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This is the Main Page of an Information Age Education project named IAE-pedia. The project name is pronounced "eye-pedia" or by naming the three initial letters and then the word pedia, as in "I A E pedia." A companion project is available at http://i-a-e.org/. The mission of the projects is to help improve education for learners of all ages throughout world.

Image: IAE-pedia Header.png


Contents

IAE-pedia Purpose and Philosophy

The Information Age officially began in the United States in 1956: the year the U. S. had more "white collar" workers workers than "blue collar" workers. This Information Age movement away from agricultural and manufacturing employment continues. The U. S. educational system is struggling to accommodate appropriately the ensuing rapid progress in Information and Communication Technology (ICT).

IAE-pedia exists to aid in this struggle. Some components of IAE’s underlying ideas and philosophy are:

  1. Humans face very challenging problems, individually and collectively. The most important problems concern preserving and improving the sustainability and quality of life on our planet Earth.
  2. The intact human brain is naturally curious, is always involved in processing data, and is a lifelong learner. All people know how to learn and get better at learning through practice and through informal and formal education. All people, intentionally or not, teach themselves and others. All our lives, we learn and we teach.
  3. The Information Age is bringing us powerful aids to learning and to communicating and processing information. It is also bringing us a very rapid increase in the totality of information that one might want to learn and use. We each face an information overload and an environment of rapid change.

Improving Our Educational System

Historically, educational systems have been quite conservative and slow to change. They have been designed to preserve and support the societies in which they are embedded.

However, it is clear that educational systems can and do substantially change over time. One issue our current educational systems faces is whether they can change fast enough and in an appropriate manner to meet our needs of children growing up in our rapidly changing world.

For example, ICT is producing major changes in the way people interact, conduct business, get their education, entertain themselves, etc. Furthermore, our increased understanding of biology (especially genomes), cognitive neuroscience (brain science), computer technology, medicine, nanotechnology, and other disciplines are powerful, ongoing change agents. At the same time, we are gaining an increased understanding of the challenges of ecological and environmental sustainability. Informal and formal education plays a major role in our dealing with such changes. Natural questions are what shall the role be, and how shall it be played?

Just about everybody has ideas about how to improve education. The task is huge, and there are many plausible approaches to accomplishing pieces of the task. The problem is not one of having enough good ideas. The problem is one of having the resources and the will to implement good ideas successfully.

Individually and collectively, people solve problems and accomplish tasks by using their physical and mental capabilities. Research and development in science and technology is providing us with a rapid increase in the capabilities of tools that boost our physical and mental capabilities.

Consider this example: A significant part of the collected human information and knowledge is being digitized and stored in computerized information storage and retrieval systems. These computerized systems are designed to help users find information they are looking for. They are also designed to solve or help to solve many different problems on command. Modern factories automate many physical tasks; many computer programs automate designated mental tasks.

Such uses for computer systems are now commonplace—except in curriculum content, teaching, learning processes, and assessment in our schools. If you doubt this assertion, think about whether students are routinely allowed to make use of ICT when taking tests; as a routine aid to learning in each discipline they study; and as a routine aid to solving problems, accomplishing tasks, and producing products based on what they are learning.

To conclude this subsection, consider another example. Highly Interactive Intelligent Computer-Assisted Learning (HIICAL) is proving to be a powerful aid to students learning faster and better in many different disciplines and levels of education. Why isn’t this powerful aid to teaching and learning routinely available to students at all grade levels and in all curriculum areas?

Some Suggestions to Philanthropists

Here are two quite different approaches to improving our educational system:

1. Do more of what we have been doing, and do it better.

This approach has served us well in the past hundred years. Compared with the beginning of the 20th century or compared with the middle of the 20th century, we are educating many more students to a much deeper level. We have made progress in addressing problems of discrimination against women and minorities. We have greatly increased the number of students going on to post secondary education. WE have made progress in setting standards for teacher certification. We have also made great progress in schooling special needs children and under served populations. The Head Start program provides a good example.

Special education has received a substantial amount of increased attention during the past century. The work of various stakeholder groups involved with children having special needs has led to U.S. Federal legislation, funding at the federal level, and funding at the state levels to help address some very important educational problems.

