Education Finland and stating the obvious, what does it tell us?

So let's see the clip is telling us that education should be... caring, inclusive, focused on student needs, professional, learning in groups is good, self reliance, trust, time to think and just enjoy being young, hope for the future, engaged parents, society allows time and space for the nurture of young adults and overall education is highly valued. Hard to disagree so what is this saying about other education [systems] in other countries? And meanwhile as I write this riots continue in the UK, Greece and the ranks of the poor and disenfranchised grow in other supposedly first world countries. So what does this tell us?

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Is this the beginning of the end for education in America?

I have recently begun following the tweets from Diane Ravitch and the above youTube clip I think encapsulates what the current state of play is in American primary and secondary education. The letter that she reads from a primary school teacher is heart breaking and I am amazed that the USA does not have a major teacher shortage on their hands. The tweet feed is full of themes of desperation, sorrow and down right unfairness for teachers, parents but MOST importantly it is the children's voices we are not hearing! 

Perhaps these voices are silent because of fear or a sense of powerlessness. Perhaps those in power don't want to hear their voices because if the letter from the teacher fighting to give kids a chance makes your eyes fill with tears then a semi literate, broken, struggling barely audible voice from a child who is talking about visiting his sole parent in jail should create despair and soul searching. 

What is happening in America? The land of the free and brave? 

Here your president talks about making sure that going to College is affordable to all of those who have the ability. He backs the ideas of supporting community Colleges and overall his message is very positive. He sounds like a president that understands that education can be an emancipatory force for the American people. But what keeps coming is still stories of disappointment and unfairness.



I tip my hat to all those teachers and educators in the USA fighting for the right of your nations children to a decent and fair education. And I count my lucky stars that here down under things have not gotten this rotten. And finally if our current Prime Minister looks to the US for educational policy inspiration I dearly hope she talks to the teachers first then the apparatchiks.      

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ICT, don't forget the 'C'

All to often we get excited about the 'I' and the 'T' when talking about ICT in education. This is understandable as it is easier to grasp a concept if it is embodied in an actual solid object, a laptop, iPhone or a digital camera. However,we are textual beings. We are surrounded text, texts in various forms which we absorb by osmosis and eventually we have a head full of semiotic static. Is it time to step back, pause, think then act?

Supercomputing the brains secrets

The strangest thing about this is the way the image of a rose ghosts itself within the visualisation of the data. Another interesting point is the idea that the brain stores a model of the world, almost like a VR world, within which it constantly reflexively refers to. In the context of education this informs us that the mind is in a constant state of re-imaging its surroundings at the same time the past interferes with the present in an effort to explain the experience of the 'now'. Are we in a constant state of becoming? If we are, then realising this constant becoming and bringing this to the forefront of our attention is a demonstration of the perceiving self constructing the 'Now' within - we forge ourselves in a crucible of our own reality.