NLP Video

Here is the final product of my NLP. Enjoy!

NLP: Week 1

This week I started my research of reforming education, and I succeeded in getting a feel for the basics. Education reform is largely about changing and updating public education to meet students' in today's world. I have been using technology to study ed. reform, and it has lead me to study technology itself, because part of reforming our education involves technology. Although there are many challenges that tech can bring to the classroom, it is widely accepted that modern technology and the internet are powerful tools for learning. I am excited to be able to experience this firsthand.

Some examples:

Diigo is a useful tool for online research. It allows you to bookmark sites and keep them organized, among other things. Here's a link to my bookmarks that have been tagged for my Web 2.0 Foundations class.

Twitter is also a useful tool for school. Recently I have been following some people who are doing great things in the field of education, and I have learned a lot from them. For example, when I published my last blog post, I tweeted it out and asked for research ideas on ed. reform. Within no time, Nikhil Goyal (17 year old author of One Size Does Not Fit All: A Students's Assessment of School) responded. This type of interaction is nearly impossible to have without the internet.

Evernote is a great note-taking application that I started to use this weak. It eliminates the need worry about loosing you notes as it can be synced with almost all of your devices. I have only used it to jot down a few ideas, but I know that when used to its full potential, it will work organizational wonders.

Google Alerts is another handy tool to use for school. It uses the search capabilities of google search, except it bring the results to you. Every time something is published that has your selected keyword/s, it sends it to you or your feed. I used this with the words "education reform" and now I have the latest developments in field at my fingertips.

Guiding Questions for Education Reform

Here is a list of guiding questions that I have generated for further research.

What problems does our education system face today?
What is education reform?
What new ideas are there in the world of education reform? Are these ideas implemented anywhere?
What old ideas are still relevant? Are we forgetting them?
How can I as a student make a difference in education?
Who are some leaders in education reform? What problems are they facing?
Who can I collaborate and share ideas with?
What affect does standardized testing and certain teaching methods have on our schools and students?
How can we give each student a customized experience as they go through school?
How should we grade students?
How do the purposes and objectives of elementary school, middle school, and high school differ?
What is the role of the teacher in education?
What is the role of the administration?
What is the role of the student?
What is the role of the parent/guardian?
What is the role of technology in the classroom?

If you have questions or ideas that you think would be beneficial for me to research, it would mean a lot to me if you mentioned them in the comments below. Thanks!

Networked Learning Project

As I have said in a previous post, I am building a Personal Learning Network for Web 2.0 class. This PLN is a foundation for our Networked Learning Project. We are to choose what topic we wish to study, and run with it. I have wavered between a few passions I have, including politics, education reform, and architecture (as evident in my last blog post). It breaks my heart to have to say no to some of these subjects, but one of the purposes of this project is to acquire in-depth understanding of a specialized passion. I have realized that if I study education reform, then there's a chance that this will help me to study my other passions in the future. So, after much debate I have decided to reform education, or at least try to. I really want to make a difference, and as a student I will have a unique and time-sensitive opportunity to contribute to school evolution in a way that differs from many adults. I want to look into ideas such as passion-driven learning. As a short-term goal I want to make some sort of difference in my school. As a long-term goal it would be nice to give future generations of students the education that my generation wants.

This project, as a requirement,  will meet standards set for all Web 2.0 Foundations NLP's.

Creativity And Innovation
This is one of my main focuses because my goal is to study into new ideas in education and possibly look for ways to implement them.

Communication and Collaboration
My project will comply with this standard as I plan to continue communicating with people via twitter and work with other people in my school if they are working on a related topic.

Research and Information Fluency
This project will be very research-oriented because there is already a plethora of information on the subject so I will have to dig into that.

Critical thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making
Some ideas are not compatible with each other, some ideas take a lot of energy to make compatible with each other, and some ideas don't work at all. It will be up to me to use the above skills to make things work.

Digital Citizenship
This standard will be a standard that will be met continuously as I use the internet. I do not believe that ethical behavior will be a challenge in this project, but I will not overlook it.

Technology Operations and Concepts
There is no better way to demonstrate an understanding of technology than by using it properly, and I plan to do exactly that throughout this course.

Architecture

This year I am building an online Personal Learning Network (PLN). A PLN is an informal learning network that consists of the people a learner interacts with and derives knowledge from in a personal learning environment (Wikipedia). I have many interests so I'm still deciding what I want to build this network on, but one thought I had was architecture. I love architecture because it uses both creativity and logical thinking. 

Here is my latest project. It's a masterpiece by no means and it's not finished, but I enjoy working on things like this.

Barefoot Soccer and Atypical Rituals

Traveling can offer many unique learning opportunities and offer you the chance to have many fulfilling experiences. The feeling you get when exploring a foreign environment is something special. I have been blessed with opportunities to explore our world. As a young kid, I was fascinated by the  people and places I saw far from home. I'm going to share with you some highlights from a trip to Brazil I went on in 6th grade.

