Arche Neo

Stumbling over old-Schoolers

2010-02-01T05:37:00.000-08:00

When searching for blogs about artificial intelligence & life I stumbled over this pretty interesting conversation between Steve Grand and a few visitors of his blog.

Bildungsproteste - Neue Links

2010-01-31T03:44:00.000-08:00

Und gerade sind mir wieder ein par wichtige Links aufgefallen:

Die Uniproteste in Oesterreich
http://unibrennt.at/
http://unibrennt.tv/

Die folgenden Kongresse in Europa
http://emancipating-education-for-all.org/EEC-preparation-meetings

Und zuletzt ein Video das die ach so linken und hierachielose Struktur der Studenten sehr gelungen in Frage stellt ;)

Es ist erfrischend neben all dem Spektakel und einsilbigen Slogans* auch einmal eine klare sachliche Analyse zu sehen.
* Womit nicht gesagt sein soll, dass jene nicht auch ihre Daseinsberechtigung haben.

Students still active

2010-01-25T02:52:00.000-08:00

As I am sitting in the netherlands were student protests are very rare I kinda though that student protests and discussions were over. Seems like I could not be more wrong.

By joining the mailing list:
http://www.educationcongress.eu/?page_id=21

I found out that discussions and protests are planned for Frankfurt, Paris and Bochum. And there is probably much more coming up.

Bologna Protests

2010-01-15T07:40:00.000-08:00

It seems like student actions for a new perspective on education are still working. While I am not aware how the stiuation at the universities is. (Amsterdam is quite silent) There is a big european demonstration planned for march. You find more by going to their website. (Click on the logo)

Unibrennt-Minidoku

2010-01-03T10:52:00.000-08:00

Just found this video on the website of digiom.

Spontaneity and the arrow of longing

2010-01-03T09:04:00.001-08:00

There has been a long time gone between my last post and this one. A little weird as I had the idea to this post a few months ago, I just could not get it into the right form.

So what I found as the basis of education (in the post determine yourself) where three things:
Competence, Connectedness and Autonomy. These are the three necessary conditions for education, they are however not sufficient. There are lots of people who have all three but who just seem somehow too rigid and uninspired. What they miss is to frequently abandon routine. By doing so we open our minds to new ways of thinking. (Which is ultimately necessary in this increasingly changing world)

At the same time however breaking routine means loosing focus. To get back on track we need a set of principles or goals. So we find an ambivalence between the creativity of spontaneity and the directedness of principles and ideals. It is the combination of having ideals and breaking them that is the fourth additionally ingredient for education.

Lets concentrate on spontaneity first. It means to discover something new and to be thrown back in the moment by it. What is this it? Is it sitting down to meditate? Surfing on a unknown website or eating this one dish you have never eaten before? Partly it is. But I believe there is more to it. I think spontaneity is induced by art. By something astonishing you encounter on your way. That could be in the form of a flash mob, a picture gallery or something in this direction. It just is there, stands in your way and you have to deal with it. (I'll give more examples in the end.)

At the same time one needs a principle or a belief. (To say it in the spirit of Nietzsche one has to throw an arrow of ones longing beyond oneself.) It is necessary to strengthen ones work in a certain direction.

Only by having both are we really in state to educate ourselves.
Living spontaneuous ensures that we stay flexible & open-minded and not static & rigid.
Having a principle or believe straightens our life and spares us from going in circle around ourself.

The first is something we can find in our environment. (Which we probably should facilitate) The second is discovered by every individual on his/her own.

I am ending as promised with some beautiful examples:

Loesje a group distributing posters in the netherlands (and some other cities):

The rebel clown army

And at last the love police

maybe there is a potential for a global revolution

2009-11-19T15:01:00.001-08:00

quality and accessibility - guidelines of future education

2009-11-05T19:36:00.000-08:00

Every idea needs a movement but moreover every movement is in the need of a well prepared philosophy behind it.In my opinion this philosophy has to be simple. simple to understand, simple to use and simple to communicate.

Of course education should be free but this doesn´t mean that students should not be charged for it. I do not take a position in this discussion at this point, I just want to point out that this is not the question when we talk about free education.
Free education means free of any repression. There shouldn`t be ideology in it, no political, economical or social need which influence the choice, the direction or the content of education. Before we are able to complain anything or moreover create a movement we have to redefine education. We have to rethink the functionality and concept of education and its deeper sense.
Furthermore we have to detach ourself from the out-dated concept of “ first some one is going to show you how to do it and than you do it until you are to old to do it” . We have to become aware of the speed of changes in our times. At this point I want you to see the following video just to understand what I mean by speed of changes in our times.

We are living in a different time and education and labor is different too.
If I start thinking about education and labor, about the technology and speed of changes it becomes obvious to me that education has to change. We don´t have the time, the money, the facilities or other resources to keep on doing what we doing. Actually our education and labor policy is the reason why progress, innovation and as a result wealth for the people is shrinking and not growing. So what are we talking about. If I imagine that I would be able to follow my interest and co-working with other people it would make such a different. And if I imagine this would be possible to everyone ... I stop writing at this point to leave the discussion open. Just adding this second video to think about it!

I hope to read some comments...

And it goes on!

2009-11-04T02:11:00.000-08:00

Just got a mail that the protests are going to spread. Read yourself:

"This newly formed international movement aims to encourage public debates about the functions of public education systems for societies as a whole and the link between local problems within educational institutions and global economic forces. It wants to point out the necessity of free and emancipatory public education for any democratic society.

