Hello, again. Any idea where I've been for the past 8 years? It looks like my last post on my own blog was eight years ago! I think what happened was I just got busy! That must be it! I like to use that excuse, so I'm using it now. "I got busy." OK. Another way to say this is, apparently, life went in another direction. I'm going to try to get redirected back over to my posts, and posting more often, so we'll see. There's not much news in my world, and yet there's lots of news about education and such - which is what this blog is supposed to be about. I don't really know what to add, since there's really not much news in my world, as I said. So now that I've re-introduced myself to you all, I'll just follow this blog along, and see where it takes us. They used to call this "streams of consciousness;" it's kind of random thoughts escaping through your consciousness, but in today's technological world, it escapes onto a computer screen through your fingers and a keyboard. With the possibility of so many potential readers, it could get interesting. Let me know.

Well, another fascinating post from yours truly!

Honestly, how does this much "stuff" stay rattling around up in my head? Well, it's good to have a place to let it all out.

I was wondering the other day...if a student does not know, and has a friend who does not know...how can they learn and teach each other? I mean, what if no one knows how to do what it is they want to do? Who will teach them? How much motivation does a child need to have to compel them to keep searching for answers? At what point do we "give up" in our quest for knowledge? At what point would a young child "give up" while questing after knowledge?

Another question that's been burning in my mind is: What types of information will they seek out? What if a child cannot read, for instance? That's a pretty intense learning curve! Not easy to teach oneself, either. Don't get me wrong. I'm all for the student taking control over his/her own learning....they should be taking more responsibility for those issues, but at what age is it too young? At what age does a child not understand the implications of ignoring certain aspects of his/her own education? Are we willing to put too much freedom into the hands of one so young that the implications 5, 10, 15 years down the line are not fully understood? What would our culpability be to that situation?

See, I told ya there was some heavy-duty stuff rattling around up in my head!

Later,
Bev

Hello, friends, and future friends!

The whole concept of kids learning something just to teach others. It's definitely a paradigm shift! Alvin Toeffler (Future Shock) wrote in 1992 that society was moving from an Industrial Age to an Information Age. Information Age presupposes that there is lots of "information" that people want to have! I knew I would see it, I looked forward to seeing it, but it's been so subtle a change, I think it has still escaped many educators.

Truth be told, there is more information in the world today than ever before, and more being created (do we really "create" information?) every day! In fact, another futurist once said that by the year 2012, the world knowledge would DOUBLE every 70 days! YIKES!

That's almost a case of "the faster I go, the behinder I get."

So in an Information Age, with information being the currency that drives our society, children today have to be in tune with that currency. If it's the only language they have ever heard, I feel they will pick it up much faster than those of us learning a "new language." If information is vital to the survival of the society (I hate to sound so fatalistic), then children will have to learn at a very early age to value information as well as how to "mine" for it, and use it to their advantage.

What do you think?

Thanks to my friends for their support!

This is very new, and scary for me. I usually like to try new things, but this is so....public. If I goof it up, it will be impossible to hide.

Which came first, the chicken or the egg? The embryo or the completed product? This feels like an embryo, but looks like a whole chicken, so the age-old question still has no answer.

Somebody help me, please! I'm trying to configure this so your comments can be seen as well as mine. Then we can dialog. Much more fun that way. This way it still feels like the teacher alone up in the front of the class, lecturing to what? Uninterested captivity? Anybody there? Anybody listening? Shall we dance?

I believe in learning by doing. Always jump in feet first, that's what I say!
Take this blogging thing for instance. Never done it before in my life.
I hope this works like it's supposed to - you never know until you try, right?

Good luck.