This can be compared and contrasted with how the United States has done in addressing the needs of Talented and Gifted (TAG) students. There has been no Federal legislation and little federal funding for this group. States vary widely in their definitions of what constitutes a TAG student and their levels of funding for TAG students.

A large amount of philanthropic giving is direct toward doing "more of the same" in our educational system. There are huge unmet needs. The ongoing unmet needs are great enough so that they easily can use many times the yearly philanthropic contributions to education.

Philanthropists can find many resources that help them contribute wisely to our "traditional" informal and formal educational systems. Improving Public Education: A Guide for Donors to Make a Difference, provides an excellent example. It includes a primer on the U.S. education system and a list of eight principles for effective educational grant making.

Many philanthropic organizations have done their own studies and developed their own recommendations on opportunities to improve education in their own communities. An excellent example is provided by the 2007 Oregon Community Foundation document Opportunities and Options in Oregon Education Philanthropy.

2. Push the envelope; think outside the box.

This approach is a deliberate effort to break out of the current paradigms of informal and formal education. Wise innovators do research on, and pilot implementation of, new ideas, and then do wide-scale implementation of those that show the most promise. This work includes reducing or eliminating barriers to such improvements.

If such ideas interest you, I recommend that you read about The natural Learning Research Institute. It is a not for profit organization dedicated to researching and introducing natural learning into education at all levels. Its Website includes a report on a special project How To Make Educational Philanthropy More Productive.

In addition, spend some time reading articles in this IAE-pedia.org wiki. A number of the articles point to new directions to better prepare students for their futures in our rapidly changing world. For example, see:

Many people feel that the best approaches to improving education include a combination of ideas form (1) and (2) given above.

A 2005 video (19 minutes) from the George Lucas Foundation provides an excellent example of combining the two approaches.

Searching the IAE-pedia

Notice that the left column contains a variety of menu items. One is a search box. Key in one or more words and click on Search. The search engine will find every page that contains every word in your search expression.

Another approach is to find all articles that are in a particular Category. Look at the current list of Categories.. In that list, click on a Category to go to a page containing all IAE-pedia articles assigned to that Category.

Some General Categories. This is Not a List of All Categories.

IAE-pedia is in its initial stages of development. Many current documents are "stubs" for documents that need to be written, incomplete first drafts, drafts needing editing and lengthening, and so on. All can benefit from the work of readers who like to edit and/or make significant additions to documents.

To aid in retrieval, many IAE-pedia documents have been are grouped into specific categories. As the collection grows, more categories will be created. Documents may well fall into more than one category. .

Artificial Intelligence

WELCOME to our new site incorporating an exciting Wiki-based system that merges AI Topics and AI Videos. This site reflects AAAI's commitment and ongoing effort to effectively communicate the science of AI to interested people around the world.
AI TOPICS is a virtual library for students, teachers, journalists, and everyone who would like to explore what artificial intelligence is, and what AI scientists do. By offering a limited number of exemplary, non-technical resources that we have organized and annotated, we seek to provide you with meaningful access to basic, understandable information about the AI universe.
AI VIDEOS is the part of AI Topics cataloging videos about AI stored digitally on other sites, or physically in institutional archives. For each video, the archive includes a brief description of the contents and personae of the video, one or more representative, short clips for classroom or individual use, and the location of the archival copy (e.g., at a university library). Funding for this project is from the NSF (Award #0738341).

Brain Science

See http://iae-pedia.org/Brain_Science.

Computational Thinking

  • Computational Thinking. Computational thinking is the use of one's brain and aids to one's brain (such as computers and artificial intelligence) to represent and solve problems in each discipline.

Digital Filing Cabinet (DFC)

On December 10, 1948 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The following is quoted from Article 26:

  1. Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
  2. Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.

Every teacher collects materials for use in teaching. Some of these materials are for personal use, and others are to provide to students.

Many of these materials are now available in digital form, or can be digitized. Thus, many teachers now have a Digital Filing Cabinet (DFC). Think of this as a "virtual" filing cabinet for the storage and retrieval of electronic digital materials.

There are a steadily growing number of DFC materials that are available free and thus that could be made available to all teachers and their students throughout the world.

