[IAEP] Some Comments on Digital Textbooks In California

[Maria Droujkova]

On Tue, Jun 23, 2009 at 3:31 AM, Edward Cherlin <echerlin at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> Here is question of some importance: Almost all education systems in
> the world were put in place by Imperial powers, whether at home or in
> their colonies, with the aim of keeping the population in order and
> providing soldiers, government functionaries, professionals, teachers,
> and so on to run the Empire without making trouble for the rulers.

(...)

>
> But now things are different. Instead of everybody learning the same
> lesson from the same printed textbook on the same day by the same
> method, we have, with computers and Free Digital Learning Materials,
>
> o collaboration
> o discovery
> o multiple approaches
> o continuous improvement of teaching materials by students and teachers
> o sharp tools
> o powerful ideas
> o how to ask the right questions, rather than how to memorize or
> calculate the right answers
>
> Maybe. If we make it so. Are you in?


I have been looking at homeschoolers' communities and practices, mostly
ethnographically, to summarize "post-school" principles of organization. My
list mostly focuses on what can be called "time and task management" rather
than instructional design, but they are related all too directly. I think I
will focus more on design specifically for the next iteration ("sharp tools"
- must have!). Here is what I have now:

- Rapid prototyping of everything, short cycles of evaluation and change,
and correspondingly short educational experiences are the norm. Families
have moved from “package deal” of whole set curricula (”this is what you do
for middle school”) to hand-picking books, teachers, and methods for each
child for each 2-4 months of each subject. A kid can stay with a program
that works for years, or drop one that does not in a few weeks. This leads
to increased quality of programs.

- High value is placed on engagement, love for subjects and personal
relevance of activities both for activity leaders and for all participants.
It is expected that participants and especially leaders of activities CARE.
Children are much more likely to be learning topics and subjects that are
meaningful for them personally, in ways they personally find engaging. Much
discussion happens, and much know-how is accumulated about ways of finding
and developing meaningful activities for particular subject areas.

- Deconstruction of “age” and shift to ability levels and styles is frequent
among homeschoolers. One often sees age spreads of 3-6 years within each
homeschool group activity. Grouping by age is rare and loose (e.g. “teens
and tweens” rather than “fourteen year olds”). Correspondingly, friendships
and informal communities form across ages, based on common interests and
activities.

- Barter economies, gift economies, network economies, coops and other
innovative (or age-old) alternative forms of education financing are
widespread. Homeschoolers value and often use open and free software and
open educational resources, as well as the culture of exchange and communal
use of resources. Interestingly, the largest benefits of homeschooling as
far as standardized tests and college admissions go happen in the poorest
families with lowest-educated parents.

- Co-production models of learning, where learners and teachers are
curriculum co-creators, project learning, unit studies and other active
learning models are prevalent among homeschoolers.

- Homeschoolers often form “nakama” groups, small, local tight friend and
family groups getting together to achieve their goals, and tied personally
as well as educationally. High value is placed on friendships, and
day-to-day educational decisions come from these personal ties.

- There are active, robust local communities and global support networks for
homeschooling families, for anything from finding an appropriate math
program for highly gifted ADHD Asperger kid who likes computers, to helping
a family through tough economic times. Homeschoolers are some of the most
socially networked demographics, which include lightning-fast spread of
politically relevant news, such as proposed laws.

I think of homeschoolers as a distributed think tank and early adopters of
education practices of the future. The coops and other communities they form
is probably where many k-8 educational institutions will be in 20 years.

Cheers,
MariaD

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