…read all over?

First TJ Shay wrote this and tagged Pat Hensley; Then Pat Hensley, aka loonyhiker, wrote this and tagged me.

I have written this following the rules written in bold:

TJ Shay’s rules are: “List FIVE changes you would like to see in the educational system. Your responses should represent your perspective and your passion for learning and students…tag the following people…from a variety of perspectives. If you have been tagged, tag as many people as you choose, but try for a variety.”

1. To quote Ryan Bretag, “Leaders <should> tap the shoulders of professionals in the classroom to give them a greater responsibility and a stronger voice to encourage the personalization of learning opportunities designed as a community.

2. School Boards, Administrators-all policy makers and enforcers- must get over the ‘fear’ of digital tools that they manifest and foster. Blocking pornography, conforming to CIPA for Federal funding, should be the extent of the policy for filtering in schools. They have not banned writing implements for what is scribbled in the restrooms, so why do they do what they do to access to technology?

3. Collaboration should blossom face-to-face the way it has in PLNs. Don’t sit in Teachers’ Room and complain, collaborate in research and reporting to make things happen, to make things change.

4. Schools should be open seven days a week. As I said in an earlier post the only places more underused than schools are churches. When fuel prices skyrocketed last year, the first thing you heard from managers was that schools might go to four-day schedules. My gut feeling was antithetical to that – the only way that is a saving is in travel dollars. The extra hardships of childcare and sitting in under-heated houses and apartments, while the school environments are maintained, are unconscionable.

5. Individualize education plans and group students by needs and desires rather than by credits earned and courses completed.

I tag these colleagues from Plurk:

Char Young @charyoung – Homeschool educator and tutor
John Martin @edventures – Technology architect in higher ed
Scott Carter @scarter – ex-Biology teacher, ex-principal, and now a superintendent
Elizabeth Koh @elizabethkoh – Doctoral candidate and teaching ass’t at the National University of Singapore
Kobus van Wyck @kobus – Director of Khanya Program-providing ICT services to disadvantaged schools in South Africa

Get your twitter mosaic here.

OJT – On-the-Job Training. It is training in the place where one works, with the tools, equipment, fellow workers, the documents. It can be simply this, but it can be so much more. When OJT is performed for the sake of more than production for the employer and a paycheck for the employee, it becomes education. It becomes learning.

I have had much OJT during the course of jobs I worked putting myself through school and in the careers that followed.  Running injection and blow molding plastics machines, truck maintenance and repair, Asbestos abatement, computer hardware and software tasks, and on and on.

Most of the OJT was for a check. That was because of my outlook and lack of experience and maturity. Even if my employer was simply training me to produce, it’s my attitude and awareness that would make it so much more.

Doesn’t that sound like school?

ADULT EDUCATION

Adult Ed is hit-or-miss from town to town and district to district. It is a venerable tradition, and where it has taken root it prospers. Is it important to provide Adult Ed to people who are striving to be lifelong learners? With the emergence and growth of the World Wide Web blossoming from the Internet that may give us pause to think about the answer to that question.

I believe that Adult Ed will take place somewhere, sometime, but it will be haphazard without planning and oversight. The need and the focus may be realized/decided in five minutes, or it may be fluid for years. I believe that Adult Ed should be associated with the school district and resources.

The School Board should have oversight to avoid territorial conflicts between the school personnel and the Adult Ed staff: Well, we don’t want them in the…..; I don’t want them…..; Keep them away from…..!

The Solomonic wisdom and responsibility required should not consume hours a month if Adult Ed policy and practice is crafted carefully and written as a procedure.

Most importantly, the facilities are utilized for another four  or five hours a day…perhaps even weekends. Whether it’s basket weaving or Web 2.0 tools, people will continue to learn.