Language – aliens – visionaries – troubleshooters – change promoters??

This blogpost will be written in English again for four obvious reasons:

1. All my German networked colleagues, followers, friends, readers understand and use English without problems. So for them it is not a problem to read my blog entries whether they are in English or in German.
2. I do not get any readers from Germany who would not read my blog articles for the simple reason that they are in English.
3. German readers I would love to have as readers and who were the target readers of my last blog post do rarely read blogs, they are not on twitter, they are sceptical about all this social networking and are careful not to leave traces of themselves on the web.
4. I have many readers and network buddies all over the world who come to my blog and for them it would really be an obstacle if the articles were in German. There is nothing to doubt about: English has always been the language of international business communication and it now is also the language of web communication. So my blog is back to English again  … like it or not….

This was a rather long introduction to my topic which has not that much to do with language but with understanding and misunderstanding within one’s own language.

The bad news: For a couple of days I’ve been feeling like a green faced alien having serious doubts about my online and offline identity. If you read my previous article you may know what I’m talking about.

The good news:  I’m not alone on this green alien planet where education “tsunamis” (lisarosa)are putting protected walled educational structures in danger. An it’s an exciting feeling to be a drop (thanks @martinlindner for the excellent water metaphor) in this wave.

So this article goes to all my favourite networked aliens who have been collecting water, drops, steam to get the tsunami for education on its way and get people’s mouth watering for change. Representative for all, let me just talk about 4 of them today.

Let me start with @lisarosa from Hamburg who I first saw online in a very heated debate with Rolf Schulmeister at Educamp Hamburg 2010.  I have been following her online actions since and we are quite close in our view on education.

She has always been standing up for progress and change in education and she has the big advantage to be working in teacher training and being able to show that change is possible in doing real projects. She has her own blog, is commenting on a regular basis other educators blogs and tweets and is one of the best known drivers of innovation in the blogging educators scene. It is worth following her on twitter @lisarosa and reading her blog Shift.

Now crossing the Channel to UK : Another educator who has been very influential not only on my way of seeing education is an educator himself from Plymouth University and like Lisa Rosa directly involved in training student teachers. He’s one of the most travelled professor- no doubt about that, just see the list of events he’s been invited too. You may have guessed by now that it’s Steve Wheeler  or @timbuckteeth or @stevewheeler – double identity to investigate on the effects of that ;-)

I first met him 2008 in Salzburg at eduMedia conference where I had been invited to present the German outcomes of the MAHARA ePortfolio project. Steve is not only a brilliant presenter and a very enjoyable person but his blog “Learning with e’s “ has kept me not only informed and inspired but also entertained for a long time now. I like his British sense of humour and his writing style in his daily blogposts. Steve told me once that the words and sentences just flow easily and effortless – I wish I could say the same for my writing ;-) .  At this years MoodleMoot in Elmshorn Steven had agreed to give the keynote- and it was a huge success even though it was in English for a mostly German audience.

He can inspire and engage people and get his message over of learning with technology and sharing resources for learning. You may want to follow him on twitter ( he’s kept the record of the best tweeter with most tweets at the Unesco conference this summer even though he had given a keynote but was tweeting content before and after that! ). I have written a blog article on this conference here.  One of my favourite tweets by Steve is “Be disruptive, take a risk, don’t ask for permission but for forgiveness…..” which shows quite clearly his opinion how each of us as an educator can trigger change in education if we want to overcome all the barrieres we encounter on our way… And if you like to read inspiring and forward looking articles, you will not be disappointed by following Steve on his blog.

Let me continue my journey through Europe going to Switzerland – not only because my daughter and my granddaughter are living there but because I had a magic experience in Zurich in 2006 with my dear colleague Ulrike Montgomery who took me to my first ever MoodleMoot. That’s where I met Max Woodtli who was moderating the Moot.

When I googled for Max  I came across this picture- yes, remember – Steve said more or less the same .”.. being disruptive…”  though Max may be a bit more careful about being radically disruptive – after all, he is  Swiss ;-)

Max has been the one who showed me for the first time how an effective and inspiring  PowerPoint presentation looks like. No “Death by powerpoint” no bullet points and all the other usual suspects which you still see today – not only from students. I saw his first presentation at Heidelberg Moodle Moot in 2008 where he did a keynote on learning and creativity and new skills and competences required for that. His workshop in the afternoon was so in demand that people were crammed in the room and some had to stand. He’s a great learning coach and moderator and has been coaching  student teachers not only in Switzerland. He’s one of the most knowledgeable and experienced experts I know when it comes to learning processes and effective learning. Whe I had asked him to give a keynote at Elmshorn MoodleMoot he was kind enough to accept it. It was the perfect combination after Steve had spoken on the first day. You can follow Max also on twitter @mwoodtli.  Like Steve, Max has 2 identities on twitter ;-) – the second as a learncoach .

Let me come back to Germany and very close to the place I live – Mannheim. I already mentioned this colleague , sister-in-mind and friend, before. She was the one to bring Moodle to Baden-Württemberg and many moodlers may have heard her story how this had happened. Yes, it is Ulrike Montgomery who has been the initial driving agent behind the German Moodle community and a very enthusisatic ambassador for a use of moodle not as a “Wäscheleine” – but by linking to the world brought to the classroom with the web and its tools. Here you can see her interviewing Martin Dougiamas , “MrMoodle” at the Moodle Schule booth.

She has always been promoting new ways of learning with Moodle and thus influencing hundreds of teachers in her workshops. For the last years I had the great pleasure to do workshops together with Ulrike and we did not only have fun preparing these workshops but also could see how colleagues were surprised of the many creative, communicative and collaborative ways Moodle can be used in learning. I first met her back in summer 2005 when she did a workshop on first steps with moodle. I was immediately committed to the advantages and features of Moodle, having worked before with eMail, floppy disks and local storage at school, very unproductive ways of collaborative working. So this is my tribute to Ulrike! Here is a very old interview with her by Angela Kohl, one of the outstanding Austrian Moodlers.  Since Ulrike and me have had a reputation as the MMM – Mannheim Moodle Mafia – and to come back to Steve and Max: have been disruptive many times to get things working ;-)

I will leave it with these 4 people today, there are many more I would like to write about , but then my blog entry will rather be a novel and I’ve always been preaching to my students the KISS principle ….

Keynote Debakel – eine Analyse

Am Mittwoch war ich als Gastrednerin des 2.Kölner Moodle Tags eingeladen, den Einführungsvortrag zu halten. Thema der Konferenz war das LMS Moodle und mit der Organisation war abgesprochen, dass ich über Veränderungen in der Lernkultur spreche. Meine Präsentation hatte daher den Titel “Neue Besen braucht das Land”.

Eingestimmt wurde ich auf die Situation bereits bei der Anmeldung, wo ein netter Schüler  stöhnte “wer hat denn Moodle bloß erfunden”. Den jungen Mann klärte ich dann schnell auf und wollte natürlich wissen, warum er denn das LMS nicht so toll fand. Seine durchaus verständliche Aversion beruhte auf den Hausaufgaben, die dank der Forenfunktion abends um 9 noch in seiner Mailbox landeten. Leider konnte ich mit dem netten jungen Mann keine längere Diskussion mehr führen, seine Aversion kam mir aber sehr gelegen zum Einstieg in den Vortrag.

