tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5117005533318160902.post7056810200698876928..comments2024-03-27T19:53:53.708-06:00Comments on growing changing learning creating: Educational reformTom Haskinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12658791778134826289noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5117005533318160902.post-41377423124125050312007-06-11T18:34:00.000-06:002007-06-11T18:34:00.000-06:00Tom, thanks for the great post. Glad Barbara Brie...Tom, thanks for the great post. Glad Barbara Brier pointed me over here. At <A HREF="http://edurev.com" REL="nofollow">Education Revolution</A>, we're trying to answer Harold's question.<BR/><BR/>And, I've <A HREF="http://edurev.com/blog/2007/06/11/lets-build-a-new-system/" REL="nofollow">linked to</A> your great post.<BR/><BR/>Cheers,<BR/><BR/>kareemkareemhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04930217550599272869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5117005533318160902.post-82334518625495689992007-04-29T14:43:00.000-06:002007-04-29T14:43:00.000-06:00Harold: Thanks for validation and your question. S...Harold: Thanks for validation and your question. <BR/><BR/>Stephen: Thanks for this rich set of insights. You've drawn out many of my own hidden assumptions by addressing each issue so precisely. I'll create several postings this week to explore the issues you've raised here.<BR/><BR/>TomTom Haskinshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12658791778134826289noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5117005533318160902.post-38840792224284808352007-04-29T08:30:00.000-06:002007-04-29T08:30:00.000-06:00While I agree with most of this, I don't agree tha...While I agree with most of this, I don't agree that things will "change naturally" as "systems and premises of capitalism change."<BR/><BR/>The existing state of education, rather than being one in which the "engine is government" is one designed and controlled to a large degree by industry, with the willing compliance of government.<BR/><BR/>Industry will not easily let go of its control of education. Nor will it easily surrender to "distributed and democratized methods." What industry preserves is not merely a certain way of doing things but also a social order in which the 'captains of industry' enjoy disproportionate wealth and influence.<BR/><BR/>Nothing about a transition into a new order is inevitable. And if it occurs at all, it will occur, not naturally, but as the result of very deliberate rebellion and reform against this established order.<BR/><BR/>Perhaps it makes more sense to direct our efforts toward the reform of government and industry, content to allow school to follow. But there is a risk in this.<BR/><BR/>The conflict between new and old is being waged at the level of information: who creates it, who controls it, who distributes it. It is a conflict not of machines and ammunition, but of people and ideas.<BR/><BR/>Schools - or more generally, education - is the 'ground zero' of any conflict involving people and ideas. If people grow up believing society should be ordered a certain way, it becomes very difficult to change that view. That is why such change takes generations.<BR/><BR/>You write, "The ways industrialized democracies have governed and educated their citizens will not make sense to children raised in the freedoms of vast networks." But if they do not actually have such freedoms, then they will not come to such views.<BR/><BR/>"School reform" per se is probably not necessary, because it is like "factory reform." It seeks to modify the old engines of production, without an understanding that the nature of production has changed.<BR/><BR/>But "education reform," more generally, is of the utmost importance, and at the core of this reform must be the enabling of freedoms in networks. This will give our students the capacities they need to change the structure of government and industry.<BR/><BR/>And - as always - I think that the best way to educate our students in this is to model and demonstrate this reality, to conduct ourselves as though we already *have* such network freedoms: preserving our autonomy, having our conversations, sharing our ideas, working cooperatively.Stephen Downeshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06140591903467372209noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5117005533318160902.post-84982321122323452072007-04-28T16:26:00.000-06:002007-04-28T16:26:00.000-06:00As you know, I agree with you. Now what?As you know, I agree with you. Now what?Harold Jarchehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11462304722726586155noreply@blogger.com