[ExI] school. was: RE: How to watch Perseverance Mars landing on Thursday 18 Feb

[spike at rainier66.com]

-----Original Message-----
>...From: extropy-chat <extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org> On Behalf Of
spike jones via extropy-chat
...


>...School's out for the week.

>...Just kidding of course.  School has been out for nearly a year,
depending on how one looks at it.  For some of the students, the ones who
know how to take ownership of their own education, school went on, and for a
small minority it really kicked into high gear, with better results than
in-person classes....spike

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Example... one of the tasks the teachers were asked to accept when
transitioning to online learning is to map out and post online the entire
semester's curriculum and assignments, then to not change them after the
fact.  The teaching staff was asked to plan the semester in detail.  As far
as I can tell, most of them complied.

Well... if the students have the schedule, they have the assignments, they
have the online study material and they have a clear definition of where
they are going and what skills they are expected to master, it
merit-badge-izes school.

Do explain please, spike.  OK spike, I would be happy to.  

In scouts we have discrete skills that earns the scout a merit badge if he
or she performs all the tasks and masters all the clearly-defined requisite
skills.  There is no defined schedule: scouts must take ownership of their
own progress, do all the work, ask for guidance if needed, arranging for
classes if necessary, etc.  They must take ownership of their own progress.

In traditional school, the teacher sets the pace.  In online learning, the
students do.  In online learning, the (effective) students take ownership of
their education.  As in scouts, we see some who turn stumbling blocks into
stepping stones and others who turn stepping stones into stumbling blocks.
Some use the shutdown to earn a tall pile of merit badges, others earn
nothing.  Online learning forces a kind of merit-badge-izing of public
school.  

Predicted result: colleges will press ever harder in defeating the factors
that make them academic meritocracies.

spike