[Disclosure: My family and I are part of the homeschooling community.]
A combination of a fairly feisty state of mind and George Siemen’s latest post on his Connectivism blog titled “Technologically Externalized Knowledge and Learning” has got me seriously riled up tonight – not at George mind you, but at the state of education as we know it.
In setting the scene for a discussion on “finding a cure for stale ideologies,” George discusses some of the issues with traditional views on learning, as well as some of the shortcomings of those …

[I freely concede I may be over-reacting in this post. Half the reason for writing it is in fact to take the power out of a standing resentment so I can start to look at the issue more objectively.]
Rant
At the risk of instigating controversy, I have a growing resentment over the excessive use and abuse of the word “pedagogy.” While the fundamental idea behind pedagogy is a very important consideration, somewhere along the line the vernacular use has been relegated to the ultimate weapon in an argument about or …

I’ve spent the last nearly 6 years in the field of educational technology, however this time has focussed primarily on the application, support and delivery sides of the equation rather than the realm of educational theory. In this sense I have room to grow; and I’m looking at my research project into the educational applications of Second Life as an opportunity to do just that.
So far I have read a whole lot of material and case studies, and during this period several common themes have begun to arise with …