Friday, October 25, 2013

Educational Readings - Russell Brand's video and other subversive stuff



By Allan Alach

 
I welcome suggested articles, so if you come across a gem, email it to me at allan.alach@ihug.co.nz.
 
This weeks homework!
 
Neil Gaiman: Why our future depends on libraries, reading and daydreaming
Not purely educational but of great value all the same.
I'm going to tell you that libraries are important. I'm going to suggest that reading fiction, that reading for pleasure, is one of the most important things one can do. I'm going to make an impassioned plea for people to understand what libraries and librarians are, and to preserve both of these things.
And:
The simplest way to make sure that we raise literate children is to teach them to read, and to show them that reading is a pleasurable activity. And that means, at its simplest, finding books that they enjoy, giving them access to those books, and letting them read them.
The Not-So-Hidden Cause Behind the A.D.H.D. Epidemic
Fallout from GERM? Not purely educational but of great value all the same.
When Hinshaw compared the rollout of these school policies with incidences of A.D.H.D., he found that when a state passed laws punishing or rewarding schools for their standardized-test scores, A.D.H.D. diagnoses in that state would increase not long afterward. Nationwide, the rates of A.D.H.D. diagnosis increased by 22 percent in the first four years after No Child Left Behind was implemented.
Following on.. we really are living in a very sad world.

Attention Disorder or Not, Pills to Help in School
Weve decided as a society that its too expensive to modify the kids environment. So we have to modify the kid.
 
Will NewsCorp Soon Own Your Child's Student Data? Education Technology and the Murdoch-Klein Connection (via Mary Mackay, Amsterdam)
A nearly inevitable end point for the collection of data on children, not just in the USA. Big data is turning into a 21st century nightmare.
...the ability to store large amounts of student information and provide tools for analyzing the datainformation that will be available not only to educators, but also to education-technology developers who can tailor products to student and school needs. The article also explores the privacy concerns raised by the easy access that large numbers of companies will have to a vast array of information, ranging from academic achievement to disciplinary problems, for potentially tens of millions of students.

Free schools: our education system has been dismembered in pursuit of choice
Our uneven and unclear education provision now allows well-informed, persistent parents to entrench social advantage.
An article about how the English education system is being gradually dismembered. Spot the similarities with New Zealands developing education agenda.
This next item isnt educational but is well worth watching. Amazing eloquence!
Russell Brand interview.
 
This weeks contributions from Bruce Hammonds:
Howard Gardner developing a disciplined mind
This is a recursive link back to Bruces blog and this excellent article.
The most important reason to develop disciplined understanding is that
through achievement a desire for more is created. Once one has understood something well an appetite has been whetted for additional and deeper understanding..having eaten from the tree of understanding, he or she is likely to return their repeatedly for ever more satisfying intellectual nourishment.
 
How Soft Skills, Passion and Connection Can Promote Learning, Competence and Employability
Jane McGonigal is an ambitious alternate reality game designer who believes gaming has the potential to unlock solutions to world hunger, poverty, and conflicts.
Some Good News About Public Schools
Bashing the public school system, wherever, is a prerequisite to introducing school reform. This must be countered with everything weve got.
The public school system is not broken. Just like the parents of most 15-year-olds, it is overwhelmed and overworked. It is also underrated and underfunded. But still our school system is pushing the world forward. We are as responsible for our successes as for our failures.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Russell Brand an unlikely catalyst for political change. Should be shared widely.

Anonymous said...

The future of every normal person depends on him visiting libraries and reading the books. The reason why I think so is because we all would like to be educated and this is a perfect chance to become one. Luckily we still have lots of libraries and books are being printed. I do not like the idea of digital books, but while there are still books we have a chance of becoming a great nation. So far kids do not write without making mistakes (check this link), their language is terrible and the education quality is not getting better. Thank you for the article.