Mike Mitchell's blog

Feedback and comments are always appreciated!

Summary:

"Edupunks" are a group of educational technologists who resist corporate learning management systems because of these systems' capitalist tendencies to overshadow the social/communal aspects of Web 2.0 applications. According to Jim Groom, an educational technologist who coined the term "Edupunk," the learning management system Blackboard 8 is usurping the ideas, innovations and experiments of thousands of people, re-packaging them and selling them to schools at high prices.

(from Edupunk)

What a bizarre, intriguing idea.

I think I have to explore this topic.

Look into:

commericialization of learning

DIY education

Democratic education

Freeschool

Unschooling

The Clash? (may be arbitrary)

Chronicle of Higher Education article

punk ideologies

Stephen Downes

online education

Should be able to find many scholarly references for these sub-topics.

(from 'Trauma Center: Second Opinion' on the Wii)

In his article, "Good Video Games and Good Learning," James Paul Gee defines sixteen principles of learning good videos games incorporate that make them highly interactive and entertaining skill builders.

What struck me as particularly interesting were his ideas on learners developing collaborative, cross-functional skills within a team or community and ways of interacting "globally."

I'm slightly disturbed by this video.  Mostly because it's true.  It's like watching "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?"  We're constantly bombarded with information and activities and work throughout our schooling and it rarely sticks.  Is it from a lack of essential pieces of information?  As in "Mind of Our Own," the young student was able to comprehend CO2 factoring into the equation when he held dry ice.  But how would we ever know?  How do we find these holes in our learning?  Is it possible to find them ourselves?  I don't think it's possible.  It's like trying to find the blind spot in your eye.  So are these holes part of the answer?  Can teachers/trainers/educators help us detect them?  And if so, can they help us fill them in?