Open Course in Education Futures

I want to write a bit of a reflective note about the Open Course concept.

I came into this, not particularly skeptical, but uncertain of what to expect. "Course" and "curriculum" both carry connotations of paths to get you somewhere. Conventional wisdom as bound up in the outcomes that pervade the current education system dictates that you (as an expert) define what you want learners to know, then how you're going to teach them, then how you're going to be sure that they've learned what you've taught.

OK, here's my Education Futures Map for Week 4:

http://web.me.com/amcauley/edfuturesmap.jpg

This is a brilliant article that summarizes and synthesizes some of the issues around creativity emerging in Week 2. I think it's also useful for reflecting on the environment in which we're working as part of an open curriculum.

Zhang, J. (2009). Toward a creative social web for learners and teachers. Educational Researcher 38,4. p. 274-279.

Abstract:

I had to chuckle, when, after reading Part 2 on creativity, I found at least 4 different books titled "The care and feeding of ideas" on Amazon. I guess the authors should have applied some of their own creativity techniques to titling their books.

More seriously, the readings on creativity draw attention to the notion that everyone is creative and can learn to be more so, that being creative requires consistent, hard work and it involves a dialogue between a problem in which someone is invested and has a background (or can get the background) and creative thinking techniques.

If anyone in this course is attending the AERA conference in Colorado next week, you may be interested in this:

Saturday, May 1st 4:05-6:05 Division K Town Hall Meeting – Summit on Current
and Future Landscape of Teaching and Teacher Education. Colorado Convention
Center, Room 605.