tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-43125363244784529622024-02-20T23:35:47.908+13:00The Feral LearnerA reflective learning journey intermittent and always evolving. <br>Following on from Mary's M.Ed Journal.Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04121176382269199784noreply@blogger.comBlogger32125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4312536324478452962.post-26713924815437115352015-07-20T10:00:00.000+12:002015-07-20T10:00:04.255+12:00Assignment 1: Public policy roles and relationships Blog: Introduce yourself briefly and discuss a public policy
issue where there have been changes to the roles and
relationships across government and the private and
community sectors (500 words)
Compulsory education (schools)
The ‘Tomorrow’s Schools’ reforms of New Zealand’s school sector in 1989 saw a shift from highly centralised command-and-control system of governance to highly Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04121176382269199784noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4312536324478452962.post-34302425077905204492015-07-20T09:44:00.000+12:002015-07-20T09:44:23.903+12:00Another dimensionThis semester I've enrolled in Victoria University's Master of Public Management programme. It's a new programme being offered by the School of Government, and a companion programme to their Master of Public Policy.
It's another dimension in my formal study, ans one that for me intersects nicely with my earlier education studies through USQ.
So, after a 3- or 4-year hiatus I'm back to theMaryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04121176382269199784noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4312536324478452962.post-80353726375565805972011-10-11T12:55:00.004+13:002011-10-25T14:45:17.549+13:00Valuing Social CapitalI've been having an interesting conversation on Google+ with Patricia Kokinos of Change the Schools about the significance of the Occupy movement in the US.
Obviously, this is not a unique phenomenon - similar public uprisings against the injustice and inequality of "the establishment" have occurred in a number of countries around the world in the past year. And, with the world in the gripMaryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04121176382269199784noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4312536324478452962.post-13218428972704315632011-04-28T17:53:00.003+12:002011-04-29T12:35:45.302+12:00Ubiquitous learningA colleague has pointed me in the direction of Ubiquitous Learning a couple of times now. It seems to have developed in parallel with the idea of feral learning, from a similar starting point, and spread much more quickly. And, as the name suggests, it seems to have a considerable amount of overlap.
My first impression was that the focus of the Ubiquitous Learning discussion is more firmly Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04121176382269199784noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4312536324478452962.post-82732395314457817792011-04-27T12:01:00.007+12:002011-10-25T16:46:07.090+13:00"How am I supposed to be inspired by that?"A few days ago, Jan Visser of the Learning Development Institute (LDI) posted this on LDI 's Facebook page
Attached is a link to Paul Lockhart's "A Mathematician’s Lament." A brilliant plea, in my view, to refocus education on such things as beauty and to acquire one's knowledge of disciplines like math and science within the context of relevant current issues that can be seen, also, within aMaryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04121176382269199784noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4312536324478452962.post-61078424535444090302011-04-26T10:38:00.002+12:002011-04-26T10:38:44.098+12:00?! Interrobang - How fun is this ?!How fun is this?! The latest adventure from Interrobang isTALKIN’ ’BOUT MY CONSTELLATION?! Mission: Use Microsoft WorldWide Telescope to create a tour of your favorite spots in space. Explain why they are your favorites. Ask each viewer to add a new destination to the tour. Interrobang is a great concept - a fully realised feral learning site! Participants can choose from Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04121176382269199784noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4312536324478452962.post-41406677033198987342011-04-25T16:16:00.001+12:002011-04-25T16:17:23.678+12:00People who've been talking about feral learning Frances Bell (University of Salford) ‘Communities of Practice’ Online? The case for ‘going Feral’ in Academic Development by Frances Bell & Mary Hall, published in Innovative Learning in Action ( 2006, University of Salford)
This paper is a few years old now - one of the earliest. It follows the development of one of the early online discussions about feral learning on the CABWEB portal where Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04121176382269199784noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4312536324478452962.post-35471399749247661712011-04-23T18:04:00.001+12:002011-12-01T10:22:30.032+13:00People who've been talking about feral learning - Jane BozarthJane Bozarth (Author biography posted on Amazon)
A decade ago I moved from the world of traditional instruction to designing and facilitating both asychronous and synchronous training. Now that technology -- and learner access to it -- has finally caught up with possibilities, my interests have expanded to the world of social media tools to support and extend the work of the Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04121176382269199784noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4312536324478452962.post-89134622511849126422011-04-23T17:57:00.001+12:002011-04-25T15:59:56.760+12:00People who've been talking about feral learning - Stephanie Zimmerman (ALA Learning Round Table)Feral Learning posted December 29, 2009 By Stephanie Zimmerman at The American Library Association Learning Round Table
