"Quiet" videos of Cain's "Quiet" book

Susan Cain's book "Quiet: the Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking" is a great wake-up call to all. 
It is well written and very well reasoned, with many examples to support the idea that the promotion of extrovert personality characteristics, at the expense of introvert ones, is individually harmful and ultimately suppresses the very traits which society needs.
Daniel Widfeldt Lomas has produced videos which summarise the book in RSA Animate style. The drawings which illustrate the voice are captivating keeping one viewing to the end. 
With over 1.1 million views, Episode 1 can be said to have gone viral. Interestingly enough, Episode 2 had only just over 36,000 views when I looked today. Will it catch up? 
The title states that the series is "inspired" by Susan Cain's book. So it may not just be a summary of it - but I think many will be viewing this as a sort of SparksNotes without having read the book. Is it too easy to slant such mash-ups (of ideas) in a particular direction?
What do you think, actual readers of the "Quiet" book - are the videos taking up the main points that you recall?

 

 

GAFE into PLUS!

Google Apps for Education (GAFE) now has Google + available for use, and we are slowly working our way through it.
We partitioned our accounts in the Organization & users tab, subdividing the domain into suborganizations. We chose an arbitrary trial subdivision and assigned our guinea pigs to this division.
Clicking on the subdivision we then clicked Services and enabled the G+ service for this subdivision only.
One question we had was how this would integrate with our existing gmail account G+. It seems that the G+ application is exactly the same for both accounts. The gmail circles are there in the GAFE account and vice versa. You can circle your own other account. But it does get confusing. I purposely have chosen a slightly different photo so that I can identify which G+ account I am using. Does it matter?
It is a bit disconcerting seeing your private gmail G+ posts appearing in your GAFE G+ post area. We have been using "Make the default setting for new posts unrestricted" but we are currently evaluating that. Should we keep the two domains separate? How will that limit us?

Slicing up learning

The models that we use to try to understand the learning process always seem to give part of the answer but never the complete one.
Some see it in dichotomies:

• Cognitively Active vs Cognitively Inactive
• Deep Learning vs Surface Learning
• Slow Thinking vs Fast Thinking

Others in a progression:

• Knowledge, Skills, Understanding
• Data, Information, Knowledge, Wisdom (DIKW)
• Data, Information, Knowledge, Understanding, Wisdom

(from Wikipedia)

 Some see it in terms of knowledge forms (Milan Zeleny, 1987):

• know nothing
• know what
• know how
• know why

 adapted later to include why do, why is, what to do, and knowing the right things to do (wisdom?).

Each helps us to understand a particular context or slice through the cake of learning. Sometimes these models are ingrained in the language we use to discuss learning and can confuse.
How do you slice up your learning cake?

Brain Processing - the limiting factor?

Glynda Lee Hoffman reiterates the importance of "Brain Based Learning" in her TEDxChico talk published today. In particular, she talks about the interventions that her group has done to improve the visual, auditory and motor neural processing of students who struggle in the classroom.
Her point is that these students do not SEE or HEAR or MOVE appropriately because the neural pathways to do these things are not developed or are developed ineffectively.
In this recording she recounts the work of her institution, the interventions made and the advances reported. I was intrigued since some of the visual processing improvement work was done on rectangular arrays - pinboard type exercises - each time increasing the complexity. Is it possible that abstract and out of context tasks can bring about this improvement? Are poorly performing students able to motivate themselves to do these tasks?
I would like to see the research on this and the results - I was able to find the Hoffman Institute that she refers to but no information about the research. Does anybody know about where this work is to be found?

