Arti Says, Tony Says

Arti says:

Richness and authenticity are much-sought attributes of “the road of excess” for the 21st Century Learner.  They trump “educationally relevant” as a measure of what we should look for in a learning experience for a 21st Century learner that might lead to “the palace of wisdom”.

Tony says:

Richness? I have my doubts. What is rich?

Relevant and authentic I do like but unless you discuss what the two words mean, they just become buzzwords with which to beat your enemies and to become complacent with your friends.

Relevant is relevant to the lives of your students, Myspace, skateboards, WoW. The students are the final judge of relevance.

Authentic is work with a real purpose, it's a bit disappointing when your pottery is bound for the clay bin at the end of the lesson.

I just love it when someone can say something in a well crafted phrase that would take me a paragraph to evoke. Tony could be talking about any of the educational double talk that occurs in official circles or, dare I say it, on this blog or in the edublogosphere.


Image: 'drowning teapot' by labspics
www.flickr.com/photos/24124940@N00/291684702

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2 thoughts on “Arti Says, Tony Says

  1. Miss Profe

    What an eloquent post! I am surprised that it did not provoke more dialogue.

    I was particularly struck by Tony’s comment re: relevance, and using the pottery example as a metaphor for so much of what occurs with so-called “project-based” learning. I cannot tell you how many “projects” the students, and especially the middle school students, students are asked to do, only for them to end up in the dumpster once they are completed.

    Did the students have fun while they were doing the projects? Sure; many of them did. But, then, what happens to the learning? Or, is it more about the process, and the project is merely an artifact of the process?

    In a phrase: Was the experience truly relevant?

    Which is why I am beginning to move away from the “showboat” .i.e. paper/plastic/display board projects to where our kids live: the audio and the visual. Which is why, Graham, your blog and others like it, appeal to me so much, especially as a Spanish teacher. I don’t fully understand all about which you speak. I don’t even own an iPod, and just received a digital camera for Christmas. However, I realize I need to get hip, because this is where our students live.

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  2. Sarah Puglisi

    Owing to my not wanting to going to get my work done for class i’m leaving you a poem…knowing you’ll see it as just a quick thought on a long day trying to set up a week of work…

    On the “Palace of Wisdom” I Learned as a Momma….
    (After re-reading “What are We Able To Build With Our Blocks”
    R L Stevenson)

    watercolor, oils, pastels, press, brayer,
    wax, wheel, crayon, glue, glitter

    wrap around my knowing like tiny points of reference
    that one day will be annoitated like Shakespeare for kids

    “oh that’s what she saw in a troll
    yes that 64 fad of plastic friendship ” we’ll google and read

    lights dance on screens meanings made in minds
    touching only neural receptors fingers clean on key boards

    i’ll be like Fuller out tomorrow with toilet paper rolls truths
    making a giant metaphor for the universal structures that ring true

    And inside on the system he saw through his making
    connecting minds and metaphors with potentials to save mankind

    kids do kidsmake kids act on kids often associate generalize derive
    just set it up and step away……be careful to allow some clay

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