The original title of this post was going to be “Using FREE Online Resources for Continuing Education”. However, I was reading my Training Doctor Newsletter for November 2009 (yes, I’m a little behind and you should subscribe too) and came across a term that isMaryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04121176382269199784noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4312536324478452962.post-60449315924674605902011-04-23T17:54:00.000+12:002011-04-23T17:54:55.249+12:00People who've been talking about feral learning - Dr Alison Ruth (Vicarious Conversations)Defining Flexible Learning posted by Alison Ruth on 24 March 2008 on her Vicarious Conversations blogSo, is flexible learning new? Gee, what a loaded question. In some ways, it is a new concept that we recognise and promote, but I think there have always been some elements of flexible learning around, we’re just getting better at talking about it. I came across a Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04121176382269199784noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4312536324478452962.post-27784295289707670692011-04-23T17:31:00.000+12:002011-04-23T17:31:20.235+12:00Who else has been talking about feral learning?Finding the Facebook group "Fans of feral learning" that I blogged about in my last post made me wonder what else has been happening with the idea of feral learning since last time I looked.
The posts that follow are some of the other people who've been talking about it...
Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04121176382269199784noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4312536324478452962.post-8905846517655491622011-04-23T17:14:00.024+12:002011-04-23T17:53:37.223+12:00People who've been talking about feral learning - Pam Hook (Artichoke)Learning communities as cryptoforests
posted by Pam Hook on March 23rd, 2011 at Artichoke
Wilfried Houjebek’s Cryptoforestry blog looks for “forests in cities” and for “cities in forests” – a purpose I want to adopt as I travel around different places working with schools in New Zealand.
He describes cryptoforests as a “cultural and not a biological way to classify Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04121176382269199784noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4312536324478452962.post-485349776488418192011-04-23T16:54:00.013+12:002011-04-23T18:01:13.360+12:00People who've been talking about feral learning - Gary WoodillGary Woodill
Psst…wanna hear something great? (Posted on December 15, 2008 on Gary Woodill's blog) As a “feral learner“, I am always searching for interesting sources of ideas and information. ... DIY: Do-It-Yourself Learning (posted on May 27, 2010 on Workplace Learning Today)When change happens as quickly as it is now happening, there are few experts – just a few people Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04121176382269199784noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4312536324478452962.post-51121741530424327172011-04-17T20:23:00.005+12:002011-04-18T13:55:22.879+12:00"Fans of Feral Learning"How exciting! I've just discovered a Facebook page called "Fans of Feral Learning". The initial post references Jan Visser's 2006 blog posting on feral learning, which in turn references my earlier blog ... so there you have a perfect example of social media nurturing and disseminating innovation and social change.
What an exciting example of the amplification process Sandy Britain talked Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04121176382269199784noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4312536324478452962.post-595435916500853932010-10-31T12:34:00.007+13:002011-04-18T13:48:56.872+12:00Try not. Do... or do not. There is no try.There are two underlying philosophies that come into conflict in our education system.
One of them is the Disneyland philosophy - that a good heart is what matters: if you mean well, and wish hard enough on your lucky star, your dreams will come true. The good guys will always win, even against impossible odds. It's not what you do, but how hard you try that counts.
Pinocchio - When you wish Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04121176382269199784noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4312536324478452962.post-66801232432306852862010-09-15T09:43:00.006+12:002010-09-15T10:09:46.778+12:00Reflection: How did I get here?My mother was a secondary teacher, so one of the things I always promised myself growing up was that I'd never be one myself... which is a shame, because I L-O-V-E teaching, I just couldn't stand be a school teacher (!) I love learning new stuff, finding things out I didn't know before, testing my understanding and my thoughts against what other people know, and I love helping other people Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04121176382269199784noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4312536324478452962.post-54843043344918723802010-07-30T15:22:00.003+12:002010-09-15T10:12:52.662+12:00What's wrong with this picture?There’s something profoundly ironic about the difficulty professional educators have in accepting the power of an individual’s capacity and desire to learn. I’ve even been in a seminar recently where the presenter joyfully produced a photo of a sign over a school gate:
“If you’re not here, you can’t learn!” The teachers in the room loved it.