Rounding the hexagon - new International Bachalaureate Diploma model

The International Baccalaureate Organization has announced new models in today's publication: "Launch of new programme models - November 2012".
It was just a year ago when I heard about the new direction that the IB Diploma programme would be taking. The then new curriculum director of the IB, Andy Atkinson, presented these ideas at the IB Heads Conference in Singapore. The "Approaches to Teaching and Learning" would signify a prescribed pedagogy, making the subject areas much more about conceptual understanding than content.
I linked these ideas up with my subject area (mathematics) and with Conrad Wolfram's TED ideas in a post shortly after the conference. Here are my notes about the direction that the IB is going, written at that time.
Gone is the old familiar hexagon - the new model is now circular, part of what the IB calls the "IB Continuum" (not sure about this concept - the career related certificate, the fourth IB programme, is hardly consecutive, more concurrent, hardly continuum).

This is the IBO's explanation about the new models:

These have been created to illustrate the coherence across the four IB programmes and highlight each programme’s unique elements. The design is no longer hexagonal but circular, illustrating the alignment of structure and terminology across all four programmes and a seamless, holistic and integrated continuum of education for children aged 3-19 years old.

The new models continue to be built around the learner profile, with an underpinning theme of international-mindedness. Approaches to teaching and learning are now embedded within all four programmes, which are further aligned by each one culminating in a learning experience.

The new IB Diploma Programme Model:


© International Baccalaureate Organization 2002, 2007, 2011

The Middle Years (MYP), Primary Years (PYP) and Diploma Programmes (DP) now aline in concepts and the "Approaches to Learning and Approaches to Teaching", written in the innermost circle, makes clear the directed pedagogy aspect. Experimental Sciences is now just Sciences.
The IB Learner Profile and "International-mindedness" feature prominently in the diagram, as does the watermark of the world - "indicating that much learning for the DP takes place in the global context".
There are challenges ahead. I hope that this now circular peg will fit as neatly into its hexagonal hole - and that the currency of the IB diploma is enhanced and not reduced.
 

Recording and Recognition - systems to record your learning

You've done a MOOC, you've studied a topic online and blogged about it, you've done a tree-climbing course, you've studied a topic on Khan Academy....
How do you bring these all together in one place to demonstrate what you have done?
I have seen some teacher candidates for posts at my school create their own portfolios - usually showing websites they have developed for teaching or a photo and document collection of learning in action. These are unverified accounts - a personal brochure for obtaining another job.
I have seen systems such as RebelMouse which aggregate digital content into one location, enabling ones online "work" to be exhibited in one place. This particular site has some social features as well and seems to pick up material from people who have re-tweeted you.
But these are unverified and do not link well or automatically with the traditional paper-trail of school and university diplomas, degrees and certificates.
Pathbrite seems to offer itself as an online portfolio system, allowing employer searches, with some verification of certification. Apart from a birthday portfolio, the intuitively designed site allows you to set portfolios for different audiences:

Not all is active - noted that Twitter and Blogger were not available when I tried it, but it was simple to add YouTube and other media onto your page.
You act as your own curator and so need to have access to the certificates you want to refer to as well as the links to all your media.
It seems a sophisticated certification tool and one to play with for #oped12.
Robert Scoble interviewed Heather Hiles, CEO of Pathbrite, who does an excellent job of explaining the features; Scoble calls the site the "quantified self of life-long learning":

Austerity schools - a step backwards in school building

The UK government has scaled back the building plans for schools - now dubbed "austerity schools" - making them smaller, cheaper and modular.
Robert Booth, writing in The Guardian, reports that there will be no curves in the buildings, and the plans "also prohibit folding internal partitions to subdivide classrooms, roof terraces that can be used as play areas, glazed walls and translucent plastic roofs".
"The templates tell architects new schools should have "no curves or 'faceted' curves", corners should be square, ceilings should be left bare and buildings should be clad in nothing more expensive than render or metal panels above head height".
The article quotes Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove as saying: "We won't be getting Richard Rogers to design your school, we won't be getting any award-winning architects to design it, because no one in this room is here to make architects richer."
How short sighted.
Let us not examine the pathetic statement about not making architects richer - just the lost opportunity to make school spaces which contribute to learning.
How short sighted indeed.
Contrast this with this video on "Designing schools for the 21st Century" by Randall Fielding: