[Noisebridge-discuss] Noisebridge and Education

Fri Jul 10 00:04:30 UTC 2009

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.

I will take more pictures and if folks want I can do slideshow of sorts to
get into the mood of this socratic dialogue.

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....

Καληνύχτα

On Thu, Jul 9, 2009 at 1:46 PM, Christie Dudley <longobord at gmail.com> wrote:

> Oh, what I could say to this if I had infinite time.  Nevertheless, I think
> it's really useful to consider our options.
>
> 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.
>
> 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:
>
> 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.
>
> 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.
>
> Christie
>
> ---
> Disrupting paradigms since 1967
>
>
> On Thu, Jul 9, 2009 at 1:10 PM, aestetix aestetix <aestetix at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> Hey,
>>
>> I'm pretty sure it comes as no surprise to anyone that Noisebridge has
>> sort of assumed identity as a one-room schoolhouse<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-room_school>,
>> 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.
>>
>> 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: *The Underground History of
>> American Education* by John Taylor Gatto, *Technopoly* by Neil Postman,
>> and *Democracy and Education* by John Dewey. Incidentally, these all lift
>> ideas from *Emile* by Rousseau, one of the first recognized and
>> definitive analyses pertaining to education.
>>
>>    1. 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.
>>    2. 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.
>>    3. 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.
>>    4. 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.
>>    5. 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.
>>
>> 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:
>>
>>    - Group or class size. Do different models work better depending on
>>    the size of the crowd?
>>    - 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.
>>    - Taboo subjects. Some ideas are simply not taught for cultural
>>    reasons. And yet, creative teachers find a way to sneak them in.
>>    - 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.
>>    - The concept of student vs teacher. Can someone be both at once?
>>    - What is the purpose of education? Is it to teach someone else a
>>    lesson, or to share ideas?
>>
>> 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.
>>
>> aestetix
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>>
>
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