Jean Lievens
Sharing to Learn, Learning to Share: Sharing Economy Education Sites
By Tricia Edgar
Kalev.com, Undated
My father was the original internet. Stuck on a question for a class project, I could either go to the library or go to him. I chose the shorter commute.
From its beginnings, the internet has been a place to share what’s in your brain. First, there were bulletin boards and chat rooms. Remember those? Very groovy. News moved online, and people began to blog, sharing their thoughts with…well, everyone who cared to listen. Sharing became more social, and with the advent of MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and many other social networking sites, social sharing of tidbits of information or thoughts gleaned from our day has become mainstream.
These days, the web is bringing people together to share what they know in a different way. Fusing expertise, education, and social networking, sharing economy sites are creating venues for formal and informal education in everything from web design to homesteading skills. These sharing sites are all about the human connection, digitally arranged, and they break down some of the barriers to learning that make it a challenge to grow your skills.
Specific recommended sites below the line.
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May 18
Jean Lievens
Revolutionize Corporate Learning: Beyond Formal, Informal, Mobile, Social Dichotomies
by Marcia Conner on May 10, 2013
A report for business decision makers interested in abolishing traditional corporate training functions, creating instead vibrant modern collaborative cultures. Why? The corporate learning field is in dire need of bravery, insight, creativity and boldness. It has been stuck in an antiquated rut for too long. Full classrooms and smile-sheet summaries only indicate employees can successfully sit through training, not that these strategies demonstrate value or engender growth in competitive organizations. With a nod toward early twentieth-century innovations, moving the art world toward natural forms, the corporate education function should aim to become learning nouveau. The people responsible for fostering education throughout organizations ought to consider becoming artists. Here’s how. [Additional information at http://www.marciaconner.com/learning-nouveau/]
May 16
Anyone who reads SR regularly knows my views on religious fundamentalism in general, and the threat posed to America by the Christian version particularly. Here is the latest. Notice the universals of fundamentalism of whatever faith: Deeply distorted views on sexuality, the suppression and subordination of women, the emphasis on guilt, and the commitment to willful ignorance.
The Dark Side of Home Schooling: Creating Soldiers for the Culture War
KATHERINE STEWART – The Guardian (U.K.)
EXTRACT:
“The Christian home school subculture isn’t a children-first movement. It is, for all intents and purposes, an ideology-first movement. There is a massive, well-oiled machine of ideology that is churning out soldiers for the culture war. Home schooling is both the breeding ground – literally, when you consider the Quiverfull concept – and the training ground for this machinery. I say this as someone who was raised in that world.”
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May 13
Who, Me?
A model for all of us.
General James ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis Email About Being ‘Too Busy To Read’ Is A Must-Read
Geoffrey Ingersoll
In the run up to Marine Gen. James Mattis‘ deployment to Iraq in 2004, a colleague wrote to him asking about the “importance of reading and military history for officers,” many of whom found themselves “too busy to read.”His response went viral over email.
Security Blog “Strife” out of Kings College in London recently published Mattis’ words with a short description from the person who found it in her email.
General James “Mad Dog” Mattis, USMC (Ret)
Their title for the post:
With Rifle and Bibliography: General Mattis on Professional Reading
[Dear, "Bill"]
The problem with being too busy to read is that you learn by experience (or by your men’s experience), i.e. the hard way. By reading, you learn through others’ experiences, generally a better way to do business, especially in our line of work where the consequences of incompetence are so final for young men.
Thanks to my reading, I have never been caught flat-footed by any situation, never at a loss for how any problem has been addressed (successfully or unsuccessfully) before. It doesn’t give me all the answers, but it lights what is often a dark path ahead.
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May 11
Jean Lievens
Community-based labs nurture young talent
Fab Labs, which began at MIT, could bloom under bill in Congress
EXTRACT
The mobile facility, as well as a Fab Lab at the South End Technology Center, are part of a patchwork of some 40 labs around the United States and 80 worldwide. Their fortunes range from well-endowed to hand-to-mouth; the South End one, for example, was short of money and closed to the public for the better part of 2011.
