TechneBlog

Four Themes in New Education and Ivan Illich Was Right

2012-11-16T13:34:00.001-06:00

Universal education through schooling is not feasible. It would be no more feasible if it were attempted by means of alternative institutions built on the style of present schools. Neither new attitudes of teachers toward their pupils nor the proliferation of educational hardware or software (in classroom or bedroom), nor finally the attempt to expand the pedagogue's responsibility until it engulfs his pupils' lifetimes will deliver universal education. The current search for new educational funnels must be reversed into the search for their institutional inverse: educational webs which heighten the opportunity for each one to transform each moment of his living into one of learning, sharing, and caring. We hope to contribute concepts needed by those who conduct such counterfoil research on education--and also to those who seek alternatives to other established service industries.—Ivan Illich, Deschooling Society, 1971

NEA - a venture capital firm (New Enterprise Associates and not the National Education Association) just released a short analysis of key trends in education written by Joe Sakoda, a partner of the firm.

US K-12 students consistently lag behind their peers internationally. There is a debt of $1 trillion carried by higher ed graduates in the US. Networks and falling delivery costs for devices (pads and tablets) coupled with rising expectations for education worldwide have shifted the market for education.

The NEA paper suggests a significant market opportunity and new (or emphasized) mandates for brick and mortar institutions. Four key trends identified are:

Disappearing classroom walls via networked and mobile media move education delivery from a broadcast to an interactive model.
Democratizing Educational Content high quality educational elements from organizations like Khan Academy http://www.khanacademy.org/ and others.
Learning from Big Data Analytics gives schools an ability to see "what's really going on" using the tools of Internet commerce. "Using platforms such as Desire2Learn, administrators can aggregate learning analytics at the school district, state, or even national level, enabling best practices and insights to be shared among stakeholders. The State of Tennessee recently demonstrated the power of Desire2Learn’s statewide predictive analytics, lowering their annual dropout rate by 25% across 45 university campuses by looking at historical student data and identifying opportunities for faculty and administrators to intervene. "
Transforming Local Campuses to Global Institutions "Chinese citizens spend 3.5 times more of their disposable income on education than Americans on a percentage basis. The U.S., particularly in higher education, is home to the most respected learning institutions on the planet, and the emerging markets have seemingly insatiable demand to access it. More than one million students have registered for free for online classes through Coursera, which partners with more than 30 leading institutions like Stanford, Penn, and Michigan." The vast majority of these students are from outside the US.

Worth consideration. Read the full article: A Crisis in Education is a Terrible Thing to Waste

Note: Ivan Illich developed very similar principles back in the 1960s and 70s. Mike Glodo (the writer here) had this take back in 2007, Thank You Ivan Illich , and an earlier piece Convivial Systems: Broadband, Ivan Illich, and Architecture from 2005. In my opinion, if you are not aware of Ivan Illich's work, especially Deschooling Society you're not hip education-wise.

Will Allen Growing Power Aquaponics and Greenhouse

2011-10-01T18:33:00.000-05:00

Great for local food, local jobs, and encouraging innovation. Originally posted by GreenLearning on YouTube as "1 MILLION pounds of Food on 3 acres. 10,000 fish 500 yards compost."

A Few Days of TechneBlog Redesign

2011-08-25T19:12:00.000-05:00

So if the colors look insane... there is a reason!

Selected Economic Gardening Links for Canada

2011-07-20T12:06:00.000-05:00

Economic Gardening Canada
www.economicgardening.ca/ - Cached
What is Economic Gardening? Economic Gardening refers to community economic ...These key statistics far outpaced those of any other center in the USA, ...
►
Economic Gardening Canada resources
www.economicgardening.ca/resources.htm - Cached
Private and Free for Canadian Tax Professionals. Littleton Colorado Where ...
Show more results from economicgardening.ca
Supporting Economic Gardening through GIS - Spatial Roundtable
www.spatialroundtable.com/post.cfm?entry...economic-gardening... - Cached
Hopefully as more Canadian communities embrace Economic Gardening and the use of GIS, the data will improve. The usability of the US BA online application ...
'Economic gardening' helps B.C. SMBs revive economy
www.itbusiness.ca/it/client/en/home/News.asp?id=62635 - Cached
May 26, 2011 – IT Business.ca Mobile IT Business Canada blogs. IT Business ... is helping them by providing free market data research using mapping technology. ... Through theEconomic Gardening initiative of the government funded ...
Community Futures - Economic Gardening Home
www.cfokanagan.com/page.asp?PageID=109 - Cached
Economic Gardening Home. Community Futures wins the ESRI Canada. "Innovation in the Field of Geographic Information Systems 2011" Award ...
ESRI Canada - News Releases
www.esricanada.com › Home › Company › News - Cached
May 12, 2011 – ESRI Canada - Map your way to decisions that matter ... With their effectiveeconomic gardening system, they are helping numerous ... The solution combines GIS and extensive geodemographic data for efficient site ...
[PDF]
Economic Gardening Second Meeting of the Steering Committee To be...
www.economicgardeningcanada.com/assets/april%2019th%20agenda.pdf
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - Quick View
Apr 19, 2011 – Economic Gardening. Second Meeting of the Steering Committee ...business in Canada and the US. It included sales data, employee numbers, ...

