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
Hugh O'Doherty.mp3 is an audio file I sent to Gabriel about a true Guide by the Side.
Araceli sent this and it IS relevant.
Stay up to date with GbtS

Collaborate online together here

Showdocument.com is a free tool that allows instant co-browsing on any document.
You upload your document and invite your friends to view it with you.

Start a project now - its easy!

Act Now Matrix (web)great free widgetsWidgetbox

Map of our tribe

Members

View All

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
**************************************
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 short version.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

Becoming a resource for learners as true Guides by the Side online? Maybe? 15 Replies

Started by Jorge Nelson in Sample Title. Last reply by Jorge Nelson Mar 30.

Rethinking Computers in the Classroom -- Starting a Think Tank? 18 Replies

Started by Roger Bullis in Sample Title. Last reply by Jorge Nelson Apr 28.

E-Brainstorming Tools 9 Replies

Started by Roger Bullis in Uncategorized. Last reply by Gary Donahue Apr 28.

Blog Posts

Art sent this today -READ this and think with your heart

"The highest reward for a person's work is not what they get for it, but what they become by it."
– John Ruskin

About John Ruskin
John Ruskin was an English art critic who influenced the attitude of a whole generation toward art and architecture. He was born in 1819 in London. His career began with an essay defending his friend, artist J.M.W. Turner, from critics. His book Modern Painters made Turner popular and gave stature to the Pre-Raphaelite movement. He founded the Cambridge Scool of Art… Continue

Posted by Jorge Nelson on June 19, 2009 at 9:18am

Galaxy explorers

Posted by Jorge Nelson on June 7, 2009 at 12:49pm

The Terminator wants to terminate paper-based media.

Schwarzenegger: Digital textbooks can save money, improve learning

By Arnold Schwarzenegger

Special to the Mercury News
Posted: 06/06/2009 08:00:00 PM PDT

Today, our kids get their information from the Internet, downloaded onto their iPods, and in Twitter feeds to their cell phones. A world of up-to-date information fits easily into their pockets and onto their computer screens. So why are California's public school students still forced to lug around antiquated, heavy, expensive textbooks?… Continue

Posted by Jorge Nelson on June 7, 2009 at 12:34pm

Invent now and get it patented, too - just for kids...

http://www.inventnow.org/

Posted by Jorge Nelson on June 7, 2009 at 12:30pm

Project Zero

Doug, Bill and Carol spent a week in Songdo and they left with many issues solved as we're building the "finest school in the world" there. One thought (of the myriad) left with us by them...

Project Zero is one area that we are developing at ISS to make Creativity on of the five pillars for our curriculum (as well as World view, Emotional intelligence, Balanced Academics, and Technology - WE ACT).

Posted by Jorge Nelson on June 7, 2009 at 11:01am

Declaration of Interdependence

David has a cool idea (Thanks, Andy) that we are looking at for International School Songdo.

Declaration.pdf

Posted by Jorge Nelson on June 7, 2009 at 10:52am

Multiple Intelligences

Thanks to Laurie for this...

Try it and join this new thread...

What are you?

Posted by Jorge Nelson on June 7, 2009 at 10:17am

She's incredible

This from CharityFocus [clubs@charityfocus.org]...

Inspiration of the Day:
She's a 47 year old woman, with a learning disability. Susan Boyle has never been married, doesn't have a job, and lives with her cat in a tiny cottage of rural Scotland. But that was last week. This week, she's been watched by 20.2 million people online, Twittered by Demi Moore and Ashton Kucher, praised by Patti LuPone, admired by the bloggerati, snapped up by the paparazzi, swarmed by camera crews, and interrogated by… Continue

Posted by Jorge Nelson on April 19, 2009 at 9:00pm — 1 Comment

Side by side on a project

Seth gets it, again - making meetings memorable.

Posted by Jorge Nelson on April 9, 2009 at 7:09pm

Distruptive technology from YouTube EDU

Mike shows us how a disruptive technology form YouTube in the form of YouTube EDU will surely change universities.

"The site gathers thousands of free lectures from over a hundred universities across the country and offers them online for free. The site doesn’t just have scattered videos—it has hundreds of full courses, too."

Imagine having unlimited access to all the myriad Sages on the Stages on your laptop, smart phone, tablet… Continue

Posted by Jorge Nelson on April 8, 2009 at 4:00pm — 3 Comments

The Harkness Table

If you haven't heard about it, click here.

I sat at one in Evergreen State and it changed my life forever.

"What I have in mind is [a classroom] where [students] could sit around a table with a teacher who would talk with them and instruct them by a sort of tutorial or conference method, where [each student] would feel encouraged to speak up. This would be a real revolution in methods." philanthropist Edward Harkness (circa 1930).

"Har… Continue

Posted by Jorge Nelson on April 7, 2009 at 10:30am — 6 Comments

Lost generation...

...needs Guides by the Side. Watch this.

Self motivation (intrinsic) is best.

Posted by Jorge Nelson on April 6, 2009 at 1:00pm

Classroom of the Future - NOW

I asked Lorne what his idea was for the classroom of the future back when we were in Taiwan together and he mentioned that a school bus would be ideal - get students out in the real world to learn about it.

Guess what - they have already built it, Lorne! Check out the One Room School Bus pilot project.

All aboard?

Posted by Jorge Nelson on April 5, 2009 at 4:00pm

100 years of lag time being shared in international network

The website International Schools Review has graciously posted my interpretation of 100 years of lag time in education on their site. Thanks to them, the word is spreading around the globe.

Thanks to Ben and the ISR team for getting the word out.

Posted by Jorge Nelson on April 2, 2009 at 3:00pm

Achievement gap is global, not national

Tony has a compelling read - Thanks, Art!

Achievement is a g… Continue

Posted by Jorge Nelson on March 23, 2009 at 12:30pm — 1 Comment

Project-based learning - when in Rome...

Digital maps and history curriculum come together in this new model for online project-based learning.

Posted by Jorge Nelson on February 14, 2009 at 10:00am

No Grade Levels and everyone is Above Average!

Colorado has adopted a radical approach to changing education - or not radical if you listen to Kohn, Dewey, Deming, Papert, Chaves and others who truly Guide by the Side.

Posted by Jorge Nelson on February 13, 2009 at 12:30pm

40 years of research speaks loudly

Preschool is a life-changing experience. Harriett has been helping me find out more. Check out High/Scope report for some analysis of an Active Learning approach to Early Childhood Education.

Posted by Jorge Nelson on February 12, 2009 at 9:30am

K-100

Seth tells us that learning never stops...

Posted by Jorge Nelson on February 11, 2009 at 12:00pm

Sensing the truth

"We taste and feel and see the truth. We do not reason ourselves into it."
– William Butler Yeats

Thanks, Art, for sharing our quest for learning about the truth via the senses.
Truth - an integrated, project-based assignment. Who'd have thought? Yeats did...

The vision that you glorify in your mind, the ideal that you enthrone in your heart - this you will build your life by, this you will become.
- James Allen

Our lives change when our habits change.
- Matthew Kelly

Thanks, John (… Continue

Posted by Jorge Nelson on February 11, 2009 at 7:30am