Blog 9: On Evolution of Education, ALEX, ACCESS, and how I like using pictures!

Just to clear up--> Today, we're not discussing this:

but this!!!

Morgan Bayda's response to An Open Letter to Educators, Dan Brown

I appreciate Brown’s simple breakdown of the evolution of education from kingdoms, to class societies, to present-day. It is true that institutionalized education was the center of knowledge in the time before “the clouds”, and that the internet provides free information. Schools and educational institutions [should] come in by coaching students to find legitimacy in the information they’re reading/listening/watching. I think that educators can “stoke creativity” by challenging them to find “facts” through their own processes. People absorb information better when they can understand why it’s relevant to them. Simulate a certain situation in any human rights’ struggle and have students create their own memoirs…then you could review a number of historical events: the Trail of Tears, Internment Camps, or the Civil Rights Struggle. By feeling about writing about these emotions themselves, students may be more motivated to promote change for a better world. It’s important to show them the shift between learning and doing. I just have to point out 3 of my favorite quotes from this video: a) “Providing students with facts does not prepare them for the real world” b) “[Education] is about stoking creativity and new ideas, not about teaching [students] to conform to the world as it is” c) “[Education] is about empowering them (students) to change the world for the better.”

Having said that, there are a few appraisals I have concerning Dan Brown’s video. Those who want to learn do well when surrounding themselves by people smarter than them. While this does not have to be in a traditional classroom building (it could be via Skype, or YouTube video), students still need someone to coach and foster different kinds of questions. It doesn’t take away from democratic education for it to be “institutionalized”. The democratic tendency is not in finding information, it’s in making it. Also, there is a huge difference between factual and relevant learning. My goal as an educator is to present facts in ways that are relevant.




ALEX (or the AL Learning Exchange) is a website designed to give Alabama educators, administrators, students, and parents free educational information and resources. These resources include lesson plans, web links, and activities. ALEX is funded through donations from various groups, and through the FedGov.
These resources foster the collaboration of all employees and recipients of Alabama Department of Education tools. In addition to the above-mentioned resources, there is also a “podcast treasury,” which hosts educational podcasts on topics from art to science! For a link and to join the ALEX group, check out ALEX's facebook page

ACCESS = Alabama Connecting Classroom, Educators and Students Statewide, an initiative launched in 2004 to provide a “distance education initiative”. It is a technological initiative, with existing videoconferencing labs. Students can use Access to take classes not offered in their schools, or as a remediation program. It is part of an education goal to provide equal access (oh, I see) “to high quality instruction through distance learning”. It also probably trains students on how to collaborate via distance learning.
According to the ACCESS 2006-2010 Plan, by this year they were supposed to expand classroom technology. This includes:
• a tablet computer for every student
• wireless access
• videoconferencing equipment with capabilities to send courses to at least three additional sites
• interactive whiteboard
• digital projector
• and document camera to enable communication over distance

After reading this I think the thought on every Alabama educator’s mind is: