People who develop curriculum (teaching or training materials) often follow the principles of instructional design. I should really say they might follow one of many sets of principles because there are various models that guide how instructional designers pursue their craft. One of the most prevalent models is referred to as ADDIE (Analysis, Design, Develop, […]
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I could have easily titled this post “Why the word self-education is misleading and why I will continue to use it,” but I went for brevity. The point of this post is that in spite of my vehement belief that we need to move more of our educational effort focus to self-education and all its […]
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Everyone who reads my blog or listens to me talk knows I value education. Yes, admittedly I err on the side of promoting self-education and its variations because I feel such options are not positioned often enough as viable alternatives to higher education. But education is the thing and however one attains it in ways […]
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Modern job requirements, along with the accelerating pace at which we now live, necessitate constantly updated information and skills. The workplace of today isn’t the workplace of a decade or two ago. Things change quickly now. Unless a worker develops the ability to continually self-educate to keep up with new information, technologies and skills, their […]
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Recently I watched for a second time a fun movie, Accepted. For those unfamiliar with it, the premise of the movie is a young man graduating high school gets rejected by every college he applies to and his parents don’t take it well. In desperation he cleverly creates a fake college with some friends and…well, I […]
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Yet again Sir Ken Robinson delivers a TED Talk that rightly skewers the misguided trends within the American educational system. In this brilliant talk Robinson outlines three principles crucial for the human mind to flourish and how the current education culture works against them. With both insight and humor he offers suggestions on how we […]
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A while back I posted an entry here titled Do It To Do It regarding Joe Robinson’s book Don’t Miss Your Life: Find More Joy and Fulfillment Now. I was recently re-reading the book and was struck by how often the author mentioned lifelong learning as an important component of a happy and fulfilled life. In fact, […]
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Since the focus of much of my writing is self-education, some might think I am entirely antagonistic to formal education. Not true. In fact, I know formal education has its rightful place alongside informal education (self-education), although I do feel the shift must move significantly more towards the informal. Higher education institutions however must rethink […]
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Want to find a wealth of information about how to learn just about anything? Typing in just two simple search phrases into your favorite search engine will produce an astounding number of learning resources. The two phrases are “how to” and “how to learn”. Give it a try. As I’m writing this, if I search […]
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In a 2009 San Francisco Chronicle (my local newspaper) article it was reported that due to the state budget crisis at the time the entire California State University (CSU) system of 23 campuses would not accept any new students for its upcoming spring semester. Typically, about 35,000 students enroll in the CSU system each spring. […]
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