Guide by the Side...

...not Sage on the Stage

We support Papert's Mathetics view of education, which has the science of learning as the focus (vs. Didactics or the science of teaching)

Welcome to the Mathetics Tribe!

Please visit the forum of your choice and introduce yourself. Then check out the notes page for the rules of the road and what's this all about. Finally, visit the blog for the latest content. It's good to have you here.
Thanks to Seth for the inspiration to just go ahead and do this.

Why are schools irrelevant?

SOAR: Students Own All Resources

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Your Guide by the Side

Lao Tzu said, “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.”

Plato said, “Do not train children to learning by force and harshness, but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each.”

120 years ago, John Dewey, with his can-do attitude towards education, said, “All learning begins when our comfortable ideas turn out to be inadequate”.

“It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory.” - W. Edwards Deming

Seymour Papert stresses support for personal variation in learning styles, and for the increased acceptance by schools of the ability to learn without assistance.

“A curriculum defines what we ought to learn. For what? To become competent to live a life that we freely chose, for which we are fully responsible, and that brings us realization. A curriculum, therefore, is not a set of subject matters (‘disciplines’) we need to assimilate, but a matrix of competencies we need to build” - Eduardo Chaves
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Welcome to the Tribe!

It is with great pleasure that I welcome you to our tribal website. I have created this site to stimulate conversations regarding the future of education. I have posted some compelling and, arguably, controversial opinions about how students learn versus how teachers instruct - stemming from a decade of conversations I have enjoyed with myriad educators from around the world.

It is my ultimate desire that these topics provoke new, unique thought exercises to help us in our eternal quest to improve the lot for our children’s children.

Enjoy!
Jorge

Current resume

Current resume Jorge Nelson 2009 Nov.pdf

Sample keynotes, papers, and presentations
AAIE.2002.presentation.pdf
BIS HIGH SCHOOL DEVELOPMENT.pdf
Building the Digital Classroom.pdf
Computer Simulations (Microcultures).pdf
Director's Report.AGM.Bali.pdf
GASS.pdf
High Fidelity Computer-Based Simulations.pdf
Integrating McREL Standards & The Basic School.pdf
International education.pdf
Scenarios for SIS.pdf
School system simulation.pdf
Teacher behavior and student achievement.pdf
Total Quality Management as a Philosophical .pdf
Towards A Dynamic Data-based Decision-Making Tool.pdf

Sample interactive slideshows
Director's report.AGM.2003.ppt
International Education.Dr.Nelson.ppt
The Essential Middle School final.ppt

Forum

What are your thoughts on the 2010 Horizon Report? 1 Reply

Started by Gary Donahue in Sample Title. Last reply by Dr. Jorge Olaf Nelson Jan 26.

Seeking balance in a competency-based curriculum.

Started by Dr. Jorge Olaf Nelson in Sample Title Dec. 17, 2009.

Blog Posts

HAITI

Give online (cautiously) - advice from the BBB says:

• Check www.bbb.org/charity to verify that charities and relief organizations are accredited by the BBB.

• Be cautious when giving online, especially in response to e-mails that claim to link to a relief organization.

• Find out whether the charity already is in the affected area. Otherwise,… Continue

Posted by Dr. Jorge Olaf Nelson on January 16, 2010 at 4:48am

Kindles or ???

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122026529&sc=emaf

Posted by Dr. Jorge Olaf Nelson on January 16, 2010 at 4:30am

Online life debates go on

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/google

Posted by Dr. Jorge Olaf Nelson on January 16, 2010 at 4:30am

Einstein said so...

All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree.
All these aspirations are directed toward ennobling man's life, lifting it
from the sphere of mere physical existence and leading the individual
towards freedom.
Albert Einstein

Posted by Dr. Jorge Olaf Nelson on January 14, 2010 at 6:42pm — 1 Comment

DEAR fellow Matheticists: Drop Everything And Read...

this book - http://sirkenrobinson.com/skr/the-element

The lead is the TED.com story of the girl who can't sit still and it is so true. We all know kids like this who needed help and probably didn't get it. I wonder where they are today?

Posted by Dr. Jorge Olaf Nelson on January 14, 2010 at 11:16am

Why???

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2010/01/why-ask-why.html

Posted by Dr. Jorge Olaf Nelson on January 11, 2010 at 9:30pm

I want to attend this one...

Rolly sends us this - have fun!

Posted by Dr. Jorge Olaf Nelson on January 10, 2010 at 9:30pm

Let's all get along...

“The ‘Eureka’ moment was when I could draw a data point between a hotshot, investment bank-oriented star lawyer and an elementary school principal,” Mr. Martin recalls. “I thought: ‘Holy smokes. In completely different situations, these people are thinking in very similar ways, and there may be something special about this pattern of thinking.’ ”

Gary brought this to us...

Posted by Dr. Jorge Olaf Nelson on January 9, 2010 at 9:30pm

From library to learning commons ...

"Stop paper training students. Push information out to students digitally and also teach them the critical skills of finding and evaluating it for themselves. Paper is our orientation, but doesn't do any favors for our digital natives. The age of the reading packet is gone because it can't be accessed by students with reading disabilities. It can't be posted to a collaborative platform for analysis and discussion. It can't be linked or embedded, and it isolates the learner. Students need to mana… Continue

Posted by Dr. Jorge Olaf Nelson on January 8, 2010 at 9:30pm