Reassessing Traditional Education (Part 1 of a Series – The Problem)

August 7, 2010

Having recently finished her M.A. degree from a well respected university in an area studies program where she obtained a 4.0 GPA, received an assistantship during her studies and very positive letters of recommendations, among other accolades, my wife is now having great difficulties in finding a job. Unfortunately, like a large number of recent college graduates, she has after all limited work experience. Now 26 years of age, she is worried about having lost valuable time completing a master instead of increasing her work experience.

Part of her difficulty in finding a job may be related to her field of study. However, recent statistics show that up to 17% of college graduates are currently unemployed and competition is stiff for every job opening. Many of the individuals that she and I went to school with are experiencing the same difficulty, a large percentage of the students are currently unemployed or underemployed, and most of the students that have found employment are either back either continuing for a PhD study, or working in a different area.…

Learn by Teaching – Attending a Workshop at the Minnesota Literacy Council

August 5, 2010

One of the best ways for a person to continue their education is by reinforcing what they learned previously and increasing their expertise by teaching. The Minnesota Literacy Council offers just that. In a state where it is estimated that 25 to 50% of immigrants are refugees and more than 230,000 adults cannot read or write, there is a constant need to instruct newcomers in English and American customs.[1]

For the large Somali and Hmong community, and various other nationalities, particularly those that use a different alphabet, learning English can be a very difficult task. In order to help volunteers meet this challenge, the Minnesota Literacy Council offers ESL training courses on a monthly basis. The course takes place over four weekdays and started this Monday for the month of August. The dates for the training this month are August 2, 4 and August 9, 11 from 6:30 to 9:30 pm.…

Convincing a Friend to Create His ED Channel

August 2, 2010

Jim,

The book arrived! Received it a couple of days ago. Thank you for the gift, it is much appreciated. I will try to read it the upcoming days. I greatly enjoyed an interview to John Taylor Gatto that was available on youtube.com. His success as a teacher is impressive.

I, myself have been looking at the parallels between critical pedagogy and web 2.0 recently and the growth of online open education such as OpenCourseWare. Plans for free creative commons textbooks and free education material on the internet is on the rise. ITunes U and YouTube EDU are only two examples.

Jim, I am interested in free online education and its promise for developing countries. My opinion is that technology should not replace the teacher but rather serve as another medium by which to instruct children and complement traditional education program.…

Video Games: A way to continue your education outside the classroom

July, 31, 2010

In Elluminate, Future of Education and Conserations.Net recently held a forum with Lucas Guillespie and Peggy Sheehy to discuss the impact video games can have on education. There they spoke about their experience as to how World of Warcraft has influence their pedagogy and how MMORPGS can be used for learnings. At World of Warcraft, over 200 educators take part in a guild “Cognitive Dissonance” to explore the use of the game for education. Similar organizations have been built in other MMORPGs such as Everquest. These educators believe that these games can “captivate students’ attention and use constructivism in its finest but its social”.

Allowing students to save world online and can learn to how to work in groups on outside the game settings. In their opinions, games are another tool, which if used adequately it could improve students educational experience.…

Princeton University recently decided to close its University Channel which provided free accessible academic lectures and materials from all over the world. UChannel, an initiative from the Princeton Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs no longer makes financial sense as a result having become outdated by newly emerging technologies such as the growing popularity of ITunes U and YouTube EDU. UChannel as an independent collection of free accessible materials, no longer made financial sense and the university is encouraging partners to broadcast their materials through more financially viable and accessible technologies (http://uc.princeton.edu/main/).

