethtweets.wordpress.com/2011/05/07/what-is-the-value-of-openness/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_Surplus

(and my son is 19 today…. Happy Birthday to a fresh new grown-up person!)

Standardized Testing

When an adult took standardized tests forced on kids

@johnathanfields tweeted “Successful, educated adult gets crushed by standardized test for kids” when referring to this article, written by Marion Brady:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/when-an-adult-took-standardized-tests-forced-on-kids/2011/12/05/gIQApTDuUO_blog.html

It’s about a school board member, someone with “a bachelor of science degree, two masters degrees, and 15 credit hours toward a doctorate,” who could only guess 10 out of 60 questions in the math section, and got a “D” on the reading section of a test that is used for Grade 10 students.

He is quoted as saying “I have a wide circle of friends in various professions. Since taking the test, I’ve detailed its contents as best I can to many of them, particularly the math section, which does more than its share of shoving students in our system out of school and on to the street. Not a single one of them said that the math I described was necessary in their profession.”

Horrifying to think that a hugely funded education system has its focus on something that compels a huge number of students to leave the education system feeling like failures rather than supporting them towards lifelong learning.

Another blog post about the article:
http://journalofeducationalcontroversy.blogspot.com/2011/12/when-adult-took-standardized-tests.html