Mapping educational theories

hey all--
looking for a map of educational theories from any era (19th C. to present), particularly if they address connections between theories of learning (psychological, sociological, philosophical) with policy implementation.

i know the big names i want to address in my comps (e.g. Dewey, Freire, Vygotsky, Piaget, etc.), but i'd like to see how someone else has conceived of their interrelatedness in order either to build on this conception or critique it.

Thanks; oh, and any ideas on the name change?? Or should it remain publicators?

-k.

bringing the publicators back?

rather than create a new blog, what about resurrecting the old one? any complaints if we do so? or, do we need a name change to christen a new era of applicator-ing, publicator-ing?

what about docticators? doctorators? PhDors (pronounced "fidders")?

-k.

ke ogs/sshrc - take two

This doctoral research project has two primary aims. First, to document and describe non state-based and non-corporate organizations which operate to promote photographic communication and photographic learning. De Cuyper (1998) and Braden (1983) each detail a rich history of community arts practice utilizing photography from late 20th century Britain. However, no comparable history of such practice in Canada exists at present. Through interviews and archival research, this project will begin to fill this gap by developing a history of community arts photographic practice in Ontario. The second aim of this research is to describe and define the social benefits, perceived and actual, of the activities conducted by these organizations. Given that photography-centered community arts practices exist in some form in most major Canadian cities (and in many smaller communities as well), it is apparent that a range of agents deem them of social value—both those who fund them and those who participate in them. By engaging in case study explorations of several arts-based practices, including field research in at least one community arts setting and with one visual arts cooperative organization, I intend to develop a theoretical framework that defines key activities, goals, and practices of community arts agencies and their participants. Doing so may be crucial to developing a strong policy position that argues for maintaining or increasing small-scale, autonomous, and community-supported initiatives such as these—particularly important in the face of continuously eroding funding for the arts (at least at the federal level) in 21st century Canada.

ogs/sshrc draft --comments?

hey folks--long time no chat! mind taking a gander at the following proposal and dropping in your 2 cents? thanks -k

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Several decades ago, Su Braden proposed that the new kind of critical literacy afforded by photochemical, electronic, and digital communications technologies was limited by our conventional notions of what constitutes “literacy.” The public’s capacities to understand and communicate through a wide variety of symbolic forms—not simply the written word—remained inconsequential, she argued, as long as written language predominated and was institutionalized.

Despite the proliferation of images and image-making technologies that characterize our contemporary cultural existence nearly 30 years later, our institutions seem more bound to the written word—not less—than ever before. In a culture where anti-bullying by-laws are adopted to protect a school board’s teachers as much as its students, and where the equivalent of a EULA (an End User Licensing Agreement) can dictate how one “operates” a package of fresh green grapes, it is apparent that a proficiency in manipulating the written word remains a singularly powerful ability. Yet, as I intend to argue, this is an ability that is not entirely inevitable.

This doctoral research project has two primary aims. First, to document and theorize communicative practices that exist outside of mainstream, text-centered institutional settings. This will entail a case-study exploration of several arts-based practices, including sustained field research in at least one community arts setting, and with at least one visual arts cooperative organization. The second aim of this research is to articulate how visual experience might be better developed and understood as a component of democratic participation in mainstream society. More specifically, this project will suggest how elements of a visual “literacy”—that is, learning about visual rhetoric and skill-development with image-based technologies—might complement and extend traditional literacy strategies, both to support the imperative of text-based language learning, and to provide engaging alternatives to those marginalized from traditional language learning strategies.

"Whole Systems Thinking as a Basis for Paradigm Change in Education"

Here's a thesis that overlaps with my interests:

http://www.bath.ac.uk/cree/sterling/sterlingthesisnoapp.pdf

I'd like to actually test a hypothesis through empirical research, so I think I'd push further into theoretical controversies than Sterling does here, and present findings that have punchier, more immediate and defined implications, but his thesis actualizes many of the broad research interests I've been thinking about. Anyway, I was curious what the rest of you would think about Sterling's work, does it relate at all to your own interests?

"inconvenient truths" of mainstream representations of "climate change"

from the columbia journalism review:
http://www.cjr.org/the_observatory/five_inconvenient_truths.php?page=all

...gives some insight into the practice of journalism, especially for outsiders, and details five representational (or misrepresentational) tendencies of reportage on climate change.

CO2 scrubbing silos?

i love that their solution is to literally bury the problem: extract C02 from the atmosphere and pack it in the earth, under the oceans, or wherever.

http://www.boingboing.net/2008/06/23/scrubbing-the-atmosp.html

whatever works, i suppose, but man what a mess.

free documentaries, online

in case you don't have enough time on your hands:
http://freedocumentaries.org/

i'm guessing these aren't all mainstream fare, for all the benefits and ills this entails. there is a section on "environmental documentaries," for example, that runs the range between gmo foods to radioactive contamination. there may need to be a bit of scanning happening...

How did you first learn about climate change?

It wasn't called climate change yet, I don't think. It was "global warming" or maybe the "greenhouse effect" and at school we called it "l'effet de serre." I did a gradeschool science fair project about it. I vaguely remember the cardboard poster: a larger centre piece with two folding flaps on either side.






I put some diagrams, text, and I don't remember what else. Maybe it looked like this:



Except that I think I remember redrawing a cityscape, some trees, and arrows to explain how everything moved around (I used to love making those bristol board posters, the colours, shapes, such a cool overall effect, and then you could present it as your own project.)


I learned about what's now talked about more as climate change from my science teacher. Or maybe we had an expert come into our classroom to tell us about it. I can't quite remember. But I remember seeing diagrams in the paper and my mom noticing them and showing them to me cause she knew I was interested. Seeing something in the news that I understood -- and it seemed odd to me that many adults didn't understand -- made me feel even more that there was a role to play in helping raise awareness. The story seemed fairly straightforward to me. I was somewhere between 10 and 13, grades 5 to 8, I can't remember exactly.

More scholarships

Only two of the four of us are eligible to apply, but these awards could be great.

Canadian Federation of University Women has fellowships and awards for 2009-2010. Marta and I are each eligible for several of them. Applications due November 1, 2008, so I figure I can hit up my professors for references at the same time this summer.