The idea of a Digital Filing Cabinet of such free materials, organized to meet the needs of individual learners and teachers, is a central theme in the IAE-pedia. Consider, for example, an elementary school teacher. The elementary school teacher's DFC might contain a Drawer for each of the main subject areas that he or she teachers. If the teacher has taught at several grade levels, the the DFC might contain several different Drawers for each subject area—one per grade level per subject area.

  • Digital Filing Cabinet/Overview. This is an introduction to and overview of the Digital Filing Cabinet project. DFC is a very large and continuing project that is especially designed to empower teachers and teachers of teachers. It is a work in progress.

Here are some additional DFC-oriented resources.

  • Free U.S. Department of Education Publications. This is an example of a set of materials that is made available free by the US Department of Education. Some of these materials are apt to be of use to almost any preservice or inservice teacher.
  • Secondary School History. This page has been established to facilitate discussion about the possible organization, content, and use of a Digital Filing Cabinet for secondary school teachers of history as well as for preservice social studies teachers.

Educational Foundations

General information that cuts across the theory and practice of teaching and learning. The IAE-pedia uses the Classification Educational Foundations for such entries.

Empowering Learners & Teachers

  • Empowering Learners and Teachers. (This is a discussion topic that is currently under development. What do we mean when we say that one goal of informal and formal education should be to empower students? What about ways to empower teachers?)

There are a huge number of different ways in which a person might have some level of empowerment. Thus, looking at general needs of people and at specific needs of people is a way to help explore this area.

ICT provides or helps provide an easily attainable level or type of expertise in many different disciplines. This suggests that one can obtain a personally useful level of expertise over a wide range of areas—a change from the past.

Future

Education is about preparing for the future. When the world is changing very slowly, education can easily (and, correctly) focus on the past. When the world is changing very rapidly (as it is now), more education needs to focus on forecasts of the future and in preparing students for a rapidly changing world.

Lots of people make forecasts of the future. Some of these forecasts are well rooted in a deep understanding of the particular area being forecast. The following is a steadily growing collection of technology-oriented forecasts and a boo

  • What the Future is Bringing Us. Forecasts and forecasting that relate to improving our educational system. This list is added to from time to time, and it represents some of the best of current thimking about the future of Information and Communication Technology.

The following reference is an excellent article to use in any computers in education course, or and other courses that have a focus on preparing preservice and inservice teachers for their futures.

Tynan, Dan (3/20/2008). The 10 most disruptive technology combinations. Retrieved 3/26/08: http://www.itworldcanada.com/features/combinations3.htm.

This article looks at ten pairs of technology. Each pair has had a major impact on the world. In an an education course, it would be appropriate to take any one of the pairs and have students explore how education has adjusted or might wantto change to adjust to the changes being wrought by the technology.

To date, there hasn't been an overarching theory of how the human brain really works, Jeff Hawkins argues in this compelling talk. That's because we still haven't defined intelligence accurately. But one thing's for sure, he says: The brain isn't like a powerful computer processor. It's more like a memory system that records everything we experience and helps us predict, intelligently, what will happen next. Bringing this new brain science to computer devices will enable powerful new applications -- and it will happen sooner than you think.
  • Ray Kurzweil. This is a nice 23 minute video by one of the leading futurists of our time.
  • Uses of Second Life in Education. This is a work in progress, seeking authors who have significant experience with and interest in using Second Life as an educational vehicle.

Games & Gaming

  • Video Games. This page includes information on how to access and download, at no charge, the book:
Moursund, D.G. (July 2008). Introduction to Using Games in Education: A Guide for Teachers and Parents.
  • Hurkle. (An educational game developed by Bob Albrecht.)

General

  • Adult Learning. Here is the complete reference for a nice article that includes a good section on self-directed learning:
Lin, Lin; Cranton, Patricia; & Bridgall, Beatrice (2005). Psychological Type and Asynchronous Written Dialogue in Adult Learning. Teachers College Record. Retrieved 1/25/08: http://www.tcrecord.org/Content.asp?ContentID=12096.
  • IAE Book. This is a start on a general purpose book about Information Age Education. The plan is to provide a rather detailed outline with some of the content filled in, with the expectation that other readers will begin to fill in the missing parts.
  • E-Learning Tools. (This is a stub for an area that can use a lot of contributed help.)
  • Educational Anthropology. (Education is a human endeavor. The type of ethnographic research done by educational anthropologists is well suited to doing research on informal and formal educational systems.)

