This TED talk by Charles Leadbeater is great. He bring into the conversation third world examples of education. Some of the great points and innovations that I think he hits on include:
1) Project based learning which has to be productive.
2) The inclusion of creativity and using games to teach.
3) Using the Chinese restaurant model – it spreads, looks different depending on where you are, but is recognizable for what it is.
Enjoy!
This post is also viewable on iTeachToo.com through this link.
A two hour drive from Wote in the Makueni district of Kenya lies the village of Ngomano. The last 9 miles of the trip to the village center takes a four-wheel drive vehicle and nerves of steel. Not only are you sharing the single lane road with goats, sheep, cattle and people heading to get water, but what is used as a road is often deeply rutted and washed out. Hold on to your stomach for this bumpy ride.
Just before you arrive at the village center of Ngomano a small side road to the left takes you a hundred yards to The Clay International School. This school was developed by PEI Kenya as an innovative way to teach, and in order to create a sustainable community. (more…)
Evan Shapiro, president of IFC tv and the Sundance Channel, kicked off the Fall 2009 Social Ventures Network Conference with an entertaining, insightful and frequently funny talk on the challenges and necessity of building a diverse business.
Evan likened the strengths of a diverse culture and workforce to the importance of planting a diversity of crops in agriculture. By encouraging diversity within our ranks and rows we will be able to reap a far richer crop. Throughout his talk, Evan wove statistics and anecdotes together to illustrate the concept of how diversity is necessary in order to achieve success.
Evan stressed that in order to find that “qualified, diverse candidate” we need to start looking long before we post a job opening. Business must provide opportunities to access so that both the employer and potential employee gain exposure. These opportunities can simply be inviting students in to see how an office environment operates or setting up an internship program. Success in piercing the glass ceiling hinges upon such interactions.
Evan is working with educational institutions in order to reach a more diverse population before that population is out of the running. Building that “pipeline” early is critical for both the future job seeker and the business. Returning to his farming analogy, Evan said “when you are hungry you can’t go plant a seed.” The key is to make the connection before a job is needed.
Evan points out that although “we are a more diverse culture every single day” we are still likely to look within our own social circles to fill positions. We’ve got to break these walls down when we endeavor to create and encourage diversity within the sustainability movement.
**Check out Brick City on Sundance, the five part documentary trailer Evan mentioned
***One resource suggested by a participant regarding diversity and providing the necessary education to break through the glass ceiling was the The Providence Effect
Out to dinner with my friend the other night I casually referred to Peak Oil in a discussion. We were talking about topics that might be potential articles on Earth Thrives. As it turns out he didn’t know what Peak Oil was. Hadn’t heard about it and didn’t mention the fact until I had rolled on to another topic.
This friend had spent at least the past two years running a company whose focus sales demographic was the triple bottom line business, and so I assumed that he of all people would know what peak oil was. Turns out I was wrong.
Over the next week I asked another ten colleagues and friends if they knew what Peak oil was. I expected that they would know when I asked and was not prepared to find that all but one of them didn’t.
I shouldn’t have assumed that my friend or anyone else, for that matter, has the same knowledge that I have. This is not to say that I am amazing, but more to show that my foci are unique to my interests. We all have our own interests which lead to what we read, look up and study in depth. The topics that I have spent more time with include (but are certainly not limited to):
Urban gardens, Peak Oil, sustainable communities, organization development; leadership development, GMO’s (genetically modified organisms), socially responsible business, alternative economies, and local living economies.
While I have spent that last two years immersed in the world of green and sustainable while working on my Masters degree from Goddard College in Socially Responsible Business and Sustainable Communities, not everyone else has gone as in depth in the same topics, even industry professionals.
Let’s face it, many people still think of sustainability as a topic that stands on its own, when it is really a lens through which you see the world.
So, don’t assume that if you bring up something like the Andersonville Study in a conversation about why buying local is important that the person you are talking to has a clue to what you just referred. Ask if they have heard about terms, studies, and topics that you otherwise might take for granted that they know. It will help you to educate yourself as well as others and that is what we need to have happen in order to build the breadth and depth of our information.
What a great opportunity we have in our everyday lives to educate others about ‘going green.’ Teachable moments are often given to us several times per day.
I think that sometimes they pass not because we have not taken the opportunity, but because we do not know that there is an opportunity there.
In the words of Joni Mitchell…
“Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got
Till its gone”
Let’s not make that mistake. Let’s work to have discussions with those around us. You can educate without pontificating (instructions to follow.)
I know that I feel totally immersed in the green movement and sometimes when someone asks me ‘what’s new?’ I feel overwhelmed and don’t know where to begin. This also happens when asked ‘what can I do?’ There is just so much and so many way to answer that. I think that the main difficulty is because it is hard from an open statement like that to judge a person’s level of knowledge and understanding.
My suggestion is instead of waiting to be asked, begin a conversation and listen – really listen – to where a persons interests lie. Ask them questions. Eventually you will find the intersection of your knowledge and their interests and will have a natural opportunity for discussion that is not forced.
Someone I know was recently sitting on a bus in the Pioneer Valley and two college-aged women were nearby. One of the women pulled out a carrot and started to eat it.
“Where’d you get that old fashioned carrot?” the other girl asked.
That comment shows us the disconnect that many people have to the food that they eat and where it comes from. It also tell me that education is important so that people know what vegetables look like out of the ground and before they are processed.
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