This is all Greek to me...in fact, I will be there (greece) next tuesday for a month. the philosopher's stone where these teachers all spoke is pretty damn slippery, but a great view of athens at night and the acropolis lit up. <br>
<br>I will take more pictures and if folks want I can do slideshow of sorts to get into the mood of this socratic dialogue. <br><br>Also, from what I've seen in Athens is that if one is to be a Greek man, he must wear a bright pink shirt and ride a motorcycle. So moderators should definitely follow this dress code....<br>
<br>Καληνύχτα<br><br><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Jul 9, 2009 at 1:46 PM, Christie Dudley <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:longobord@gmail.com">longobord@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
Oh, what I could say to this if I had infinite time. Nevertheless, I think it's really useful to consider our options. <br><br>Personally, I never considered learning in anything other than a schoolroom teacher/student paradigm until I went to learn International Folk Dance where they had a lot of people who liked to do it but not a lot of people at any given time who wanted to learn. I found I was picking stuff up pretty fast by just following people. Then I moved to where there were and started taking classes, which I promptly learned to loathe. It took me a while to figure out why I liked the first stuff better, but it resulted in considering what it meant to learn, as well as the best way to learn.<br>
<br>I also wanted to throw in a few more models that I've observed in anthropology, although I have not specifically studied too much pedagogical anthro:<br><br>6) Apprenticeship: Where a novice learns by practice and loose direction from a master. Although a master may have many apprentices, the relationship between the master and apprentice is personal and specific. The master will generally define specific exercises for the apprentice to address on their own.<br>
<br>7) Community learning: There is a large community of knowledgeable people and young members learn by following multiple teachers. There is no explicit relationship between those who have the knowledge and those who learn it, although occasionally someone will step out and demonstrate something tricky. It's often mistaken for 'self-taught' for this reason, but the knowledge comes from the community, rather than effort of the newcomer. It is interesting to note that the vast majority of cultural knowledge is spread this way. In fact, the vast majority of what people know is learned via community learning.<br>
<br>Christie<br><br clear="all">--- <br> Disrupting paradigms since 1967<br>
<br><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div><div></div><div class="h5">On Thu, Jul 9, 2009 at 1:10 PM, aestetix aestetix <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:aestetix@gmail.com" target="_blank">aestetix@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
</div></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><div><div></div><div class="h5">
Hey,<br><br>I'm pretty sure it comes as no surprise to anyone that Noisebridge has sort of assumed identity as a one-room <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-room_school" target="_blank">schoolhouse</a>, or, in more abstract terms, a modern variation of either the Pythagorean or Socratic schools. When we get a group of both self-progressing and competitive individuals together, we run into culture clashes as to what everyone thinks works, or how things "ought" to be. <br>
<br>To me, it seems the next natural step is to try and break down different types of education models, so we see why people like one over the other; for example, comparing a class to a workshop. Also, understanding education history really reveals a lot about our current models. Three references I have found utterly excellent for this study: <i>The Underground History of American Education</i> by John Taylor Gatto, <i>Technopoly</i> by Neil Postman, and <i>Democracy and Education</i> by John Dewey. Incidentally, these all lift ideas from <i>Emile</i> by Rousseau, one of the first recognized and definitive analyses pertaining to education.<br>
<ol><li>Greek style. This involves a lot of peer review and mentorship. One could also call it a round-table discussion. Very loose-formed, it is an interative discussion among a group of friends or colleagues seeking to better understand or refine a concept. Often there will be a mentor or "tutor" who acts as moderator to prevent discussion from getting too heated, and keeps things from digressing too much.</li>
<li>Greek style with a leader. Rather than having a moderator on the side, we have someone who acts as leader, who can settle disputes, and is recognized as having some sort of excellents in the subject at hand. In some communities, they are also a figurehead who takes the blame when things go wrong.</li>
<li>Loose Teacher/students model. This is when, rather than having a discussion about something, there is a clear path that a teacher follows. The goal is for the teacher to communicate ideas to the students, and all the students recognize their superiority.</li>
<li>Strict Teacher/students model. Unlike the loose model, the teacher assumes a form of authority. Rather than simply teaching the subject matter, they are also instilling discipline. Students must raise their hand to speak or ask questions, questions are directed at the teacher, rather than at everyone, and all students are expected to be silent while the teacher goes on with the lesson. <br>
</li><li>Self-taught. This requires a great deal of autonomy, and does not work for everyone. You work alone or with someone else, and provide your own guidance. <br></li></ol>I'm pretty sure there are more, but that's all I can think of right now. Each serves a different purpose, and fits a different environment. There are a lot of factors I'm leaving out, such as:<br>
<ul><li>Group or class size. Do different models work better depending on the size of the crowd? <br></li><li>The subject matter at hand. The best lessons integrate everything. If you read the references I cited, there's a lot of evidence that the concept of "subjects" wasn't created until about a century ago. However, it's important to recognize that certain things should be taught differently. You can memorize all the hardware you want from a book, but until you get into a lab and play with it, it won't totally make sense.</li>
<li>Taboo subjects. Some ideas are simply not taught for cultural reasons. And yet, creative teachers find a way to sneak them in.</li><li>Age. Young people learn differently than older people. Also, having different experiences helps you see new perspectives. This is one of the reasons there are multiple variants of the IQ test.<br>
</li><li>The concept of student vs teacher. Can someone be both at once?</li><li>What is the purpose of education? Is it to teach someone else a lesson, or to share ideas? </li></ul>A lot of this is mental rambling. Pretty much every notable writer or philospher I have encountered has had a different idea of how to teach, and how things should be. I'm curious as to what noisebridgers think. Perhaps if we better understand each other, we can work on having less social tension until the move happens.<br>
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