NetSquared teaming up with Sun Microsystems to produce global Hack Days. Sao Paolo, Brazil was a success on October 1, stay tuned for an update. Next up, China!
NetSquared is an initiative ofTechSoup
NetSquared enables social benefit organizations to leverage the tools of the social web.
- Home
- Blogs
- SandraDickinson's blog
- Reflection: Education category: Technology Innovation Fund project proposals
Reflection: Education category: Technology Innovation Fund project proposals
In my review of my fellow project proposals in the Education category (8 so far) -- I am fascinated to see such a wide range of what we each think counts as "education."
Some proposals are right there squarely in the formal k-12 context -- albeit with an out-of-the-box concept for 'how to' or 'what to' learn.
Other proposals are outside a conventional definition of formal education -- and aimed at an adult, professional population.
Yet other projects support education/learning indirectly.
Have any of the rest of you noticed the same thing? What do you think?
I'm fascinated how we all ended up in the same category:
- Was it hard for you to choose among the pre-determined project categories?
- Did you feel like none of them was quite the right fit?
- What made you end up in the Education category instead of another?
Also intriguing - the array of technologies and tools each of our projects has chosen to mobilize our respective visions for learning/education.
Why did you choose the tools/tech that you did to accomplish your learning/educational goals?
Subscribe to Net2News
Latest Comments
- Sounds like a very good
6 hours 12 min ago - You bet!! Just need to
1 day 38 min ago - Thanks!
2 days 15 min ago
Comments
free tagging now on project nominations
Thanks for your input Sandra. We've decided to take your comment and others to heart and have incorporated the option of adding free tags into the project nomination form. So if you feel that there are better words than "education" to describe what you're doing, you can now add additional tags. One caveat though: unlike the predetermined categories, these tags will not be restricted to Project Proposals and will not be linked to from the Project Proposals page. So if you want people who are browsing through project submissions to come across your nomination, it's still best to use the predetermined categories. But if you want to extend beyond those categories and include additional terms that describe your project, you can now add them!
-Gina
NetSquared Team
Tagging
Sandra Dickinson
Thank you Gina. But you know what - it was not so much that I thought the tagging/category-ing was limiting. My point really was = these projects each have such a varied perspective on what counts as "x" category, and I am so curious about why we chose the categories that we did among those available.
I also thought I'd try other avenues (blogging and commenting) to give us some more space (beyond the formal application) to expand some detail on different aspects of our projects. [again, not an issue of "limitation" so much as just using the tools available to us to interact and communicate]
Also (technical question): some other projects seem to have been able to select more than one choice in at least the strategy and tools categories. I was not able to get more than one choice to "stick" when I filled out my online form (altho the instructions indicate choose "one or more"). That was one thing that I asked about (I emailed Billy but have not heard back yet).
A reason for adult education
That's an interesting question Sandra,
You've probably noted we're advocating a faculty for social enterprise and it's down to the territory.
As with our earlier efforts in Russia we are dealing with a population with very high education standards, in Tomsk for instance, something like 25% of the population was educated to Phd level.
Likewise in Ukraine, with it's wealth of agricultural and mineral resources, replete with doctors, accountants, teachers and nuclear physicists and yet a population under stress, due to the effects of greed and corruption. Hence it's possible for children to die in the streets due to starvation or to be locked away if disabled or orphaned in the simple economic context of families unable to feed them.
Those institutionalised leave in their mid-teens to enter a society for which they're not prepared and which has not made provision for them, a society where practically everything can be bought at a price, they are therefore a disposable low cost commodity.
As for the rest of the adult population, one needs to consider the likes of a nuclear physicist made redundant under arms reduction agreements and stuggling to make ends meet. What more dangerous commodity could there be in the world market?
Hence, our proposal for a social enterprise faculty. Having resolved a social problem, we need to ensure that others don't simply follow on and fill the void, that we have delivered more than a respite or band aid solution, that having won our battle against greed and corruption, we continue to do so.
Regards,
Jeff
Education - and beyond
Sandra Dickinson
I'm totally with you on taking things the next step, and the next step, beyond "solving" the initial social problem. That's exactly why my own concept for Selearninggames is player/learner-made. Player/learners collaboratively create the the foundational content and rules of play. And then -- we continue to create content in real-time -- as we play!
The circumstances and conditions that surround any one common solution to our common problems can/will probably change. The only way to keep up with ourselves is to keep on playing the game!
I know of at least one other project - that, to my own mind, clearly fits the "education" category -- yet they have listed themselves as "other" -- just because there is so much more to it than education!