elearnspace

Hardly surprising: Why Groups Fail to Share Information Effectively: “When asked to make a group decision, instead of sharing vital information known only to themselves, people tend to repeat information that everyone already knows.” Most spaces/venues of interaction fail to take advantage of the value of critique and debate. Since disagreement in generally not encouraged, [...]

Creating successful schools entail far more than simply focusing on single elements. In Dumb Money or Dumb Coverage?, Stephen Downes critiques a Newsweek article on the subject of improving (reforming) schools. Schools cannot be separated from the societies in which they function. Numerous factors must be considered: health, diversity, poverty, teacher compensation, technology, and economics. [...]

This past Tuesday, I was on CJOB (a Winnipeg radio station) for a 2 hour discussion on copyright. The host – Richard Cloutier – initiated the show in reaction to the Copyright Consultations being held by the Canadian government (they even have a Twitter account set up). I tried to invite myself to the Winnipeg [...]

Perhaps by now, we have enough variations of Descartes famous declaration? Apparently not: I think critically, therefore I am: By studying the theory of critical thinking and tenaciously applying it to classroom practice, I began to see more clearly how to approach content as a mode of thought, rather than as fragmented bits of information. [...]