CONNECTIONS! I GET IT!

I love my group! We are chugging away like troupers and I couldn't ask for a greater bunch of ladies to work with!

I've had a breakthrough today and have to thank Deborah for an article she sent me that gives me the big picture on Holistic Education and I'll provide the link here when I get it.

Jack Miller the holistic ed guru at OISE describes the polarity in education; competition versus compassion. Holistic education is a broader vision of education and human development together, focusing on:

• balance
• inclusion
  
• connection

Picture a complex set of sliders used for music mixing; there are so many sliders and the perfect music will be created with just the right balance on a lot of variables.

• individual learning and group learning
• analytic thinking and intuitive thinking
• content and process
• learning and assessment
• collaborative learning and passive learning
• exploration and guidance

The three foundational approaches to education (transmissive, transactional, and transformational) are not defended by holistic educators, but instead a balance between the approaches seems most suitable to meeting student needs.

It's a returning to the basics of what students need as human beings....do we want great test takers, or compassionate, mindful, healthy and socially responsible citizens?

Understanding this focus on connections will hopefully help with both discussion moderation next week and the group project on Community and Connections.

The Constructivist Consortium - Premiere Event in Atlanta

Lucky me! I was able to get out to Atlanta a couple of days early for the NECC conference and attend a wonderful premiere event from The Constructivist Consortium. This group of educators and software creators are interested in rekindling the constructivist spirit in education with meaningful uses of educational technology.

The gorgeous setting of the Atlanta Botanical Gardens was the perfect backdrop for an engaging and refreshing day of learning and exploring. The day began with a keynote from Gary Stager who is never afraid to publicize the truth about education, both the harsh realities of a system that doesn't always keep the needs of students at the forefront, along with the inspiring hopefulness that keeps us teachers at it, and providing a lot of chuckles along the way.

Following Gary, Peter Reynolds urged us out of the box to put our DOT on the page and create during the day. We didn't have to be designers...we could just be designer-ish, taking the plunge and becoming the risk-takers that we so often expect of our students. Not an easy task, but we were up for it!

Then, in the style of the kindergarten program (a place where some folks might say we finally get it right in education), we were provided the opportunity to explore, create, design, collaborate and share with software from these excellent sources:

• Microworlds
  
• FableVision
• Tech4Learning
• GenYes
  
• Inspiration
• SchoolKit
  

What an awesome day! I'm so pleased to be involved with this grass-roots organization from the premiere event and hope that I can continue to be involved.