So, what's wrong with that?
What's wrong withMaryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04121176382269199784noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4312536324478452962.post-20625117149001961702010-05-16T14:31:00.002+12:002010-05-16T14:34:40.837+12:00From the archive - The new pedagogy: Feral learningThis was originally posted in Mary's M.Ed. Journal, Tuesday, October 12, 2004.
Several threads have come together for me during e-Fest, and the feral learning model is beginning to take on more definition.
Feral Learning is a phrase coined by Ted Nunan (1996) [see below]. My interpretation of the concept draws on constructivist and transformative learning theory.
Lert's Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04121176382269199784noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4312536324478452962.post-9309884045938265652010-05-10T16:16:00.008+12:002010-05-16T13:53:08.632+12:00The teaching of science and the science of teachingWhy is it that science has such a low profile in our formal education system?
Into the mouths of babes
Babies and young children are natural scientists. They spend their lives conducting experiments - testing the world around them in order to understand it.
What was the first experiment you (or your babies) conducted? Perhaps it was putting your thumb in your mouth to see what it was, what it Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04121176382269199784noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4312536324478452962.post-84570567025799887072010-05-10T15:41:00.002+12:002010-05-10T15:43:36.846+12:00From the archive: Transformative learning (2)Transformative Learning
This was originally posted in Mary's M.Ed. Journal, Friday, September 10, 2004 as part of a larger post, Discussion: Design & development phase Transformative learning is based on humanist principles and is in many ways an extension of the constructivist framework. With roots in the work of Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow about self-direction and self- Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04121176382269199784noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4312536324478452962.post-3190884340403067262010-05-10T11:48:00.003+12:002010-05-10T15:45:49.332+12:00From the archive: Transformative learning (1)
This is a post from my original Mary's M.Ed. Journal blog which I've since discontinued. Much of that blog is specifically related to my study at USQ, however some of the posts contain thoughts, links, and insights that are key to ideas I'm developing here. Rather than flick between the two, I've decided to re-post teh relevant ones here.
Shirley put me onto the concept of transformative Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04121176382269199784noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4312536324478452962.post-20730692745557232052010-04-23T09:59:00.002+12:002010-04-23T10:01:07.721+12:00Education and the economics of happinessSome excellent useful & interesting work's been going on over the past decade on "happiness economics" - bringing the focus of economic analysis back to its first principles - of measuring value in terms of "utility" - ie the using the term "values" in its broadest sense in terms of what makes peoples lives worthth living, rather than simply what generates greater monetary wealth. In other Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04121176382269199784noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4312536324478452962.post-30314916211683036802010-04-10T20:50:00.004+12:002010-04-10T21:10:13.601+12:00Why being an agent of change isn't easy (or common)I've had a couple of interesting conversations recently about the difficulty of getting people (and by extension, their organisations) to deal with the fundamental issues and ideas that underpin their day to day activities.
So often, when I try to have a conversation at that level it's dismissed as pedantry or triviality.
It's all very frustrating, but on reflection it's absolutely predictable Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04121176382269199784noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4312536324478452962.post-2808704516199569422010-04-06T15:49:00.001+12:002010-04-06T15:53:14.855+12:00TransitionsLetting go (what we don't do in education)
How familiar does this sound?
ORGANIZATIONAL RENEWAL - William Bridges
A whole book could be written on the way that repeated changes are today sapping the energy and confusing the purpose within corporations and public institutions. Many of the initiatives launched by leaders—initiatives that are intended to lead to organizational renewal—all too oftenMaryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04121176382269199784noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4312536324478452962.post-42153257895131433962009-11-29T17:04:00.000+13:002009-11-29T17:04:25.370+13:00Things that get in the wayIt's been a pretty stressful week one way and another.
Work's been busy, home's always busy - just getting everything done that needs to be done. Making ends meet is a constant counterpoint to whatever else is going on in my life at any given time. I may or may not be coming down with something - and to top it all off, I spent yesterday taking my son to the hospital for Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04121176382269199784noreply@blogger.com0