[MD] 42

[Dan Glover]

Hi John and Arlo,

I don't know if either of you found the time to watch this video
recommended to us by Dave Buchanan:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bEeAiVnGbM&feature=youtube_gdata_player

What intrigued me was how Dr. Steiner talks about his father pointing him
in the direction of a career in academics rather than a profession in the
creative arts. I think Robert Pirsig goes on about this in ZMM as well. Are
academics and creativity mutually exclusive of each other?

I have a a few questions. Does academic schooling tend to breed out
creativity in students? It would appear (to me) that a child encountering
Vygotsky's zone of proximal development is being led to develop a skill set
deemed necessary by the instructor but is this in the best interest of the
child? Are teachers simply producing clones?

Arlo's talk of accessing the student's development and moving it along
seems to indicate there are pre-designated parameters at work. Are these
parameters based upon the individual students or are they cookie-cutter
style textbook learning exercises designed to mimic rather than open new
vistas?

Can creativity be taught? Or is the foundation of learning rooted in a kind
of monkey-see monkey-do?

Thank you for your thoughts,

Dan

http://www.danglover.com


On Fri, Jan 10, 2014 at 3:23 PM, ARLO JAMES BENSINGER JR <ajb102 at psu.edu>wrote:

> Hi John,
>
> I've seen this before, its an interesting endeavor. You may have seen this
> before, but this RSA Animate short touches on many of the same ideas:
> http://www.thersa.org/events/rsaanimate/animate/rsa-animate-changing-paradigms
>
> One note of caution: "opposed to professional academics and teacher's
> unions". I think there is a pendulum swinging from "sage on the stage" to
> "guide on the side" that has dismissed the role of the instructor too far.
> A "professional academic" is (or should be) someone who not only
> understands the body of knowledge but also is skilled in pedagogy and
> learning theories, someone who has the ability to access student
> performance and keep the student moving forward (via what Vygotsky called
> the Zone of Proximal Development). This "professional academic" is a
> keystone species in this learning ecology, and even School 42 makes use of
> "professional academics" (even if it wants to try to define this away). As
> for "teacher's unions", while problems exist to be sure, these unions (and
> the concept of tenure) were formed to protect the integrity of the
> intellectual level from social-capital forces. If you abolish these, you
> better have a good suggestion for how this integrity can be pre
>  served.
>
> Final note: grade-less and degree-less. This will only happen when/if
> economics (and its derivative social-status) are completely disentangled
> from education. So long as many (if not most) view education as 'career
> training', and see degrees as both economic and symbolic forms of social
> capital, this will never happen. For what its worth, I personally don't
> believe this is possible in a capitalist society, where these are used to
> mark the 'worth' of someone's economic value.
>
> Arlo
>
> ----------
>
> Arlo Bensinger
> Instructional Designer
> College of Health and Human Development
> 103A Henderson Building
> Email: ajb102 at psu.edu
> Phone: 863-6707
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "John Carl" <ridgecoyote at gmail.com>
> To: "moq discuss" <moq_discuss at moqtalk.org>
> Sent: Friday, January 10, 2014 3:58:22 PM
> Subject: [MD] 42
>
>
> http://www.npr.org/2013/09/14/222319627/new-computer-school-upends-french-education-model
>
> I heard about this place the other day on the radio and was very
> intrigued.  Maybe y'all have discussed it before because it certainly
> aligns with Pirsig's grade-less and degree-less idea in education.
>
> I also was intrigued because I have a 12 year old boy who is deep into
> computer games and virtual reality and I'd like to get him into some kind
> of training program that would harness his interest.  Schools at the k12
> level just don't teach computing right.  And kids, boys especially, seem to
> have a strong drive in that area from a young age.  And where else is my
> kid going to find a career?  My own skills in construction are useless
> because the vast numbers of manufacturing jobs lost to China were converted
> to construction jobs during the Bush bubble and now the field is so
> over-crowded its ridiculous.  I'm reminded of my nephew Jason who grew up
> immersed in computer games as a kid.  We all predicted it would be a bad
> thing - he wasn't getting any real world experience.  Now he's got a great
> job for the nsa and travels the world.  But Jason was home schooled and
> allowed to spend a lot of time learning programming.  Most kids are forced
> by the school system to learn a bunch of stuff that's useless to them.
>
> And on that note, the school 42 in France is virulently opposed by the
> professional academics and teacher's unions.  But it gives me hope.  If it
> can happen in France, why not here in the land of the free?
> Moq_Discuss mailing list
> Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc.
> http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org
> Archives:
> http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/
> http://moq.org/md/archives.html
> Moq_Discuss mailing list
> Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc.
> http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org
> Archives:
> http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/
> http://moq.org/md/archives.html
>



--