JOHN TAYLOR GATTO TO VISIT SCOTLAND

I’ve not been this excited since I saw my academic heroes Chomsky and Finkelstein.  I picked up some A.S. Neill books in 2003 that changed my life and led to my looking at other sources on education.  Later I found John’s lectures online and have listened to at least 10-20 of them several times each.  I’m so glad he’s visiting and Scotland is in for a real treat.  He is a great thinker and a great moral actor.  He left the education system as he no longer wanted to hurt children and has since spent his time learning and teaching about the history of schooling in America (which has similar roots in Europe and Scotland).  For more information see his website, wikipedia page, check out previous entries in this blog or listen to the lecture below.

Scotland’s national home education support organisation Schoolhouse has announced it is to host a major conference in Arbroath, Angus, on Friday 12 September to mark International Freedom in Education Day 2008.  More on the Learning Without Limits Conference.

5 dangerous things you should let your kids do

Gever Tulley, founder of the Tinkering School, talks about our new wave of overprotected kids — and spells out 5 (and really, he’s got 6) dangerous things you should let your kids do. Allowing kids the freedom to explore, he says, will make them stronger and smarter and actually safer.

This talk comes from TED University 2007, a pre-conference program where TEDsters share ideas.

5 dangerous things you should let your kids do

Merry Xmas everyone!

A Christmas Reflection on Palestine
Open Bethlehem: the campaign to free an occupied city

New Course: From Nand to Tetris in 12 steps

I really feel strongly that we should be academically boycotting Israel so perhaps I shouldn’t be posting this? Anyway its a great lecture so I’ll let it slide this once…

I think this is exactly what I was hoping university would be like when I first entered.

Innovative, create, dynamic, useful, involved, challenging.

You learn in a useful way and you learning the whole process inside
and out. Also its entertaining and fun.

I don’t know why University is so stale. Perhaps theres too many money
men and too much bureaucracy?

This course is also worth a mention. By the end of the course the student is able to make there own amazon.com, a bold claim. Whats more the MIT professor has realeased the book/course for free over the internet. Again the kind of thing I believe Universites should be doing.

It was through a talk with the author on IT conversations that I came across it

Software Engineering for Internet Applications

Defend Civil Liberties in Scotland

Sister defends Atif Siddique on Bebo

 

Ayesha Siddique has turned to the social networking site Bebo to campaign in support of her brother  Mohammed Atif Siddique. Atif was jailed for 8 years at Edinburgh High Court in October for “terrorism” offences connected to his use of the internet. Following media interest, the Bebo page has been made “Friends only”. Full report in today’s Scotsman. http://news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=1928872007.

The Story of Stuff – Consumerism and Sustainability

This is an excellent video on materialism, consumerism, capitalism and sustainability. Its a really stylish and fun lecture, I really advise everyone to watch it. [Thanks Rick]

http://www.storyofstuff.com/

After watching it, try watching this Chomsky clip. According to the New York Times Chomsky is “arguably the most important intellectual alive.”

More Chomsky – www.chomsky.info

The clip is taken from this film

Democratic Education: Summerhill receives glowing report

 So, kids, anyone for double physics? (But no worries if you don’t fancy it)

Official approval at last for school where almost anything goes

Jessica Shepherd
Saturday December 1, 2007
The Guardian

It is halfway through mid-morning science class and there is still only one seat occupied – that of the teacher, David Riebold. “It’s my first no-show in a while,” Riebold says wistfully, looking at the test tubes he has laid out. “Ah well, there’s always lesson preparation to do.”Skipping class is no big deal at Summerhill, Britain’s most progressive school, where pupils set the rules and can miss lessons to play or pursue their own interests. Today Riebold’s class of 12- and 13-year-olds may well be out celebrating, if they’ve heard the news. For after a long battle with the government that has included threats to close the Suffolk independent boarding school, Ofsted has delivered its first endorsement in Summerhill’s 86-year history.

Free online materials could save schools billions

Since March, Dixon Deutsch and his students have been quietly experimenting with a little website that could one day rock the foundation of how schools do business.

A K-2 teacher at Achievement First Bushwick Elementary Charter School in Brooklyn, N.Y., Deutsch, 28, has been using Free-Reading.net, a reading instruction program that allows him to download, copy and share lessons with colleagues.

He can visit the website and comment on what works and what doesn’t. He can modify lessons to suit his students’ needs and post the modifications online: Think of a cross between a first-grade reading workbook and Wikipedia, the popular online encyclopedia written and edited by users.

More: USA Today

Free-Reading.net

Open Access Journals: Principals of copying and using research

Interesting article on open access journals

New principals for re-using open access published scientific material have been laid out by the UK PubMed Central Publishers Panel. The Statement of Principals will allow scientists and researchers to use published material themselves in databases and linking, which could lead to further scientific discovery.

Under the terms of the statement of principals open access published articles can be copied, and the text data mined for further research, as long as the original author is fully attributed. Re-use of the material must be for non-commercial purposes and cannot alter the moral rights of the original authors.

Source

Democratic Schooling: What if everything you think about education is wrong?

Voices from the New American Schoolhouse (trailer)