I remember wondering what it would be like. I had no idea what to expect. As soon as we crossed the Amazon River, I knew I was in for an adventure.

Seeing poverty as kid from middle-class America can be an eye-opening experience, and that's exactly what I saw within the first day of traveling.

One of the most fun things that I did was play soccer with the village kids. I learned that that way we play soccer here in the states is very different from the way they play down in Brazil. But there we were, playing barefoot 3 v. 3 soccer together and having a blast. Within the next couple of days our small-sided games turned into a massive ~50 person epic soccer battle.

I can remember being afraid of all the dogs that ran around on the streets. One time a huge guard dog came barreling towards our group from across the street. Just as it made it to our side of the road, the owner yelled at it and it stopped in its tracks. It turned around and moped back to its gate with a humiliated look on its face. The owner was a seven year old girl.

One of my favorite parts of going to Brazil was traveling to a reservation for indigenous people in the southern part of the Amazon. We walked around meeting people and buying hand-made crafts. I watched a man (pictured above) make a bow and arrows, which are now on display in my room. Also, we gave the tribe a bunch of clothes that I had outgrown, so there's probably some little boy running around with a "Wiscasset Recreational Soccer" T-shirt somewhere.

In the village we visited, there was a "spirit hut" where all of the tribe's equipment for rituals was stored (no photography was allowed near it so I don't have any pictures). In order to enter this hut you had to be a man. No women or children were allowed. If fact, if a woman was to enter, any man would be allowed to rape her according to tribal law. Luckily, I was declared a man by a tribesman, so I was given a tour of the hut. Receiving this honor felt really good, especially because I was only a young 6th grader.

This is a video of a ritual a native man performed for us. It is a rite of passage ritual where a comb made of dogfish teeth is scraped all over one's body. After about 30 seconds, blood starts to pour out of the skin. This was one of the most bizarre things I've ever seen.

I was also honored to meet these three children. They are the last surviving members of their tribe, so they were taken in by a neighboring tribe. I wonder how they are doing today.

When we crossed the river to get off the reservation and back to the mainland, we were told we could go for a swim if we wanted. The only warning was to shuffle your feet so you wouldn't step on sting-rays. It was hot, so naturally I went for a dip. Upon getting in the water, I was attacked by massive school of minnows. It tickled! 

When I got out of the river I casted a bamboo fishing rod into the river with raw cow heart as bait. Immediately, I got strong tugs left and right (in the very spot I had just swam). They forgot to mention the presence of piranhas.

This trip was not without hard work however! We helped turn this into an indoor soccer field by sanding and painting the walls and cleaning it up. Unfortunately, I didn't get to play on the final product.

Helping out at an orphanage was one of the most rewarding experiences of my trip. Basically I got to play with cute little kids all day! I can still remember teaching one how to use a camera...

To conclude, Brazil was a beautiful country and the people were amazing. I know I will visit it again one day because I took so much away from those two weeks. If there's one thing that I want you to take away from this post, it's to never turn down a chance to explore something new. Get out and see the world!

Passion-Driven Learning in American Schools

The American High School

Weary monday mornings, strict bell schedules, snoozing students, vulgar critiques of math class written on the inside cover of the textbook. Genuine excitement for learning is hard to come by in these halls. Why is it that? Why is it so hard to generate enthusiasm in the student body, especially when we are living in such a fascinating world? There is no one single solution, but one basic element of productive learning is missing in education: passion.

Merriam-Webter defines passion as "a strong liking or desire for or devotion to some activity, object, or concept." In American schools, there are two types of people: those who have a passion for learning in the standard school environment and those who's passions lie elsewhere. But the latter form of student shouldn't penalized for being hard-wired differently. It should be the schools goal to constitute an environment with the conditions for these students too. Everybody should be able to follow their passions, but not just after graduation. Dennis Littky has started many schools based on passion-driven learning.

Littky's schools are revolutionary because they aren't just a tweak in the system, they're built differently from the ground up. They are largely project-based, so students are able to find what they are passionate about and go out into the world do it. This allows for kids to learn for themselves (the best way to learn). In order for this to work though, teachers have to treat their students as adults and not as infants. High school students don't need to suckle on a teat of information. They need to get out into their community and do something with their learning. Of course you can't learn everything from being out and about, so supplemental instruction would be needed. But a student can learn a wide variety of skills and information from a single project.

The idea that kids are the future of innovation should be put to rest. Kids are the innovators of today. Traditional methods of education just don't allow for the true potential of our youth to show. And on the other end, teaching shouldn't be a one-way flow of information. It should be an enablement for students to follow their dreams.

Also Check out:
Angela Maiers
Dennis Littky
Nikhil Goyal