But their financial standing — not to mention availability — could take a huge turn if a US representative from Illinois persuades Congress to create a nationally chartered network for the US labs, to improve their fund-raising abilities, particularly for government money. The measure, which Democrat Bill Foster introduced in March, also calls for placing a Fab Lab in every congressional district.
His goal is, in essence, is to bring the tools of innovation to Main Street.
“It’s very empowering for a young person to actually build something,” Foster said. “Kids no longer take apart automobile engines. You can’t realistically take apart an iPod, like you could a radio. This is giving kids the opportunity for innovation.”
Read full article.
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Apr 26
Student population at Thomas Jefferson in Fairfax County shifts significantly
EXTRACT
“Fairfax County claims to be one of the greatest school systems in the country, but it can’t take a child in kindergarten who happens to be Latino or black or poor and prepare them to be ready for TJ,” Hone said.
Read full article.
Robert Steele
ROBERT STEELE: Now that my clearances have been restored I am trying to get the best paying clearance job I can, ideally in Latin America or Africa supporting SOF, but I want to say that being a substitute teacher for Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) has been a personal joy. Nothing could have given me more hope for the future of the Republic than the chance to interact with these “digital natives” that are the first generation that is “not like us.” I think of them as “Generation Truth, the Sharing Generation” and I believe they will overcome all of the disadvantages we have created for them.
A few thoughts:
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Apr 21
Who? Mini-Me?
Huh?
Detainees, U.S. guards clash at Guantanamo Bay
Carlos Warner, a U.S. lawyer representing some of those detainees, told CNN late last month detainees have become increasingly frustrated with “very dire, dire conditions” and their sense that the current legal process leaves them in limbo indefinitely.
“It leaves them with the prospect of the only way we leave Guantanamo is death,” Warner said. “Unfortunately, I think the men are ready to embrace this.”
Read more.
Students Told to Take Viewpoint of the Nazis
“Your essay must be five paragraphs long, with an introduction, three body paragraphs containing your strongest arguments, and a conclusion,” the assignment read. “You do not have a choice in your position: you must argue that Jews are evil, and use solid rationale from government propaganda to convince me of your loyalty to the Third Reich!”
Read more.
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Apr 13
Categories:
01 Agriculture,
02 Diplomacy,
03 Economy,
03 Environmental Degradation,
04 Education,
05 Energy,
06 Family,
07 Health,
09 Justice,
10 Security,
11 Society,
12 Water
Here, again, we have an example of the disconnect between what the American people understand and want, and what the corporate owned Congress is focused on.
The only thing that is going to change this equation is a massive voter turnout that supports compassionate life-affirming policies and politicians prepared to act on those wishes. We did it with Elizabeth Warren, we can do it in other districts.
Click through to see the charts and tables that will help you understand this report better.
Nearly Half in U.S. Say Gov’t Environmental Efforts Lacking
FRANK NEWPORT – The Gallup Organization
PRINCETON, NJ — Americans tilt toward the view that the government is doing too little to protect the environment — at 47% — while 16% say it is doing too much. Another 35% say the government’s efforts on the environment are about right. These views have not changed much since 2010, although Americans in most years between 1992 and 2006 were more likely than they are today to say the government was doing too little to protect the environment.
Read full article.
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Apr 4
Like a car careening down a mountain road, we seem unable as a people and as a nation to gain control of our government and to make it serve national wellness instead of profit. Day after day these stories track the degradation of our quality of life.
Only mass demonstrations and mass voting is going to change this, and we seem to lack the political will as citizens to do either. We hate Congress, but most love their Congressperson, seeing no contradiction.
Monsanto’s Death Grip on Your Food
FRITZ KREISS – Nation of Change
Our children are obese because of the “foods” they eat. They have diabetes because of the high fructose corn syrup. We have girls experiencing menarche at 9, and breast development at 10 because of the hormones they unwittingly absorb because of industrial animal husbandry. And now we are discovering a growing number of them are autistic. The list goes on an on, all resulting from a society that is structur! ed for maximum profit for the few.
CDC: One in 50 U.S. School Kids Has Autism
ABBY OHLHEISER – Slate
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Mar 23