In their official statement they expressed their continued support for online education programs and expressed their belief “that non-commercial, quality educational programming is an important part of the world wide web.” They also stated that most of their material will be moved to Princeton’s ITunes U Channel, away from UChannel’s ITunes U. Hopefully despite the change in web domain, most of the materials will soon be accessible through its webpage and ITunes U by UChannel’s closing date.…

CENTRO – Educación y Servicios para Familias Latinas en las Ciudades Gemelas

July 30, 2010

Apenas uno entra a las oficinas de CENTRO, el visitante se tropieza inmediatamente con un ambiente visible hispánico. La decoración del lugar es excepcionalmente cálida, ya que las oficinas están diseñadas para parecer pequeñas casas independientes con techos de arcilla. También hay pinturas y murales por todas partes evocando en el visitante la sensación de estar en una arquitectura pintada por Diego Rivera. Todo el edificio fue modificado para hacer que el visitante se sienta la mas cómodo posible. En el lado derecho del establecimiento  hay muchos muebles y ventanas, y hasta un pequeño sauna para que los adolecentes se sientan en casa cuando visitan.

El lugar es completamente bilingüe, y apenas uno entra al centro, se siente como si hubiera cruzado la frontera. CENTRO sin embargo nos recuerda cómo está entrelazada la comunidad hispana con el resto de las Ciudades Gemelas.…

CENTRO – Education and Family Services for Latino Families in the Twin Cities

July, 30, 2010

Right after entering the building of CENTRO, meaning “CENTER” in Spanish, a visitor immediately encounters a visible Hispanic flair. The decoration of the place is exceptionally homely as the offices within the building are designed to appear as independent, small houses with terracotta roofs. There are also paintings and murals everywhere evoking a feeling of visiting a building painted by Diego Rivera. The whole building was designed to make the visitor feel comfortable. On the right side of the building, there are couches, windows, and even a small sauna so the young teenagers to feel at home when they visit.

The place is fully bilingual, and as one enters the building, it seems as if one had just crossed the border. CENTRO, however, remind us of how intertwined the Hispanic community is with the Twin Cities.…

Burnsville ISD 191- Immigrants Continuing their Education through ESL Classes

• July 29th, 2010 2:03 am

ISD 191 – ABE Schedule and Services

Alfonso Sintjago

It’s nine in the morning in Burnsville at the Independent School District 191, in the outskirts of the Twin Cities. Here, a group of adults from a number of nationalities prepare for their English as a Second Language (ESL) class. ESL is only one of the various community education programs provided at ISD 191, which includes a lifelong learning library, an early childhood program, a youth and family education program, a basic adult education (ABE) program and a computer training center. Apart from the ESL classes, the ABE program allows students to take their GED and be part of Basic Skill workshops.

For recent immigrants or immigrants that have yet to have a functional understanding of English or those who would simply like to improve their English, ESL classes provide them with a way to continue their education and further integrate themselves into American society.…

CLUES – Comunidades Latinas Unidas en Servicio!

July, 28, 2010

Si usted es una persona de origen latino y vive en la comunidad las Ciudades Gemelas y tiene tiempo para trabajar de voluntario, CLUES es una organización en donde usted se sentirá satisfecho de haber invertido su tiempo. CLUES provee muchos servicios a la comunidad incluyendo clases básicas de ingles y de computación. También usted se puede beneficiar de un programa para ayudar a individuos a encontrar empleo.

Nixty.com a new provider of online continuing and community education

July, 27, 2010

Nixty.com, founded in 2009, recently went public and opened its doors to the online community. The site promises to offers a more comprehensive alternative to other open education websites. Nixty.com founders, Glen Moriarty, Paul Sanders and Erik Beebe, hope to encourage the growth of global open education through e-learning by promoting an open free education site where members of the community can teach each other and benefit from our society’s diversity.

Nixty.com also hopes to function as a site where universities will post courses in continuing education possibly helping some students earn credits through the College-Level Examination Program and also allow instructors to charge a fee for some courses. Instructors will be charged $4.99 and 20 percent of what they take in for hosting three paid courses. Among the promising tools on the site are ePortfolio technologies and LMS software as well as more traditional web 2.0 tools such as blogs, contacts, and mail, among others.…