I thought I’d get my badge in for the dConstruct competition.
I thought I’d get my badge in for the dConstruct competition.
One of my favourite videos. Watched it many times. Seen Sir Ken Robinson live. Love it.
I came across HeroCamp via Tara Hunt and felt inspired. The idea is to address an issue, organise an intense event to discuss and potentially plant seeds to solve problems. HeroCamp is happening later this year in the US and will be on the topic of Education.
I’d like to do a HeroCamp in the UK and have nominated Brighton as the location (because “I heart Brighton”).
If this is of interest pop on over to the HeroCampBrighton page and leave your name. I am gathering interest at the moment and am completely open to suggestions.
Since having kids I’ve put a lot more thought into the ‘education system’. I’ve never really liked it to begin with, but after years of thought and investigation I am definitely am less keen now.
Simply put - I don’t like the system, it sucks. It’s all wrong. Full of systems, processes and tests that doesn’t really consider the needs of the child/student.
All signs of creativity seem to have been pulled. Schools/teachers must do this. Must do that. Unable to wander about as they have to keep to a tight schedule. Learning is from books or inside a classroom, and the real world is forgotten.
Students from all stages of school/college/university are increasingly unprepared for the real world. They are taught everything seperately. History is taught as history. Maths is taught as maths. Science is taught as science.
Yet on their own these subjects often make little sense. Why not teach someone how to cook, or how to do woodwork? They’d naturally learn maths concepts as they go along and actually enjoy it.
Why get people to memorise so that they do well in exams, only to rapidly forget everything they have learnt and not be able to apply it to the real world?
Why are school/college/university graduates not prepared to enter the real world?
My eldest starts school in September. He’s learnt a lot since he was born (obviously!) and none of it is down to school. He’s learning to read & write at the moment and asks lots of question about everything - as kids do. It’s all off his own back. He wants to learn about the world around him. There’s no pressure and the pleasure he gets from it is obvious from the glow in his eyes.
It’s a natural instinct to want to learn and understand the world around. With a bit of encouragement, do we really need such a rigid and restrictive educational system?
I’ve opted for my boys to go to school elsewhere. It’s costing us when I don’t think it should. I would like to see a future where we have more choice. Where ‘educational establishments’ can truly put their learners first. Where people can have a choice.
I don’t see this yet. Perhaps my grandchildren will. That’s what I’m hoping and pushing for.
I used Stikipad a while back, but after a while got fed up with their poor service, down time and bugs. I wisely moved all my stuff off.
It’s a good thing too, as it appears their site is in the process of moving data centers. I believe it’s been moving for around 2 months and there are a bunch of unhappy people who didn’t back up important data.
There hasn’t been a word from the creators of Stikipad, but a few obvious grumbles on the web. ’tis a shame.
I look at this and think of my boys (age 3 and 4). Think it would be such a cool learning tool.
The past few days has seen alot of down time from Twitter. In fact, according to Pingdom, Twitter has unsurprisingly had the most down time out of the most popular social networks. People are becoming increasingly reliable on Twitter. Where it was previously a bit of an inconvenience, it is becoming a hindrance for people who rely on it as a communication tool.
It’s natural to complain, but it’s also easy to forget. Twitter are innovating, have a hugely popular tool and maintain the love and commitment from the community. I don’t depend on Twitter, but many people do. I do miss it when it’s not there, but don’t depend on it enough to move on.
Of course, it would become a problem for me if my personal network started moving elsewhere. Jeremiah gives some thoughts for those considering on leaving.
BUT it’s a fast moving world. Downtime is often out of anyone’s control, but managing a community is a human skill.
It appears Twitter is going to suffer from a very public and unhappy customer. So far they haven’t dealt with it very well. A reported abuse of Twitters T&Cs from Ariel has them resorting to amending their terms and getting lawyers involved instead of dealing with a clear case of harassment.
The community appears to be on Ariel’s side. Some people may just vote with their feet as this help report describes.
How Twitter deals with this is crucial.