Ich kenne das nur zu gut als Moodlerin der ersten Stunde, dass man vor schierer Begeisterung über die vielen tollen Funktionen von Moodle – von der Möglichkeit, die Schüler jederzeit erreichen zu können bis zur schnellen Erstellung von Hot Potatoes für einen automatisierten Test am nächsten Tag und der Kontrolle, ob auch alle ihre Hausaufgaben hochgeladen haben, den Schülern diese Lernplattform vermiest, weil sie zu Recht merken, dass der Lehrer noch mehr Kontrolle über alle und alles hat. Ich habe also auch Lehrgeld gezahlt und den Schülern, die ja durchaus positiv eingestellt waren, das Lernen mit Moodle vermiest. Es bedurfte dann etlicher Gespräche und Kursänderungen (im Sinne von Richtungsänderung), um die Akzeptanz von Moodle wieder herzustellen. Da habe ich dann auch begriffen, dass es keine Lernfortschritte geben kann, wenn man Moodle nur einsetzt, um den “normalen” meist lehrerzentrierten Unterricht umzusetzen. Langsam haben wir dann unseren Kurs geändert, Verantwortung für das Erstellen von Inhalten an die Schüler übergeben, auch Auswahl und Vorschlag der Lernaktivitäten und (fast) keine Dokumente oder Arbeitsblätter mehr hochgeladen. Stattdessen wurden Seiten aus dem Internet, Videos, Mindmaps, Web 2.0 Anwendungen eingebunden und unser Kurs nahm eine dynamische Entwicklung an, an der die Schüler beteiligt waren. Dazu gehörte allerdings auch, dass sie mehr Freiräume erhielten, mehr Mitgestaltung am Lernprozess und auch Mitsprache an den Bewertungskriterien. Mit den neuen Freiheiten kamen aber auch neue Pflichten hinzu, insbesondere die Verantwortung für das eigene Lernen, die Zusammenarbeit in Projekten, die Pflicht zur Nutzung der Kommunikationsmöglichkeiten im Kursraum und auch die Übernahme von Aufgaben, die bisher der Lehrer hatte, wie z.b. das gemeinschaftliche Erstellen von Glossaren mit Fachbegriffen oder das Führen des Terminkalenders für die Klasse und die gegenseitige Unterstützung und Hilfe in den Foren. Zurücklehnen und ungestörtes Erwarten des Klingeltons war also nicht mehr möglich, und einige Schüler fanden das dann tatsächlich auch mal unkommod und protestierten. Ich hatte also auf meinem Weg mit Moodle auch durchaus viele negative Erfahrungen machen müssen/dürfen.

Das ist die eine Seite. Die andere Seite war der Hindernis- und Hürdenlauf im täglichen Schulalltag beim Versuch, Unterricht anders zu gestalten. Der Kampf um einen Raum mit Internetzugang und PCs- WLAN gabs zwar, aber nur für die Admins, die Schüler hatten teilweise ihre Smartphones mit Internetzugang dabei. Andere Probleme gab es beim Versuch, fächerübergreifend ein Thema wie z.b. “Wasser” zu behandlen. Der Chemielehrer hatte das in diesem Schuljahr nicht im Curriculum, der Religionslehrer nur einen Teil der Klasse, der Gemeinschaftskundelehrer hatte eh noch zuviel Stoff zu behandlen, der Deutschlehrer sah keinen Anknüpfungspunkt – und dann waren wir wieder allein. Ich muss allerdings auch sagen, dass in Bereichen, wo sich eine Zusammenarbeit mit Kollegen/Fächern ergeben hatte, dies zu mehr Engagement und besseren Resultaten bei den Schülern führte.

Mit der Zeit wurde mir immer klarer, dass eine ziemlich radikale Änderung der Lehr- und Lernkultur erforderlich ist, um Schule und Realität deckungsgleich zu bekommen. Dass man das als Einzelkämpfer nicht schaffen kann, war mir völlig klar und ich begann, mein Netzwerk an Gleichgesinnten aufzubauen und in diesem Netzwerk fand und findet immer noch – Austausch über Methoden, Probleme, Werkzeuge und vieles mehr statt.

Auch ein Jahr nach dem Ausscheiden aus dem Schuldienst bin ich immer noch an allem, was bildungsmässig geschieht, interessiert und im Austausch in einem Netzwerk.

Ich will aber jetzt nicht weiter über gute und schlechte Erfahrungen bei der Arbeit mit digitalen Medien sprechen, sondern über den Vortrag in Köln.

Die Zielsetzung meines Vortrags war, die Zuhörer für die Notwendigkeit einer Veränderung in der Lernkultur zu sensibilisieren und aufzuzeigen, dass ein Moodlekurs allein noch keinen anderen Unterricht und anderes Lernen bewirkt. Ich war davon ausgegangen, dass hier allgemeiner Konsensus im Publikum bestand und sich bereits alle in irgendeiner Weise auf den Weg gemacht hatten oder machen wollten und wir gemeinsam überlegen, wo die Hindernisse liegen und wie wir Veränderung bewirken können. Bei den Hindernissen, die nicht nur in meiner Erfahrung oft bei der IT Administartion liegen, haben sich die anwesenden ITler dann gleich persönlich angegriffen gefühlt und sich empört zur Wehr gesetzt. Da war dann auch nicht mehr viel zu retten, als ich betonte, dass dies Erfahrungen aus meinem Umfeld und Fortbildungen sind. Es ist sicher nicht zu bestreiten, dass hier von vielen gute Arbeit geleistet wird – es gibt auch entsprechend Ermässigungsstunden – (ich war auch mal Admin, allerdings nur für “meinen” PC Raum) , die in der Regel nicht ausreichen, wenn gute Arbei gemacht wird. Dennoch sehen die Prioritäten der Admins in der Regel anders aus als die der Lehrer und Schüler, die ein offeneres Lernen wollen, die eine Seite ist penibel auf alle Sicherheitsaspekte bedacht, die andere Seite dadurch in der Arbeit blockiert, oft unvereinbare Gegensätze, da die Admins meist am längeren Hebel bei der Schulleitung sitzen. Dies sind nicht nur meine Erfahrungen.

Nachdem ich also die Admins und ITler gegen mich aufgebracht hatte, war das Publikum erst recht skeptisch meinen Thesen  gegenüber und mein Vortrag verpuffte in Ablehnung – so habe ich das zumindest empfunden.

Eine Kollegin sagte mir anschliessend auch, dass die Zuhörer eine andere Erwartungshaltung hatten, sie wollten nämlich keine langen Vorträge sondern lieber mehr Zeit für die anschliessenden Workshops – sehr verständlich, aber dafür war ich nun nicht verantwortlich.

Zum anderen stellte sich heraus, dass viele KollegInnen sich erst auf den Weg mit Moodle gemacht hatten oder machen wollten und daher einen Vortrag über Moodle erwartet hatten und nicht über eine Veränderung in der Lernkultur.

Klassischer Fall von “falscher Vortrag für Zielgruppe”??? Ich hatte eine ähnliche Keynote aber schon mal gehalten bei einer lokalen MoodleMoot, und das war ein großer Erfolg. Was lief da also total daneben? Es wäre für mich viel einfacher gewesen, direkt in einem Moodlekurs zu zeigen, wie man Lernen und Eigenaktivität der Schüler fördern kann und wie man mit Web 2.0 Tools die Welt ins Klassenzimmer holen kann, aber das war bereits Thema eines Workshops und eine Keynote sollte doch eigentlich zum Nachdenken anregen, Diskussionen anschieben?

Ein Teilnehmer warf mir anschliessend auch vor, dass man Schulentwicklung so nicht betreiben könne, weil man nicht alle KollegInnen ins Boot bekommt. Ich kenne dieses Argument , bin jedoch der Meinung, dass dies eh unmöglich ist, weil es schwierig ist, alte Strukturen und Gewohnheiten und auch Aversionen zu ändern und das unter (sanftem) Zwang auch durch Schulentwicklung nicht zu bewerkstelligen ist. Vielleicht nach 10 Jahren, aber dann ist der Zug auch schon abgefahren. Es ist meiner Meinung nach effizienter, sich mit Gleichgesinnten zusammen zu tun und dann nach und nach Wellen zu schlagen und andere durch positive Ergebnisse mit ins Boot zu nehmen. Mit der Zeit entsteht ein kleines Netzwerk, auch schulübergreifend und es geschieht wirklich etwas. Es ist zehnmal besser, mit Leuten, die enthusiastisch dabei sind, zu rudern, als andere, die aus (guten Gründen) nicht ins Wasser wollen, zum Rudern zu überreden.

