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Education needs to go slow
12/04/2007
Schools need to move away from an emphasis on accountability, which includes national testing and curriculum, towards collaboration with communities to build innovative learning environments.
They need to embrace an environment where the learner is encouraged to have fun, tell stories, and use their imagination.
This can be achieved by using digital technologies in a way that develops reflective and creative capacities.
This is the view of Geetha Narayanan who, along with danah boyd, will be one of two lead contributors to Edition 13 of the e-Journal The Knowledge Tree.
Published by the national training system's e-learning strategy, the Australian Flexible Learning Framework (Framework), The Knowledge Tree aims to provoke, foster and capture in-depth knowledge and debate on e-learning issues.
Geetha Narayanan is Principal Investigator with Project Vision at the Centre for Education Research Training and Development (CERTAD) within the Srishti School of Art Design and Technology in Bangalore, India.
She has dedicated her career to finding and establishing new models of education that are creative, synergistic and original in their approach to learning.
The Knowledge Tree editor Jo Murray said the principles of slow schooling, which allow time for discussion and reflection and focus on how students form concepts, will be examined in Geetha's article.
"We are very excited about Geetha's contribution to Edition 13. How teachers can bring about 'slow schooling' through the use of online tools and networks within a mix of blended strategies will be particularly fascinating," Ms Murray said.
For more information on slow schooling listen to this month's Flex e-news e-podcast.
A live online conversation with Geetha will be held on Tuesday 29 May at 2.00pm (AEST).
To participate in the live online conversation click here.
If you miss the live online conversation a recording will be available here.
Other contributors in Edition 13 of The Knowledge Tree are:
- danah boyd, a PhD researcher in the School of Information at Berkeley (California, USA), who suggests teachers approach learning activities and young people's online socialisation carefully.
- Merrolee Penman's who's peer reviewed article describes her research into mobile phone use with occupational therapy students of Otago Polytechnic on work placement in regional areas of New Zealand.
- Janet Hawtin who presents issues in online identity creation and the open source movement.
- Wallace Galloway, Hanyang University, (Ansan, Korea) who explores the design and choice of multimedia technologies for Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL).
- Ewan McIntosh, James Farmer, Brad Beach, Clint Smith, Peter Higgs and Frankie Forsyth who in 'Open complementing closed – why, what for and how?' bring together a range of perspectives on the use of learning management systems and personal learning environments to facilitate learning.
- Mark Landy who reviews George Siemens 'Knowing Knowledge, 2006.
