Sounds from the Bazaar
16-October-2006
PLE: Educator-Learner relationship
05-June-2006
I am fascinated by all the PLE's push but the part that works most for me is the distributed and uncontrolling edge to the moves in this area. But at the same time the individualist push may also be seen to be driven from a technology driven culture. As often happens I feel with learning environement apps developed by technical and tested with users who may be learners of some sort. Mike mentioned 'this is suttle stuff' and totally agree and how can we engage educators. Questions for me ... is this movement being driven by the current european constructivist type edge. In parts seems to be. What about educators more interested in intervension through education - positive actiion for social change. Clearly some of the tools ideal for this but 'sutble' is the word and how can we project this to educators and educators who are not coming with the view to learners as just get on with it type approach. Self organising groups with appropriate interventions based on collective choice is where I am keen to explore more... How do you manage the collectivity and diversity?
BeyondLabels: Vision
01-June-2006
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Here is some of my views and reasons for the BeyondLabels initiative focused on multicultural education & technology as a way of combating social exclusion, racism and xenophobia
Multicultural education and the role of learning diagnostics
22-May-2006
Multicultural education and diagnostics as a means of supporting the learning in the educations experience is an area that needs exploring. In particular major research project have been undertaken into personal and group learning needs and how the way people learn, based on individual preferences, directly impacts on education performance (Dunn & Dunn, 1997).
An issue that has always been a problem for educational institutions is how to apply many of the learning styles techniques to large groups and mass education. Technology is undertaking an important role in making learning styles possible for large group sizes and also as a means of enabling teachers to connect again with learners. For example have a picture of detailed profile of individual learners and potential impact on group dynamics has great potential. Learning diagnostics tools are important as enablers and as it indicates diagnostics is view as next generational tools to say Honey & Mumford style 'learning inventories'. As learning diagnostics indicates there is a need for profiling but diagnosing as a means of supporting pedagogy of equity. MC-DIP as an initiative is further developing this an on-going initiative led by the University of Huddersfield. Also Knownet are transforming existing software into a web services application.
