Comments on: On Literacies being multiple

By: usmediaweb» The CC Anthology » Engaging in the educational work that matters

Tue, 11 Jul 2006 01:35:46 +0000

[...] One of the most important roles of the edublogosphere, in my opinion, is the opportunity it provides for professional mentorship and growth. Unless you happen to be an exceptionally fortunate teacher and have someone like Doug next door to your classroom, you might not have opportunities sans blogosphere to tap insights like his. Like Doug and many other edubloggers, I think and write a lot about multiple literacies. Living as I do now both in the F2F world and the virtual world of the blogosphere, I am struck by how my own educational journey as a learner and a teacher is advancing as strongly today as it ever has. And I’m not even paying money anymore for graduate credit hours! [...]

By: Marco Polo

Marco Polo — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 09:45:54 +0000

Thanks for the link to Rethinking Schools Online, a source of interesting stuff. Feinberg’s criticisms include some valid ones, but also several misrepresentations that rather add to the tangle.

By: Doug

Doug — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 21:22:19 +0000

Rethinking Schools Online has a critique of Ed Hirsch written by Walter Feinberg, a Professor of Philosophy of Education at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Ed Hirsh's views on education are not going to help us achieve democratic schooling.

By: Marco Polo

Marco Polo — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 11:53:45 +0000

I just posted a long post which is far too long and no-one will read it, so I'm commenting here. A few months, even weeks, ago, I would have agreed with Clarence on this, and ranted about the stick-in-the-mud attitudes of, well, everyone except me... and Doug, and Clarence, and other enlightened souls of our bright new cyber-future. But having read the thoughtful E.D. Hirsch, I'm not so sure. Masochists can go and read my original post, so let me just offer a brief quote from Hirsch by means of a teaser and to explain my "doubting Thomas" stance on this: Hirsch is here quoting an article in a recent (in 1996) issue of an educational journal. "With knowledge doubling every 5 years - every 73 days by the year 2020 - we can no longer attempt to anticipate future information requirements. Curriculum based on discrete disciplines emerged from a largely male- and western-oriented way of thinking. We must stop valuing right answers and learn how to behave when confronted with paradoxical and ambiguous situations. Doing so requires a shift from knowledge acquisition to valuing knowledge production" Hirsch adds, the formalism that currently dominates American educational thought... is based on the idea that inculcating formal skills is much more important than the transmission of knowledge - a widespread doctrine... These formalistic assertions have by now attained the status of unquestionable fact, mainly by being constantly repeated. Like a number of undocumented doctrines of the educational community, they wither under close scrutiny...Educational formalism is in error in purely practical terms, because an emphasis on process and skills rather than on content does not in fact result in significantly improved formal skills for students. The real-life competencies that people need, such as the abilities to read, to write, to communicate, to learn, to analyze, and to grasp and manipulate mathematical symbols, have major components that psychologists have found to be "domain-specific." Hirsch's objections are, I think, well worth pondering, if only to better understand what the heck we are talking about.

By: Scott Walters

Scott Walters — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 17:09:43 +0000

I tend to agree with Clarence on this one. In general, education has been VERY slow to change. While this was viable in a slower time, the rate of contemporary change is far outstripping us, and that can lead to great frustration for our students.