linarmstrong’s posterous

Teaching and learning is for me mainly a matter of power. The teacher (or in the past a priest ) decides what the reading is to be and who should learn what. When this power changes the learning theory will change and a new theory will be needed.

 The institution is driven by learning outcomes set down by the awarding bodies. In England the need for particular knowledge for particular jobs is set by government bodies who hope to compete across the world by creating people to fill the job market.
Some times the jobs are very defined and the body of knowledge is very clear but often the young students will take part in education without any idea about the future job market. They learn stuff they never use.

 The creation of knowledge for jobs that are not yet known or standardised was difficult so learning how to learn is important

 .This means we have to build people who have a range of powers and skills.Transferable skills ,key skills or basic skills all cover writing and reading and often working with people . In England there is no skill base built at school for using technology or finding reliable information from other nodes..this is a new skill. Foraging for worthwhile materials to create knowledge.Using software to contribute in unique ways to a distributed curriculum.

 So activities ,knowledge and skills change as does the reason to educate people.People can apply for jobs across the word and present educational certificates from their own country thus breaking down the standard qualifications expected for the job.
 Is education for the economy or for the individual.? The individual suddenly becomes the customer.Is it like patient held records an individual collection relevant to that person? The power is changing in that individuals can shop around for their degree
.In such a changing world at the moment the individual's curriculum always leads to rigid assessment of education. The learning is usually transmitted to ensure the individual passes.The teaching and learning can never be individual because there will there always be an academic rigour of the right texts and references to be used in the right part of the written assignment. The power remains with the teacher. But when the word spreads this could be viewed in a different way. Creating some research ,experiments and designs can create empirical knowledge that will be shared faster than ever. The world is changing fast and knowledge is changing faster.All can access most materials on line for them selves.All can publish and put their voice out to the crowds.Connectivism, community learning,distributed and collaborative learning all have their theory but all see the knowledge being within the individuals' head.Knowledge can reside in networks.

 I would argue there is a need for a new learning theory or way to view teaching. There also needs to be a new theory of learning and a new way of distributing curriculums news from all sortsof disciplines and other interesting materials. so new structure of knowledge and sharing and connecting is needed as it happens...All this "new " needs a new theory with new vocabulary."Connetivism" seems to do this nicely.