Higher Education

Information Age Education Book

Interesting Current Examples of IAE Educational Activities

For the most part, these will be descriptions rather than research. They will be examples of good things that can and are being done. They may be suggestive of things that the readers can do in their communities, schools, homes, and so on.

Here is an example of an an entry in this section of the IAE-pedia.


Read about the Hughes Center High School for Teaching and Technology at http://hughes.cps-k12.org/teach/index.html. Quoting from http://hughes.cps-k12.org/:

Hughes Center is a team-based magnet school dedicated to the Paideia philosophy. The Paideia philosophy is based upon the belief that all students can be successful in a rigorous college preparatory curriculum. Students are expected to exceed the district's minimum requirements for promotion/ graduation. Teams of teachers and students improve student learning through better student-teacher relationships, student accountability, and home-school communication. Team leaders, in conjunction with program facilitators, provide leadership to ensure that all students in their program achieve academic, personal, and social success.

Comment #1: To me, this sounds like a great opportunity that empowers children. However, it also indicates we have a long way to go. Literacy (read, write, speak, listen, etc.) is one of the major goals in education. The program being described is part of literacy. Thus, it should be thoroughly integrated into the regular curriculum rather than being presented as a Saturdays and Summer add on for a few lucky few who get into the program.

Also, note the difficulty that this program presents to the regular classroom teachers. They will now have students in their classes who will want to (expect to) be allowed to use their new component of literacy. They will expect help from and feedback from their teachers. Most will lack the knowledge, skills, and time to provide this help and feedback. Thus, this program provides an excellent example of empowering some students and dis-empowering some teachers in the process.

Math Education

Math is considered to be one of the basics of education. We want all students to gain contemporary levels of knowledge and skills in reading, writing, and math.

One of the specific goals of the IAE-pedia is to aid in the creation, collection, and dissemination of a Math Education Digital Filing Cabinet of materials designed to serve the needs of teachers and their students. The underlying model for this Digital Filing Cabinet is a collection of free, open source materials that can made available to teachers and students throughout the world.

The IAE-pedia contains a number of articles designed to help improve informal and formal math education. Some of these articles are listed below. The list given berlow also contains some links to articles located elsewhere.

