Hi everyone,

I have been silent for a week on www.ReinventingLife.org as I get the Future(s) project up and running in a larger arena - both through www.futureofeducationproject.net and through grant writing.  This has resulted in my lurking at a greater distance in the MOOC class run by George Siemens and Stephen Downes.  Those last two links though, will take you to the source material for this post.

Three ideas intersect and are worth expanding:

1.       Individual to Group is a continuum of our involvement with others.  We have to give up some of one to achieve the other.

2.       Complex issues are difficult to change.  Heifetz (2000) reminds us that we need formal and informal leaders working together and creating holding environments where people feel safe.  Networks and groups, depending on their structures, may act as these holding environments.

3.       Innovation is deviation (as George says in the link above).  To some extent if we are all comfy in our groups we don't innovate as that would cause us to differ from the group norm and we would lose some of our comfort.

Then I read S Downes really lovely and personal blog as he muses on and presents his ideas about his recent lessons from world travel, and the future of education.  He points out that, "Groups require unity and networks require diversity. Groups require coherence, networks require autonomy."  He then goes off to discuss networks as the median ground - one we need right now to get things moving/changing in our world's complex issues (as I interpret his meaning).   Interested? Follow the ReadMore link

OK, I've spent a week crafting words about the Future(s) of Education Project as a network of academics, educators, community members, parents and students who meet and discuss issues online as they offer assistance to 12 international smaller participatory groups creating new educational designs.  In this model all the participants at what ever level focus on the question, "How do we best prepare our children for the world they will inherit?"  I hate to even say how do we educate our children because the school room paradigm is so large, but that is what I am really asking - how do we educate our children for the world they will inherit.

Will these participatory groups, supported by this larger network come up with radically different ideas?  Who knows.  But today I ask does the model seem to work against the ideas I have enjoyed in the connectivism reading and watching for the week?  Seems to...... What do you think?

All the best,

Alana

Written by :

eajames