This is totally awesome! Thank you!

hiiiiiiiiiiiii

Interesting comments about an end to the industrialised model of learning at shcools. However, don't you think that UK society for the majority of people is still running according to the industrialised model and will continue to do so? (Can't remember the reference for the thoery about school preparing for work). Do we really serve our children best with a radical pedagogy when society won't value what they come out with?

An interesting discussion is it not the case that most learning has always occured outside formal settings and aways within a personal learning environment, which I think simply means learning how I want to or using the best tool available to me. In the past, learning spaces were restricted, in victorian britain if you could not read your learning space was very narrow. Today technology provides new tools and new ways to access learning opportunities, I do not think it creates a personal learning space.

I agree with you up to a point, alexcj, but the point is to help young people become aware that what they are doing with their social networks and hand-held devices IS learning and that informal learning can be used for formal learning too: to evidence and showcase skills, particularly.

Exciting ideas particularly concerning the workbased learning. I'm not so convinced by what you say about young people's learning. A great deal is said about young people's communities of learning with very little hard evidence of them actually doing this very much beyond sharing how to skip levels in Halo. Adults yes almost any workplace will give you evidence of this happening. Problem is children are not adults and so need sometimes to be told what to do. They grow towards being better at choosing what they need rather than what they want. Education during childhood has to support their development in this area. We can't put children straight into a situation of complete choice and self direction. They need help building the skills and attitudes to be able to cope.

Hi Great stuff! Would like to use this as part of an e-learning day for our our East Midlands colleagues. is this OK? I would also like to link to it on my practitioner's blog: http://www.cnxnotts.co.uk/juice-e.html

Thankk you soo m :)



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sohbet - blog - yonja - cet - sohbet chat

When in Rome, why not let the Romans teach you?



In Huangshan (黄山) southern Anhui province in Eastern China, Fu Shou-Bing logs on to the computer in the public library near his village. Since discovering ECpod.com (http://www.ECpod.com), the retired High School Chemistry teacher has been logging on almost every day to the English-Chinese teaching website. Sometimes he cycles the 25 miles home, cooks himself a simple lunch of rice and stir-fried vegetables with salted fish, often returning once again to the library and his new hobby in the evening.



ECpod.com boasts an educational website that teaches members conversational English or Chinese (no 'this is an apple' stuff here) via video clips contributed by other members. After a vetting and often transcribing process by language tutors commissioned by the site, the clips are available free of charge in YouTube fashion. The twist? Members film each other in everyday activities, hoping other members will learn not just their native tongue, but also cultural innuendos lost in textbooks and more conventional means of language learning.



'One member filmed himself cooking in his kitchen. We got a few emails asking what condiments he used,' says a bemused Warwick Hau, one of the site's more public faces. One emailer even wanted to know if she could achieve the same Chinese stir-fry using ingredients from her regular CR Vanguard (华润超级) supermarket. 'We often forget our every day activities may not be as mundane to people on the other side of the world,' Hau adds. Another such clip is 'loaches' - a Chinese mother of 3 filmed her children and their friends playing with a bucket of loaches - slippery eel-like fish the children were picking up and gently squeezing between their fingers.



Lately the members have also begun to make cross-border friends and contacts. The ECpal function works much the same way sites like Facebook.com and MySpace.com work - members can invite each other to view their clips and make friends. And it has its fair share of juvenile humor as well. “Farting Competition” features two teenagers and graphic sound effects. Within several days, the clip was one of the most popular videos that week, likely due to mass-forwarding by the participants’ schoolmates.



For other members keen to learn more than the fact juvenile humor is similar everywhere, there are many home videos featuring unlikely little nuggets of wisdom. “The last thing I learned from the site is why you never find green caps for sale in China”, says Adam Schiedler one of the English language contributors to the site. Green caps signify cuckolded husbands, particularly shameful in China as they are a huge loss of face. Adam vows not to buy any green headgear for his newfound friends.



The subject matter of the videos often speaks volumes about its contributors. Members choose their own content and film the clip wherever they please, some of their efforts drawing attention to rural surroundings and the quaint insides of little homes otherwise not seen unless you backpack your way thru the tiny dirt roads and villages along the Chinese countryside.



Idyllic countrysides and cooking lessons aside however, ECpod marries the latest video sharing technology with the old school way of teaching a language - from the native speakers on the street. It's a modern, more convenient alternative to spending 6 months in China. And why not let the Chinese teach you?



Visit http://www.ECpod.com

Has - was wondering when someone would notice the spelling errors - I will try to sort it out - it is not so easy because these are jpgs of comiclife files. I have to find the originals to sort the errors

Has - was wondering when someone would notice the spelling errors - I will try to sort it out - it is not so easy because these are jpgs of comiclife files. I have to find the originals to sort the errors

Hi
Thanks for presentation, which I found quite useful. Being pedantic, I spotted heaps of spelling errors in the ComicLife bits in particular-- would you like me to help you edit as I also use this tool-- just need raw copy of that bit. JeanC

Thanks for your kind words. The cartoon slides were produced using the excellent Comiclife software.

Thanks for sharing the Slideshow. It was visually excellent in it's content was awesome.

You have managed to concisely capture the position we are in regarding education and technology at this time. I wish I could make slide shows like this, and I will one day (gasp...).

What program did you use for slides 5-11

The message expressed in your presentation Graham describes the pivotal position education finds its self at present. Stay relevent to information age learners or loose them by holding on to industrial age beliefs. It's time for a leap of faith by educators. Let students choose and build their learning nutured by guided reflection. Let go of the need to control everything. Thx for sharing your presention. It has wide implications for software development that currently IS following the 'old industrial model'. Do we have to wait several more genrations before seeing things have changed and embrace technology for what it can do rather than make it do what we know. One last point. It is unfortunate that increasingly if something is banned in schools (eg social networking) its a fair indicator that is would be useful as a modern learning ool or environment.

Really enjoyed this - thanks a lot, Sarah

Absolutely fascinating - you have articulated the conclusion I have reached about learning and about the changes needed in educational institutions. One question - after years of teaching and learning, and learning about pedagogy, I have observed that the strong learners who write about how people learn often attribute their learning patterns to the general student population. I think that sometimes a learner can be coaxed, or pushed into a learning area they think they want to avoid, only to discover, after the initial frustration, that they LOVE it. That happened to me concerning the Internet. Do we need to give some structure to the learning requirements, especially for the young?

And it now comes with sound - lots of fun

happy to do this 0- put it up in a hurry as too big to email...will try to do this weekend - thanks for idea

any chance this could be converted into a slidecast...the audio will add context