Auch wenn dies jetzt niemand von den in Köln anwesenden KollegInnen liest, schreibe ich es dennoch auf und bin gespannt, ob andere Blogger aus dem Bildungsbereich hier zu ihren Erfahrungen kommentieren können.

Es ist im übrigen für mich das erste Mal, dass ein Vortrag so ” daneben ging”.

Kurioserweise fand zeitgleich in Berlin die Online Educa #oeb11 statt mit der Keynote von Neelie Kroes , der Vizepräsidentin der EU Kommission , die für die Digital Agenda zuständig ist.
Ihr Vortrag kann hier gelesen und kommentiert werden und hier gibts das Video der Aufzeichnung.
Und hier noch als Nachklapp ein Artikel zum #speedlab2, das am nächsten Tag in Köln stattfand und zu großen Diskussionen führte – man beachte den Kommentar zum Artikel von Martin Lindner

 

Lubna made my day!

This video made my day!

Via scoop.it – thank you Susan Bainbridge  I came across this video showing Lubna Alam from the University of Canberra on using Moodle and Web2.0 tools in a learning setting. Lubna is brilliant and this video made my day She explains in a perfect way how this project was panned and went along and also the critical points you have to consider when you start using web2.0 tools in a learning and teaching environment. EXCELLENT! Credits also to Tim O’Riordan who wrote this blog entry.

Here is the video and there is also the possibility to download a PDF file where you get all the information on this project!

 

Winning tweets … the power of openness and sharing….

Quite unexpectedly I just read on my  Tweetdeck timeline that I had won a prize for tweeting during the UNESCO conference in Barcelona.  There is nothing to be proud as I had not tweeted with the challenge to get the prize in mind but because I really felt like taking actively part in the discussions and talks in Barcelona and it was an extraordinary experience of openness and sharing! Quite normal they did not send me an eMail but wrote a tweet! I am in the best ever company with @timbuckteeth and @torresk both very inspiring persons for change!

Thanks again to all people who made this event possible!

IMHO a special prize should have gone to Ismael Peña-López aka @ictlogist who did live blogging of all the presentations!

Two days of global learning in Barcelona ….

by jbjbandjb

Yes, I was in Barcelona for 2 days, and yes,I  strongly felt beeing there and if you don’t believe me go to the twitter timeline on #eLChair11.

In reality I was sitting at my desk in my Italian home and connecting via streamed video and twitter to the

It was an awesome experience to see how scientists and policy makers from all around the world were analysing the problems in teacher training and all came up more or less with the same usual suspects that are an obstacle to change. At this level there was unanimous agreement that change was needed and this was not to be discussed anymore but all speakers were dealing in a mostly very passionate and inspiring way with the ways this change could be facilitated. They did not all agree on whether the education system was to be blown away or whether there were remedies by curing singular diseases. But again they all agreed that education  in the old way was broken.
The remedy they all agreed on- no wonder as it was the topic of the conference – was that change could only start within the training of new teachers. This is more promising than to kind of force in-service teacher staff to change their minds about technology and new ways of teaching and learning.
The second crucial point were the usual supsects in the persons of administrators, school managers and especially ICT departments.
F Ruiz Tarragó claimed that ” the quality of an education system cannot exceed the quality of its managers…”
so this again raised the question whether change would be a bottom up or top down process. I am convinced it needs to be both ways to be efficient!
I am not going to give a summary of the conference and the talks,  there was live-blogging during the conference by @ictlogist who did a great job! You can browse through his notes under the individual reports.
As to be expected Steve Wheeler alias @timbuckteeth was again much faster blogging on the conference which comes in handy for me as I can just link to his blog :-) … that is what Steve calls “sharing” :-)
I would just like to end with a few re-quotes from the conference:
Hilary Cottam: We need to stop patching and mending institutions designed for another era.
Manuel Castells: There is a lack of imagination, knowledge and audacity. Let’s experiment .. there is nothing to lose.
Ruiz Tarragó. Challenge 1: Teachers should be aware that they are requested to be excellent in an outdated system.
Ruiz Tarragó. Challenge 2: Teachers should widen the scope of their professional mission regarding students
Ruiz Tarragó: Prepare students for the future, not the past
If you go to the twitter stream of the conference #eLChair11 you will find many more statements, all of them being a great source of discussing the topic.
If you have the time – and I tell you it is worth!!! watch the recorded videos you can access from the website! It needs a bit of patience to match the contributions with the programme as they are not described.
So my conclusion of these 2 days of virtual conference participation : I never had the impression to be only a passive lurker but thanks to the twitter feed and all the people who took part from outside too, it was a personal learning experience. Thanks to all those people who made this possible!

Be disruptive, take a risk, don’t ask for permission but for forgiveness…..

I just came across one of Steve Wheeler’s @timbuckteeth interviews where he talks about shifting paradigms in eLearning, where the shift is from the teacher to the learner by creating content and he talks about collaboration and cooperation with web 2.0 , sharing content and the changing role of educators.

He shows how new ideas can be disseminated by means of sharing in social networks and an audience of 15 people becomes 15000 within a couple of days.

He sees the landscape of education change drastically but unfortunately only in some areas and  encourages educators instead of waiting for the change to be part of the change by being disruptive, innovative, taking risks even against their own administration for the sake of helping learners to learn.

This is a video I wish all teacher students would watch and discuss during their teacher training!

Students love technology – discussion topic for the classroom!

Here is a great way of presenting the results of a survey on students and technology. This infographic could provide a great opportunity in the classroom for discussion. I love the post it on “who we think the other 2% is”….

In the infographic below, online higher education database Onlineeducation.net has summed up some of the existing research on these points.

Students Love Technology
Via: OnlineEducation.net

Hop on the train! Change MOOC – #change11

With a delay of one week -  having the excuse that my WP blog was playing up with a server update – I will finally jump onto the ” MOOC of change train”  with its open platforms and flexible timetables and free transport to all parts of the world, making it an ideal place for my favourite passtime: networking :-) (My twitter name one of my friends gave me is “Networking_lady“)

Although I stopped teaching a year ago and am now somewhat like a “retired teacher” I could not stop participating in ongoing discussions on education and have been part of an international social network of engaged educators who are actively promoting – and living – change!

Due to twitter which is much faster and more effective for getting an overview of wjat is going on I have neglected my blog for some time now. MOOC #change11 now brings me back to writing and reflecting and I am curious to see in which direction my learning and contributing will go… change 11 being a completely open learning space.

To give readers of my blog an idea what this MOOC #change11 is all about I’d like to start with Stephen Downes’ intro video before talking abot why I decided to take part in this exciting challenge.

What I really like about this MOOC is its openness both in ways of allowing everybody to take part but also in challenging participants to find their own way to contribute and and get inspired by the daily newslwetter and also other people’s contributions. This requires a lot of open mindedness as still most learners are used to be guided through a learning process and given tasks to fulfill with more or less freedom. So it might look very chaotic at the beginning and will remain impossible to follow everything that is going on during these 36 weeks but itwill be a great opportunity to get in touch with new perspectives, learn from other people’s experience and will be an awesome platform for more networking.

Already now some German educators have jumped on the train and I am glad that @mons7, @ralfh, @dieGoerelebt  and @VolkmarLa will help building  the network and do some brainstorming on what we could contribute from Germany ;-)

Dörte has written about her goals for this course in her blog with all the relevant links for newcomers to the MOOC.

A big thank you to the facilitators and organizers of this MOOC , Stephen, George and Dave, all three very enthusiastic guys in making learning different.

I hope that their call for change will be heard also in Germany, though most contributions of the MOOC #change11 are in English… let us spread the word!

 Last not least a new scoop.itChange11

“MOOC – Change: Education, Learning, and Technology!” RSS
Curated by Paulo Simões

 

 

 

Countdown for #RSCON3

The Reform Symposium free worldwide e-conference

With all the Pre-conference activities and networking I completely forgot to write an article in my blog. Hopefully some of you will still read it in time though as RSCON3 starts tomorrow, 29th July. I do not want to explain what RSCON3 is all about, but instead will let Carla Arena invite you in her charming way to a 3-days- conference around the globe which you can attend in your pyjama or at the beach as long as you have an internet connection. I know it’s holiday time for most European educators but on the other hand then you will have enoughime to attend some intersting presentations. Here comes Carla:

 

Chris Smith (Shamblesguru) has created a nice prezi for the conference with all the links and information you may need. There is no embed code for the prezi, so I just link it for you.

One of my favourite educators who has influenced and inspired me a lotv these last years, Steve Wheeler (@ timbuckteeth) has written a wonderful blog entry on the Reform Symposium, giving it a historical dimension ;-) . You can read it here:

Around the world in three days

My presentation will be on Friday 29th from 19.30 to 20.15 ona school projectsing Moodle and Mahara combined. More information on my RSCON profile site.  For some undefined reason there is another presenter in my profile, so don’t be surprised ;-)

Here is the link for my Elluminate presentation room. I will welcome you there at 19.30 Berlin time and am quite excited !

And for all of you who are uncetain whether and how to join the conference, Chiew Pang who has been very helpful with all the Elluminate problems has created a step-by-step guide.

How to attend RSCON3 e-conference. All you need to know!

 

If I only had students …..

Schooling the World

Schooling The World: The White Man’s Last Burden trailer HD from lost people films on Vimeo.

If you wanted to change an ancient culture in a generation, how would you do it?

You would change the way it educates its children.

The U.S. Government knew this in the 19th century when it forced Native American children into government boarding schools. Today, volunteers build schools in traditional societies around the world, convinced that school is the only way to a “better” life for indigenous children.

But is this true? What really happens when we replace a traditional culture’s way of learning and understanding the world with our own? Schooling the World: The White Man’s Last Burden takes a challenging, sometimes funny, ultimately deeply disturbing look at the effects of modern education on the world’s last sustainable indigenous cultures.

“Generations from now, we’ll look back and say, ‘How could we have done this kind of thing to people?’”

For more information, check out www.schoolingtheworld.org.

This is one of the days when I wish I hadn’t stopped active teaching. Instead of heading to my garden to look after the plants, fertilize and hunt the weeds, I am fascinated with this “Micro-or- Macrolearning” piece of information  I cannot make use of now. This is one of the teaching and learning opportunities for my English class I would have certainly grasped with my students to make them reflect on school and learning. Even though at first sight it looks as if this film had nothing to do with our school systems it is thought provoking to reflect on the way how standardized teaching and testing destroys creativity in our students’ minds.

I came across this film – I must admit, I hadn’t heard of the film before – Steve Hargaddon‘s newsletter I am subsribed to. He announces  ” a live and interactive Future of Education interview with Carol Black, director of the film Schooling the World: The White Man’s Last Burden.”

The interview will take place

Date: Thursday, July 6th, 2011

Time: 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern / 12am GMT (next day–international times here)

Duration: 1 hour

You will find all additional information on Steve’s blog. If you miss the live event, there will be:

The full Elluminate recording and an mp3-audio version will be posted within a day of the show. The LearnCentral event page is http://www.learncentral.org/event/165063.

I went to the film’s website and found lots of valuable information and material, including a 50 pages discussion guide you can download as PDF .

I hope, many teachers of English will read this post and consider watching this film in class. I am curious to hear about the discussions- we could have students discuss the film on twitter with students from around the world- what a number of opportunities for connecting people this could be!!! And I am quite sure students would love to work and discuss on this film as they are personally concerned about this topic!

 

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