Comments on: Imagine There’s No Courses

By: Dave’s Whiteboard » Blog Archive » Beyond courses

Dave’s Whiteboard » Blog Archive » Beyond courses — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 19:56:43 +0000

[...] to Jeff Cobb for linking to George Siemens’s A World without Courses. While this 15-minute presentation [...]

By: jtcobb

jtcobb — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 02:43:45 +0000

Dave–I share the reservations about professional organizations as accrediting authorities, and yet this is familiar ground for so many of them and an area in which the good ones *should* be able to able to add considerable value (and I don’t begrudge them a revenue stream if they do it well).

Kudos for the Faulkner quote. I feel like I should come up with some sort of prize for literary references on Mission to Learn! –Jeff

By: Dave Ferguson

Dave Ferguson — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 11:31:20 +0000

Gibson may be right, but so was Faulkner: “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.”

I like the parallel between distributed content and distributed conversations. I’m less sanguine about the evaluation/assessment pieces of the puzzle; while there can be wisdom in crowds, we’ve got plenty of evidence for their madness as well.

To me, though, the main point is that education and learning are moving away from the classroom regardless of what institutions and organizations might prefer.

In the short term, I’m not optimistic about, say, professional organizations serving as accrediting authorities. The best interpretation I can make is that ISPI’s CPT and ASTD’s CPLP (which is not just a certification but a trademarked one) is that they’re among early-stage efforts.

(A less kind interpretation is seeing the certification process as a revenue stream for the certifiers.)

By: jtcobb

jtcobb — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 15:01:51 +0000

Brynn–Thanks for much for dropping by and commenting – I think the learner you describe, armed with Michele’s portfolio approach, is the wave of the future. And as William Gibson has put it, “…the future is already here. It’s just not very evenly distributed.” (Yet!) –Jeff

By: Akma » Quiet Stromateis

Akma » Quiet Stromateis — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 19:29:39 +0000

[...] A classless society (not in that way) — yes! † John Gray’s response to the anti-“religion” meme [...]

By: Brynn Grumstrup Slate

Brynn Grumstrup Slate — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 14:27:13 +0000

I love this discussion because it really shows the potential for each person to build their own knowledge and contribute to the lifelong education of others. These new kinds of learners are self-motivated and ready to dig up wisdom in a variety of sources instead of passively receiving information from institutions. When we read about a new concept, reflect on how it applies to our own lives, share our thoughts with others (through discussion, blogging, etc.), and then turn those ideas into real world actions, we are truly learning.

By: jtcobb

jtcobb — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 00:16:59 +0000

Michele–Yes, definitely. Thanks for adding that point. It also fits well with the continuing medical education reference above, as there is a lot of focus on portfolios in CME-oriented organizations right now and attempts to develop a standard for managing them. –Jeff

By: Michele Martin

Michele Martin — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 18:55:21 +0000

Jeff, this is where I think having a digital portfolio could be so critical. If people begin getting into the habit of interacting with the informal learning they encounter–reading an article, experimenting with what they learned and then blogging about it or using it to create some kind of work product, etc.–then there’s a built-in way to assess things. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about personal learning tools lately and I’ve begun to believe that having an online portfolio, even in the form of having your blog, will be an important component if we’re going to find some way for people to be able to demonstrate competence. Good post!