  • Computational Thinking. Cuts across all disciplines. Includes an emphasis on math modeling that makes use of human brain and computers.
  • Empowering Learners and Teachers. This document includes a specific discussion of empowering students through teaching of reading and math. It includes the calculator and the digital watch in its examples.
  • History and Pedagogy of Mathematics. Each academic discipline has its own history and pedagogy. Both are important areas from the point of view of being a good teacher in the discipline.
  • Eugene Maier. Gene is a world class math educator. This collection of short articles is well suited for use in preservice and inservice math education, and by others interested in the quality of math education that children are currently receiving.
  • Folk Math. A seminal article by Eugene Maier that draws a parallel between Folk Music (music that the ordinary people learn and do or use), and Folk Math. Contrasts Folk Math with School Math.
  • Free Math Software. There is a huge and growing amount of free math software, math education software, math-oriented games, and so on.
  • Lockhart, Paul (2002). A Mathematician's Lament. Retrieved 4/24/08: http://www.maa.org/devlin/LockhartsLament.pdf. Argues that math should be considered an art, compares with music and painting, and "blasts" our current math education system.
  • Math Education. Discusses different answers to the questions, "What is mathematics." Emphasizes the need for students to gain increasing insight into possible answers as they progress in their math studies.
  • Math Education Digital Filing Cabinet. Introduces the idea of providing preservice and inservice teachers with a free electronic filing cabinet (that is, virtual filing cabinet) of materials useful to them, their students, and their teachers.
  • Math Education Free Videos. This page contains brief summaries and pointers to videos useful in precollege math education, teaching teachers, and teaching parents.
  • Math Education Wars. Discusses the conflict between the math education traditionalists and the math education reformers.
Computational Thinking and Math Maturity: Improving Math Education in K-8 Schools.
Introduction to Roles of Computers in Problem Solving.
Computers in Education for Talented and Gifted Students.
Introduction to Using Games in Education: A Guide for Teachers and Parents.
The Mind and the Computer : Problem Solving in the Information Age.
College Student's Guide to Computers in Education.
  • Moursund Editorial: High Tech—High Touch. Explores the need for education to provide an appropriate balance between high technology and strongly people-oriented low or no technology. From the November 1985 issue of The Computing Teacher.
International and domestic comparisons show that American students have not been succeeding in the mathematical part of their education at anything like a level expected of an international leader. Particularly disturbing is the consistency of findings that American students achieve in mathematics at a mediocre level by comparison to peers worldwide. On our own “National Report Card”—the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)—there are positive trends of scores at Grades 4 and 8, which have just reached historic highs. This is a sign of significant progress. Yet other results from NAEP are less positive: 32% of our students are at or above the “proficient” level in Grade 8, but only 23% are proficient at Grade 12. Consistent with these findings is the vast and growing demand for remedial mathematics education among arriving students in four-year colleges and community colleges across the nation.
Moreover, there are large, persistent disparities in mathematics achievement related to race and income—disparities that are not only devastating for individuals and families but also project poorly for the nation’s future, given the youthfulness and high growth rates of the largest minority populations.
  • Oregon_Mathematics-OCTM. Email messages facilitating an increased level of communication and discussion among members of the Oregon Council of Teachers of Mathematics.
  • Problem Solving. Problem solving lies at the core of each academic discipline. Many of the general ideas and strategies used in problem solving in one discipline can transfer to other disciplines. This is especially true of math problem solving, since math is an important component of many other disciplines.
  • A Math Exhibit at a Science & Technology Museum. Explores possible answers to the question, "What is math?" Analyzed some components of a science and technology exhibit on math. Explores the idea of making an elementary school classroom and overall curriculum more mathematical.
  • Two Brains Are Better Than One. Explores educational implications of human brain and computer brain working together to solve problems in math and other areas.

Open Access Libraries, Databases, Software, Textbooks

This category is groups of open source materials. Examples include open source libraries, open source data bases, and open source software. For a short and entertaining video on Open Access, see http://blip.tv/file/517300. For a more scholarly video on the topic, see Richard Baraniuk: Goodbye, textbooks; hello, open-source learning. This is a 19 minute talk by the developer of the Connexions open source system.

See also: Open Courseware Consortium. http://www.ocwconsortium.org/ Quoting from the Website:

An OpenCourseWare is a free and open digital publication of high quality educational materials, organized as courses. The OpenCourseWare Consortium is a collaboration of more than 200 higher education institutions and associated organizations from around the world creating a broad and deep body of open educational content using a shared model. The mission of the OpenCourseWare Consortium is to advance education and empower people worldwide through opencourseware.
The goals of the Consortium are:
  • Extend the reach and impact of opencourseware by encouraging the adoption and adaptation of open educational materials around the world.
  • Foster the development of additional opencourseware projects.
  • Ensure the long-term sustainability of opencourseware projects by identifying ways to improve effectiveness and reduce costs.
An OpenCourseWare site...
  • is a free and open digital publication of high quality educational materials, organized as courses.
  • is available for use and adaptation under an open license.
  • does not typically provide certification or access to instructors.

Parents

  • Especially for Parents. This is a short book written by David Moursundand available free in both PDF and Microsoft Word formats.

Pioneers (ICT in Education Pioneers)

The ICT Educational Pioneers is a major project within the IAE-pedia. The goal is to collect information about (and from, when still possible) people who made major contributions to the early development and spread of the field of Information and Communication Technology in education.

ICT in education pioneers are people who were early adopters, took risks, made major and continuing contributions, and who have left a legacy of helping to improve informal and formal education.

The emphasis is on: teachers; teachers of teachers; developers of educational software; authors of computer in education books, articles, and other material; developers of educational hardware; and other people who paved the way for what now exists and what is yet to come.

A Template is available that provides a starting point for creating a new Pioneer Page.

Problem Solving & Critical Thinking

  • Critical Thinking. (Readers are encouraged to use some of their own critical thinking to add to this document.)

Project-Based Learning

Science and Technology Museums

  • Science & Technology Museums: The Science Factory. (Provides an introduction to science and technology museums. Illustrates how to analyze an exhibit using a math exhibit at the Science Factory, located in Eugene, Oregon. The emphasis is on improving the educational value of an exhibit by making more explicit what we what visitors to learn.)

Video Resources

Teachers' Domain Collections feature:
  • High-quality multimedia from NOVA, American Experience, and other public television productions and partners;
  • Video and audio clips, interactives, images, and documents;
  • Explanatory background articles for each resource;
  • Correlations to state and national curriculum standards;
  • Media-rich lesson plans;
  • Resource Management tools.
  • Mirror Neurons. 14 minute Nova Science NOW video, first aired 1/25/05. Provides insight into human learning, and represents important ideas at the forefront of brain science.

What is ----? Provides Answers for Various Disciplines.

  • What is (Name of a Specific Discipline?) For example, what is math? A parent or teacher helping a child learn some math can benefit by having increased insight into answers to this question. A goal in math education should be to help a student gain an increasingly good answer over the years of schooling.

Note to Potential Authors and Editors

The IAE-pedia is intended to be an Open Source document, with readers being able to freely use and edit the contents. However, the creators of the Information Age Education organization retain the right to protect pages so that readers cannot change them. This is necessary in certain situations. For example, the 20/20 Vision for 2020 Challenges is a published article, copied by permission of the author and publisher. It is not appropriate that people make changes to the article.

Please note when writing or editing:

  1. You must be logged in.
  2. Be respectful of other authors and their writings.
  3. Be respectful of the overall goal to help improve the informal and formal education of students of all ages and from all parts of the world.

All readers and authors should be aware that there are widely differing views as to what constitutes a good education and good ways to help students to achieve a good education. Informal and formal education are very complex, intertwined field. They are made still more complex by the rapid pace of many different technologies. Examples of technologies that are changing our world include:

  • Information and communication technology, including computers and robotics.
  • The study of genomes, and applications from what is being learned.
  • Nanotechnology.

If you write an article that you feel should not be open to changes by readers, we will consider the possibility of protecting the article so that its content cannot be changed. Be aware that it will be relatively unusual for a page to be protected against editing changes.

Some Sources of Help Information

When in doubt about writing using in a MediaWiki environment and using a MediaWiki editor, consult some of the help documents that are available. Good examples include:

IAE-pedia Documents

The IAE-pedia contains documents of varying lengths, from short snippets to articles to books. There are a few pages that are Protected against change. The rest of the articles can be edited by readers. Readers are also encouraged to add documents to the IAE-pedia.

Each IAE-pedia document is designed to meet needs of one or more categories of potential readers such as students, parents, teachers, educational leaders, business people, government employees, politicians, and so on. (In educationalize, these are often called stakeholder groups.)

It is assumed that a reader approaches an IAE-pedia document with a purpose in mind. The purpose might be to gain a better understanding of a particular problem area. The purpose might be to gain information needed to help solve a problem or accomplish a task. From a reader point of view, a "good" document is one that does a good job in meeting the needs of the reader.

Of course, the needs of readers—as well as their backgrounds, points of view, and interests—vary tremendously. One of the advantages of an open source, Wiki-type document is that readers can help to make the documents "better." They can edit existing documents and add new documents.

To edit or author a document in the IAE-pedia, you must be logged into the IAE-pedia. Take a look at the menu line at the top of an IAE-pedia page. Near the right end of this menu are buttons for logging in and logging out. In you want to write a new article or edit an existing article, you must b logged in. The first time you log in you will need to provide a user name, a password of your own choice, and an email address. After this first log in has been successfully completed, than subsequently you will be able to log in by just using your user name and password.

The IAE-pedia documents are of varying length. However, shorter tends to be better than longer. Authors should assume that the audience is not an expert in the topic area of a document or in the general area of Information Age Education. "Deep" research articles are more suited for publication in a research journal than they are for publication in this IAE-pedia.

Additional Advice to Authors and Editors

Before you start doing heavy editing of existing IAE-pedia documents or adding your own documents, I hope that you will read Meeting IAE Information Needs. This document contains some insights into writing books, articles, and snippets to help meet the learning and information needs of others.

