[iDC] Deinstitutionalizing education

[naxsmash]

Davin writes

On Oct 25, 2010, at 6:36 AM, davin heckman wrote:

>  Locally, the closest you get to this is
> in the fairly large network of homeschoolers, most of whom are
> religious, but many of whom either start out or end up being quite
> capable of independent thinking.  The key difference here, is that
> parents have adopted a countercultural attitude....  which isn't
> always necessarily a positive one....  but which does effectively
> prove that how one is invested in the process of education determines
> its potential


I have noticed the same thing just this weekend when 9 thirty  
somethings hung out at our swamp studio for their 'thon' (marathon  
teachin/discussion) for 36 hours-- instant studio/ think tank.

- all were  homeschooled or 'alternatively' raised as kids.  They had  
spent a lot of time on their own in childhood in free reading and  
producing-- in a
'countercultural' space-- an autodidact principle that has very long  
term positive implications.


A studio / project based kind of learning.... founded on this studio  
model, is NUVU in Cambridge (Mass)...

"Students register for a specific studio such as “Balloon Mapping”,  
“Music and the City”, or “Future of Global Warming” of which there  
will be approximately 10 students, one Coach and an Assistant Coach.  
The Coach begins by providing a general overview of a problem to the  
students, an ambiguous real-world problem with potentially millions of  
answers. With the Coach’s help each student frames the problem from  
his/her perspective and enters into an iterative development process  
supported by the studio team of students and advisors.

Students are provided with access to outside resources – leading  
thinkers and experts – to whom they present their framework and  
receive feedback. Students document their process and progress,  
continually reviewing it with the Coach. They set parameters,  
synthesize, and continue refining, refining, refining. NuVu trains  
students to apply multiple perspectives to challenge and refine ideas  
over and over again until it becomes a natural way of learning."

http://nuvustudio.org/program/


christina