This evening my wife was sharing some anecdotes regarding some of her young students of Manadarin. She tutors these students after school and during the weekend. The students are very bright. Anyway, one of her students has a saying, probably garnered from a t-shirt, that goes something like this, “If homework is work when do I get paid?”

I was quite amused by this and then later thought, “Why not?” ~ Why not give all students a scholarship to attend school? All students. Surely if governments around the world can summon up trillions of dollars to bail out badly managed banks surely they could allow all students to receive a scholarship to attend school? 

What are the implications of that? Obligations, responsibilities, contracts, disbursement, etc. Thinking out aloud.

Mark has written a post in which he evaluates Twitter and writes rather astutely about that audience that many bloggers and twitterers ponder upon, seek or desire. It is a good read, like all Mark’s blog posts. Mark is also great with video. Check this out. This one too. Anyway, I digress. Mark’s post about Twitter and his side note on the audience garnered a response from me and as I have done in the past I repeat those thoughts below.

Mark, a nice evaluation and thoroughly enjoyed reading the side note. Many of us have those thoughts, emotions, feelings regarding publishing on the net. It is only human.

The advice I have read and received is blog for yourself. Write for yourself. Simply blog about things you have done. The audience will come, whether you know it or not. It may be small or even large. That is not important.

Cheers, John.

Dean Groom has written a thoughtful post on infinite learning and the need for information literacy and schools that prepare students for the infinite world of information given the advent of the Internet. He writes of the Florida Virtual High School and its programme of personalised instruction. Dean mentions that perhaps a virtual HSC High School could be established here in New South Wales. Dean’s post prompted me to comment…

Dean, the Florida Virtual High School is an interesting concept. It has evolved from a distance education background and it certainly delivers a significant number of courses each year.

I cannot help but feel that “Personalised instruction” should be labelled “Tailored instruction”. Personalised instruction for me would be face to face tuition.

eLearning is an excellent vehicle for distributing knowledge and skills for those willing to learn. It allows opportunities for further education, particularly for those unable to travel or situated in remote areas. eLearning can also support existing face to face instruction.

A learning environment that is entirely online suits some, not all. Experience with eLearning programmes involving organisations such as the University of Wollongong, Nokia, Singapore Airlines, JPMorgan Bank and others illustrated for me the pros and cons of 100% online delivery of courses. I feel that face to face instruction is an important facet of the socialisation process of our youth. Schools provide opportunities to acquire skills in interacting and coping with your peers.

A virtual HSC High School that augments face to face instruction, supports students in remote areas and facilitates subjects with very low enrollments is a good idea yet I feel that students should still be engaged in a significant face to face component as well.

Infinite possibilities, true. Infinite learning? Infinite memory? Not so sure about that. I sometimes get the feeling that we are filling our lives with too much stuff. Endless streams consisting of immediate moments of gratification and tenuous connections. Too many choices in today’s world. information literacy should focus on instructing students how to filter out the unnecessary stuff and how to focus on media that can facilitate lifelong growth, community connections and local benefits.

Local is broken. It needs fixing. Global connections are fine yet let’s not lose sight of local, community, real neighbours. The infinite possibilities that are now available can be used to try and regenerate local connections and people stuff. Local is becoming the poor brother of global.

Wired individualism versus real communities.

Cheers, John.

Chris Lehmann has composed a post in which he speaks of the need to be proactive as opposed to reactive in the lives of the young as they ‘navigate the world’. I responded to Chris’ post with the following comment and I thought why not reproduce my thoughts here…

Agreed, a proactive approach is required. Our students, the kids, require good exemplars and direction. They have taken to MySpace, Facebook, and other publishing platforms with a passion. Educators and responsible adults need to illustrate how these publishing tools and others such as blogs can be utilised to create communities that give to society, that are productive and helpful. Collaborative communities that benefit society and not wired individualism that seemingly takes from society.

Let me begin this post with with a little of something I wrote back in 2005…

“20 years from now history text books will set out Pauline Hanson, Howard, Ruddock, Vanstone and Downer together with their US inspired politics of fear and a jingoistic approach to foreign policy as the background causes for the riots at Cronulla and Maroubra. Ten years of conservative Liberal Party government, the shame that is Pauline Hanson, jingoistic foreign policies, inhumane immigration detention centres, the baby overboard debacle, illegal deportations, and the jewel in the crown… the Cronulla Race Riots.

Historical personalities like Howard, Downer, Vanstone and Ruddock espousing right-wing, nationalistic, pro-individual, selfish policies to the detriment of community and collaborative social values have their parallels in Nazi Germany as well.

Welcome to Australia… only if you are fair-skinned, sandy-haired and blue-eyed of course. You must promise to vote for the Liberal Party as well, just like the majority of Cronulla’s residents. Australians of a caucasian background no longer seem to make immigrants and visitors of other racial backgrounds welcome. I first started observing this in 1996 or thereabouts.

It is so shameful to be an Australian now. This episode and the malaise that seems to be infecting Australia and its people makes me feel angry, frsutrated and sad. It seems to be vote ‘1′ for individualism and selfishness in this country.”

Well, it is January 2008 and things have not improved all that much. Imbeciles not unlike those that run amok in Cronulla in December 2005 have rioted and fought at a variety of towns along the NSW coast this week. It was Australia Day ~ our national day. There was shameful behaviour at Manly, Shellharbour, Kiama, Wollongong and Thirroul. A number of the imbeciles were draped in Australian flags. They were engaged in drunken, riotous behaviour. Asian eating outlets in Manly were targeted by these racists. These racist idiots should be locked up and the key thrown away. As one observer wrote they are all morons.

I was hoping that with the demise of John Howard and the Liberal Party 15 months back that the situation in Australia would improve. It has not.

The Australian flag has become a symbol of racism. Those drunken, pathetic, ignorant and shallow individuals that drape themselves in the flag or paint it on the back of their utes are racists. It has become a symbol of exclusion. It has become a symbol of the bully. They may as well be holding a banner proclaiming “If you are not white and of an anglo-centric background then you are not welcome!” The term “Aussie pride” is a catch-cry for all intolerant individuals in this country. Shame.

Even if these racists represent less than 0.10% of the population of this country then that is 0.10% too many. Morons, imbeciles and idiots. All of them.

Related links:

Brawls mar Australia Day
Manly mob rampages through Corso
Manly ‘morons’ rampage was racist: academic
Riot police called to ugly Oz Day celebrations
Oz Day marred by brawls and booze