If you want to write an article for the IAE-pedia, take a look at almost any book or article that you or others have already written. Analyze it from a point of view of people living in our current world and who are preparing themselves for life in what this changing world will bring during their lifetimes. Then write about what informal and formal education might be helpful, and how to help people achieve this education.

When specifically asked about it, most people are able to respond with ideas about how to improve our educational system. In addition, there has been a lot of informal and formal research. Funding agencies have funded lots of research studies that have led to scholarly reports and to articles in peer reviewed journals.

I have spent my entire professional career working as a teacher, teacher of teachers, researcher, writer, and in other related activities. I have given considerable thought about ways to improve out educational system. My orientation is toward ideas that make effective use of educational research, make effective use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) results and tools, and make effective use of our growing knowledge and understanding of brain science.

It is obvious that ICT hardware and software cost money. Indeed, many of the successful ideas for improving education cost money. For example, ongoing and extensive staff development is expensive. Cutting class sizes is expensive.

Thus, I spend quite a bit of time thinking about what we can do with our current level of educational resources. One idea that appeals to me is changing our overall educational system so that it gives more power and responsibility to students and to teachers.

To continue this example, suppose that starting in the earliest levels of formal education, we included a major goal of helping students learn that what they are learning empowers them, that they need to learn to make responsible use of this steadily increasing power, and that they need to take increasing responsibility for their learning. These are simple ideas, and we already devote some efforts to achieving this goal. We could be doing much better.

In thinking about empowering teachers, I am reminded of the following tidbit that I see from time to time:

“Rule No. 1: Use your own good judgment in all situations. There will be no additional rules." (Bruce, Jim, and John Nordstrom, co-presidents of Nordstrom department stores, in the employee handbook.)

Contrast this with the myriad of rules, regulations, requirements, and other dis-empowering aspects of the work environment that teachers face. Our society is willing to give teachers the very high responsibility of educating our children. However, we intervene (usually with good intentions) in ways that I believe decrease the power and effectiveness of teachers.

ICT provides knowledge and tools that empower its users. I have spent much of my professional career exploring roles of ICT in teaching and learning. There is huge potential for better empowering both students and teachers through use of ICT. This is a continuing theme in the books and articles that I write, and in the presentations that I give. I hope that people adding to and editing this IAE-pedia will pay special attention to the steadily increasing potentials of ICT to empower students, teachers, and all other people.

Template

Here is a suggested general outline or template for an article-length document. You are not required to use this outline. Moreover, may documents do not readily fit into this format. Feel free to use your own best common sense!

  1. Title. Keep it short, but make it descriptive. Note that the title of an article, or a shortened form of it, will typically be used in the name of the file containing the article. Thus, for example, the article name British Library of Political and Economic Science is accessed in the Wikipedia using the filename http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Library_of_Political_and_Economic_Science.
  2. Page heading and Table of Contents. Open a typical existing page for editing. Copy the three lines of code from the top of this page and paste it into the top of the page you are creating.
  3. Abstract or short summary, typically not exceeding 100 words in length. If the document has a quite specific targeted audience (such as parents who are home schooling their children or teachers of preservice elementary school teachers), then include this in the abstract or short summary. A great many readers will not read beyond this initial part of the document.
  4. Introduction. This includes the purpose of the document—the problem or situation it addresses and why this topic is being addressed. (This information might also be in the Abstract. A certain amount of redundancy is certainly all right.) It also briefly discusses background knowledge that is being assumed. Remember, readers construct new knowledge and understanding based on what they already know and understand.
  5. Body of the document. This may be divided into sections and subsections.
  6. Conclusions and recommendations. Your document should tend to be action oriented—helping the readers to do things that will improve our overall informal and formal education system. Conclusions and recommendations can be built in throughout the document. Even then, it is desirable to include a summary section.
  7. References. It is both appropriate and desirable that the document include built-in links to supportive material. In addition, commonly a document will include citations to materials that may or may not happen to be available on the Web. All of these citations should be collected together in the references section and presented in some commonly accepted citation style. If a citation is to material not available on the Web, it is often desirable to include a "See also" link to Web-based relevant material written by the author cited.
  8. At the bottom of the article, you are strongly encouraged to put in a section titled Author or Authors and list your name.

If you have questions, feel free to contact David Moursund: moursund@uoregon.edu.

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