This issue impacts not only those directly affected by it within the institutions, but society at large.

Every group formulates their own individual demands in detail, but they all stand united in their struggle for free and emancipatory public education – worldwide!"

Get the newsletter on edu-movement.

If you are interested to become active yourself check the list with a lot of organizations.

Finally I found a translation of the demands of the students in Vienna which actually made a little more sense than their own formulation.

[in german] Auf nach Wien?

2009-11-02T05:15:00.001-08:00

Ein Update zu den Protesten in Wien (wer nicht mitgelesen hat schaue derStandard).
(Das Bild ist von derselben Seite. Ich hatte noch kein Glück die Zeitung um Erlaubnis für den Gebrauch zu fragen, darum, sollte es Probleme geben werde ich dafür sorgen das es vom Blog entfernt wird.)

Die neuen Forderungen der Proteste in Wien wird abstrus. Es scheint sich niemand Gedanken zu machen was der Unterschied zwischen dem "Ich will" und der Realität ist. Traurig.

Schlimmer wird es wenn man sich den für März nächsten Jahres geplanten Kongress anschaut. Anstelle wirklich über eine Lösung was das Bildungssystem angeht zu diskutieren wird da versucht gleich die ganze Welt zu verbessern. Von Rassismus über Feminismus zum Krieg. Kann man von so einer Gruppe überhaupt noch etwas erwarten?

Aber vielleicht kommen in dem Gewühl ein par Menschen zusammen die gleichermaßen an einer echten, realistischen Änderung interessiert sind. Eine zumindest konnte ich in den Kommentaren ausfindig machen. Ihr findet eine kritische Stellungnahme von Jana Herwig auf Digiom.

Noch ein Update:
Es scheint doch seriösere Leute in der Gruppe zu geben. Auf Gewure findet ihr eine Analyse der Vorteile der AudiMax Proteste.

Auf Socialhack verteidigt ein anderer Anonymous die Audimax Leute.

Noch eins: Habe auf Talking Antrophology einen Podcast über die Proteste gefunden. (Ich kam noch nicht dazu reinzuhören.)

Zum Schluss:
Die Debatte geht weiter und ich überlege mittlerweile ob ich mich nicht auch in Richtung Wien begeben sollte. Also vielleicht findet ihr hier schon bald einen eigenen Bericht.

edu-factory

2009-10-23T04:43:00.000-07:00

This time something actual,

I just received notice about a nice mailing list also about education.
Their name: edu-factory and you can subscribe here.

Their most recent topic:
Students occupying the audimax of Vienna's university!

At this point I only have links in german:

Here you find a short report about development.
And here you find a statement of the students and professors.

Last but not least look at this page about free education.

Determine your self?

2009-10-12T10:35:00.000-07:00

I just found a paper which I believe is a must-read for everyone concerned with education.

It is about the self determination theory (SDT) from Deci and Ryan. In this paper they discuss the influence of intrinsic motivation on our well-being and success. According to them intrinsic motivation consist not only of spontaneous curiosity which we emphasized before, but also of internalized external influences. Now one would wonder whether everything could become. Can the dictatorial teacher really create intrinsic motivation in us? Obviously not. But why exactly not?
Deci and Ryan point to three essential characteristics every task has to include before it can be internalized. The three are: competence, relatedness, autonomy.
Competence means that we make a difference and know that we do. The second characteristic, Relatedness points that the task must somehow let us feel related to other people. And autonomy stresses that we ourselves can choose our methods and way to deal with this task.
If this three are present we are more likely to accept and internalize the task given. If this three are absent we might have to accept the task anyway but we won't be as successful or happy with it.
A nice example which Deci and Ryan worked out was a research on the pupils and the influence parents had on them. Were the parents motivating them to act on their own and follow their relations then they had a far better success and well-being than when they were controlling.

Now I believe my text is rather vague when it comes to empirical details. Therefore I strongly advise you to read it yourselves. The paper itself is unfortunately but part of the American Psychologists Journal. Therefore I cannot give you a file or a direct link. Still if you are at the university chances are high that you might have access to it anyway. (If you are not you still can access the wikipedia site here.)

Paper:
"Self-Determination Theory and the Facilitation of Intrinsic Motivation, Social Development, and Well-Being" by Deci and Ryan
American Psychologists, Vol. 55(1), p68-78

Autonomy, Mastery, Purpose

2009-08-29T00:28:00.000-07:00

A little update: Dan Pink speaks in this video over the new (intrinsic) motivation in business. Now this is at least as important to education.

Theory

2009-08-24T05:20:00.000-07:00

Here are the results of our last discussion.

Axiom #1: Every human has curiosity, that is the ability and motivation to follow his fascination.

Axiom #2: Education is the process of cultivating curiosity.

Axiom #3: The institution(s) concerned with education have the responsibility to facilitate and balance the individuals interest.

Arche Neo

2009-08-24T04:52:00.000-07:00

This is the beginning of the new group project Arche Neo.

All three of us, the authors, have gone our way through the german education system and all three of us have been frustrated by the rigid and non-individualistic teaching methods. Education is the process of creating ones own perspective off the world. If this process is constrained and restricted by rigid teaching methods the resulting so called educated people fall below their own possibilities. This people may develop some rigidity or/and unhappiness that is at least not adding to society.

This reasons moved us to review education and what it could be.

We will proceed in three essential points:
1. Review: Coming to an better understanding of education
2. Model: Connecting theories
3. Action: Influencing the direction of the world

(In time this points will become more and more specific.)