Friday, November 16, 2012

Four Themes in New Education and Ivan Illich Was Right


Universal education through schooling is not feasible. It would be no more feasible if it were attempted by means of alternative institutions built on the style of present schools. Neither new attitudes of teachers toward their pupils nor the proliferation of educational hardware or software (in classroom or bedroom), nor finally the attempt to expand the pedagogue's responsibility until it engulfs his pupils' lifetimes will deliver universal education. The current search for new educational funnels must be reversed into the search for their institutional inverse: educational webs which heighten the opportunity for each one to transform each moment of his living into one of learning, sharing, and caring. We hope to contribute concepts needed by those who conduct such counterfoil research on education--and also to those who seek alternatives to other established service industries.—Ivan Illich, Deschooling Society, 1971

NEA - a venture capital firm (New Enterprise Associates and not the National Education Association) just released a short analysis of key trends in education written by Joe Sakoda, a partner of the firm.

US K-12 students consistently lag behind their peers internationally. There is a debt of $1 trillion carried by higher ed graduates in the US. Networks and falling delivery costs for devices (pads and tablets) coupled with rising expectations for education worldwide have shifted the market for education.

The NEA paper suggests a significant market opportunity and new (or emphasized) mandates for brick and mortar institutions. Four key trends identified are:

  1. Disappearing classroom walls via networked and mobile media move education delivery from a broadcast to an interactive model.
  2. Democratizing Educational Content high quality educational elements from organizations like Khan Academy http://www.khanacademy.org/ and others.
  3. Learning from Big Data Analytics gives schools an ability to see "what's really going on" using the tools of Internet commerce. "Using platforms such as Desire2Learn, administrators can aggregate learning analytics at the school district, state, or even national level, enabling best practices and insights to be shared among stakeholders. The State of Tennessee recently demonstrated the power of Desire2Learn’s statewide predictive analytics, lowering their annual dropout rate by 25% across 45 university campuses by looking at historical student data and identifying opportunities for faculty and administrators to intervene. "
  4. Transforming Local Campuses to Global Institutions "Chinese citizens spend 3.5 times more of their disposable income on education than Americans on a percentage basis. The U.S., particularly in higher education, is home to the most respected learning institutions on the planet, and the emerging markets have seemingly insatiable demand to access it. More than one million students have registered for free for online classes through Coursera, which partners with more than 30 leading institutions like Stanford, Penn, and Michigan." The vast majority of these students are from outside the US.

Worth consideration. Read the full article: A Crisis in Education is a Terrible Thing to Waste

Note: Ivan Illich developed very similar principles back in the 1960s and 70s. Mike Glodo (the writer here) had this take back in 2007, Thank You Ivan Illich , and an earlier piece Convivial Systems: Broadband, Ivan Illich, and Architecture from 2005. In my opinion, if you are not aware of Ivan Illich's work, especially Deschooling Society  you're not hip education-wise.

Saturday, October 01, 2011

Will Allen Growing Power Aquaponics and Greenhouse

Great for local food, local jobs, and encouraging innovation. Originally posted by GreenLearning on YouTube as "1 MILLION pounds of Food on 3 acres. 10,000 fish 500 yards compost."

Thursday, August 25, 2011

A Few Days of TechneBlog Redesign

So if the colors look insane... there is a reason!

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Selected Economic Gardening Links for Canada


  1. Economic Gardening Canada

    www.economicgardening.ca/ - Cached
    What is Economic GardeningEconomic Gardening refers to community economic ...These key statistics far outpaced those of any other center in the USA, ...
  2. Economic Gardening Canada resources

    www.economicgardening.ca/resources.htm - Cached
    Private and Free for Canadian Tax Professionals. Littleton Colorado Where ...
  3. Supporting Economic Gardening through GIS - Spatial Roundtable

    www.spatialroundtable.com/post.cfm?entry...economic-gardening... - Cached
    Hopefully as more Canadian communities embrace Economic Gardening and the use of GIS, the data will improve. The usability of the US BA online application ...
  4. 'Economic gardening' helps B.C. SMBs revive economy

    www.itbusiness.ca/it/client/en/home/News.asp?id=62635 - Cached
    May 26, 2011 – IT Business.ca Mobile IT Business Canada blogs. IT Business ... is helping them by providing free market data research using mapping technology. ... Through theEconomic Gardening initiative of the government funded ...
  5. Community Futures - Economic Gardening Home

    www.cfokanagan.com/page.asp?PageID=109 - Cached
    Economic Gardening Home. Community Futures wins the ESRI Canada. "Innovation in the Field of Geographic Information Systems 2011" Award ...
  6. ESRI Canada - News Releases

    www.esricanada.com › Home › Company › News - Cached
    May 12, 2011 – ESRI Canada - Map your way to decisions that matter ... With their effectiveeconomic gardening system, they are helping numerous ... The solution combines GIS and extensive geodemographic data for efficient site ...
  7. [PDF] 

    Economic Gardening Second Meeting of the Steering Committee To be...

    www.economicgardeningcanada.com/assets/april%2019th%20agenda.pdf
    File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - Quick View
    Apr 19, 2011 – Economic Gardening. Second Meeting of the Steering Committee ...business in Canada and the US. It included sales data, employee numbers, ...

Selected Economic Gardening Links

Just a quick scan of Economic Gardening. The city of Litteton, CO, still comes up at the top of the search.


  1. Economic Gardening

    www.littletongov.org/bia/economicgardening/ - Cached
    Jun 2, 2006 – PDF file. GLYI Blueprint Program Data and Outcomes (148k) ... PDF file. Free and Low-Cost Resources for Economic Gardening (120k) ...
  2. Economic Gardening

    growinglocaleconomies.com/economic_gardening - Cached
    This ICMA report describes the key elements of an economic gardening program, provides overall implementation considerations, examines the features of ...
  3. Economic Gardening - Metro Orlando Economic Development Commission...

    www.orlandoedc.com/articles/economic-gardening.shtml - Cached
    When it comes to the benefits of Economic Gardening, Florida economic development executives considered the statistics. Companies that were in the ...
  4. Center for Economic Vitality: Economic Gardening in Washington state

    www.cevforbusiness.com/Economic-Gardening/FAQs/37.aspx - Cached
    FAQs about economic gardening at the Center for Economic Vitality. ... the counseling and assistance you provide with secondary market research and data...
  5. Florida Economic Gardening Institute / GrowFL - Statistics - LinkedIn

    www.linkedin.com/company/...economic-gardening.../statistics - Cached
    View key statistics about University of Central Florida - Florida Economic Gardening Institute / GrowFL, including where University of Central Florida ...
  6. Economic Gardening and Propelling a New Economic Direction for ...

    www.crainsdetroit.com/.../c?...uid...statistics... - Cached
    Mar 10, 2011 – Posts tagged as statistics. Entrepreneurship Score Card Hints at Economic Recovery ... Economic gardening and the governor's tax/budget plan ...