Selected Economic Gardening Links

2011-07-20T12:04:00.000-05:00

Just a quick scan of Economic Gardening. The city of Litteton, CO, still comes up at the top of the search.

Economic Gardening
www.littletongov.org/bia/economicgardening/ - Cached
Jun 2, 2006 – PDF file. GLYI Blueprint Program Data and Outcomes (148k) ... PDF file. Free and Low-Cost Resources for Economic Gardening (120k) ...
Econ-Dev Mail List - Research Databases - Other Resources - The Staff
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Economic Gardening
growinglocaleconomies.com/economic_gardening - Cached
This ICMA report describes the key elements of an economic gardening program, provides overall implementation considerations, examines the features of ...
Economic Gardening - Metro Orlando Economic Development Commission...
www.orlandoedc.com/articles/economic-gardening.shtml - Cached
When it comes to the benefits of Economic Gardening, Florida economic development executives considered the statistics. Companies that were in the ...
Center for Economic Vitality: Economic Gardening in Washington state
www.cevforbusiness.com/Economic-Gardening/FAQs/37.aspx - Cached
FAQs about economic gardening at the Center for Economic Vitality. ... the counseling and assistance you provide with secondary market research and data. ...
Florida Economic Gardening Institute / GrowFL - Statistics - LinkedIn
www.linkedin.com/company/...economic-gardening.../statistics - Cached
View key statistics about University of Central Florida - Florida Economic Gardening Institute / GrowFL, including where University of Central Florida ...
Economic Gardening and Propelling a New Economic Direction for ...
www.crainsdetroit.com/.../c?...uid...statistics... - Cached
Mar 10, 2011 – Posts tagged as statistics. Entrepreneurship Score Card Hints at Economic Recovery ... Economic gardening and the governor's tax/budget plan ...

Browncoats: Redemption | A Firefly Fan Film for Charity

2011-02-15T14:34:00.000-06:00

Browncoats: Redemption Final Trailer from browncoatsmovie on Vimeo.

I thought this was unbelievably clever and good.

All money goes in equal shares to five charities (more):

Equality Now
Kids Need To Read
The Dyslexia Foundation
The Al Wooten Jr. Heritage Center and
Marine Corps Law Enforcement Foundation

Background interview with the creator, Mike Dougherty at http://scifimafia.com/2010/01/exclusive-interview-with-the-creator-of-browncoats-redemption/

What's cool about this is that they cleared everything up with Joss Whedon and Universal to get their blessings prior to going *too* far ahead with this. Very clean approach for doing social good through art. And thank you Mr. Whedon and Universal for seeing the good of this.

More background at http://browncoatsmovie.com/

Steep Canyon Rangers Free Track from "Rare Bird Alert"

2011-01-24T09:39:00.000-06:00

I love the Steep Canyon Rangers. Got a piece of email from them with a free download from their new album "Rare Bird Alert" with Steve Martin.

Wrong Rare Bird Alert? Try http://www.birder.com/birding/alert/

Blockhead and Eggbuster - Small Ubiquitous Gizmos and Content

2010-09-23T17:47:00.000-05:00

It all gets small and ubiquitous.

1960 console stereo 1970-1990 Component system big knobs 1990s Smaller Bookshelf speakers and so on. Then an iPod.

IBM PC, Compaq Luggable, Laptops, Netbooks, iPads

Deconstruction of publishing. It's a LuLu

Writing, editing, publishing, and delivery of physical or electronic product already happen across a network of individuals and organizations. With publishing on demand or with electronic delivery, writers get closer to readers and disintermediation takes out the monolith. Editors won't "go away".

They'll form a needed guild.

Writers, for that matter, could peer review other writers to drive up the quality. Readers can themselves have a sample of writing and with software like Netflix, the electronic "book" can have recommendations ("You might also like...") based upon your tastes and the tastes of other readers.The iPad and Kindle represent "first pancakes" that are tasty, prove the market and will be improved by the market by Apple, Amazon, and others. Even in these early days, Amazon sold the heck out of Kindles and ebooks this season. Wait till somebody goes Gillette on the "readers", or when the thin screens drop to < $100.

Publishing stalled on console stereo.
Remember Egghead Software Stores? On demand publishing quality keeps getting better, and in five years we'll remember the good old days of that enormous iPad or Kindle and have a few thin "electronic sheets" laying around the house. Xerox PARC looked at "pads" back in the late 80s. Mark Weiser, Scientific American, covered this in 1991. Maybe RedBox adds a printer to their kiosks if you want hard copy.

With the Internet, the inventory can be infinite and benefit from the Long Tail effect. A big publisher will veer away from "Morris Dancing: A Life" but there are enough Morris Dancers to support that kind of niche, and the "book" inventory costs next to nothing. Those shoes though...

Excellent ePub observations from Joe Shuren on DRM etc. and various impediments to Next Big Things.

Quick note on "80 Essential Blogs for the Modern-Day Marketing Student | Online Colleges"

2010-08-05T18:05:00.000-05:00

80 Essential Blogs for the Modern-Day Marketing Student | Online Colleges

Ok. 80? Let's say 20 of these are high value, and it's chunked into B2B, General, etc.categories.

Talk amongst yourselves.

Guy Kawasaki #win, but no Seth Godin.... de gustibus.

Been a tad busy driving forward with my friend Tommy Sower's campaign for Congress. The hubris of the failing insurance lobbyist Incumbent is ineffective, but amuses my 83 year old mother. Me? I take the high ground. As Tommy says, "Home is worth fighting for".

But, back to marketing and online social media. Which the Sowers campaign groks most excellently.

Above is an example of asocial media. Christabel chewing on Dumplin on top of Good Dog Red.

A return to the land, and fresh food, in the backyards of the Delta | Grist

2010-06-16T11:35:00.002-05:00

A return to the land, and fresh food, in the backyards of the Delta | Grist

Great simple framework, mostly low tech and high impact.

Meanwhile, in North Carolina, Cabarrus County forms up a Food Council http://www.cabarruscounty.us/News/2010/May/May28_FoodCouncil.html

Lots of good models showing up with solid effect. Let's get through the secondary research before we all go grant crazy for primary research. Google, not grants!

Another addition: http://www.ethicurean.com/2010/06/10/usda-looks-at-local/ For USDA discussion of "what is local food"

Shout out to http://www.localdirt.com/ for excellent newsflow @localdirt

Via Local Dirt: Rooftop gardens from around the world - Garden Plants and Gardening Forum - The Grow Spot

2010-06-08T15:16:00.001-05:00

Rooftop gardens from around the world - Garden Plants and Gardening Forum - The Grow Spot

Beautiful photos and many examples - via http://www.localdirt.com/

Reporting from Sankalp 2010 | Blog | NextBillion.net | Development through Enterprise

2010-05-10T12:29:00.001-05:00

Reporting from Sankalp 2010 | Blog | NextBillion.net | Development through Enterprise: "In sum, panelists concluded that the role of government is to create an enabling legal, regulatory, and policy environments, which include the removal of market distortions stemming from preferential government policies or excessive regulations."

Beyond PowerPoint: Prezi

2010-04-30T11:33:00.001-05:00

Imagine my amusement when I see my old company "PA Consulting" at the bottom of the amazingly complicated slide.

De-Spaghettization of a PPT slide on Prezi

OSLOOM Open Source Manufacture of a Jacquard Loom

2010-04-30T11:16:00.000-05:00

Looking forward to some projects like this for food processing systems, but this is a great example of what's going to be common in ten years. Dream then build.

Cellphone Payments Offer Alternative to Cash - NYTimes.com

2010-04-30T10:16:00.000-05:00

Cellphone Payments Offer Alternative to Cash - NYTimes.com

Good overview of mobile payment systems; would be great for Farmers Markets. I believe, though, that the Federal "food stamp" program requires a hard wired terminal or a token system.

My friend Tommy Sowers on the Road in Missouri

2010-04-19T14:07:00.000-05:00

cias.wisc.edu on Distribution Models of Local Food and Maps

2010-04-05T20:56:00.000-05:00

Once again, Wisconsin's Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems rocks! I can't believe I missed this the first time around.

Lovely open source map of food distribution systems, and model descriptions. And supporting reports at

Distribution Models for Local Food

View National Distribution Models in a larger map

Additional reports at "CIAS and the UW-Extension Ag Innovation Center have written a report featuring case studies of some of these distribution models: “Scaling Up: Meeting the Demand for Local Food.”

On Job Creation—Local Fruits and Vegetables vs. Corn and Soybeans | CommonDreams.org

2010-04-05T18:11:00.003-05:00

On Job Creation—Local Fruits and Vegetables vs. Corn and Soybeans | CommonDreams.org

Informative writing on regional economics (upper midwest) and the driving potential of local production.

From CommonDreams.org's blog:

Some key findings on the economic impacts on the region as a whole:

Increased fruit and vegetable production in the six states could mean $882 million in sales at the farm level, and more than 9,300 jobs. Corn and soybean production on that same acreage would support only 2,578 jobs.

If half of the increased production was sold in farmer-owned stores, it would require 1,405 such stores staffed by 9,652 people.

The full study new study by the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University.

This is consistent with findings in numerous local food studies: economic, profitable, sustainable, and not requiring extensive subsidy beyond instantiation of infrastructures (say, processing facilities).

See also Grower To Grower from cais.wisc.edu for some of the dynamics of smaller scale farms. Big bucks from small acres. University of Illinois Extension circa 2002 found a lot of "takers" for small scale farming; some of it purpose-driven, funding college, a new boat, or to pay down a mortgage, etc. I don't have a link at hand for that one.

Photograph: Mike Glodo, Small Jonathan and Stayman Apples from Southern Illinois

Once Upon a Honeymoon

2010-04-04T23:00:00.002-05:00

Internet Archive: Free Download: Once Upon a Honeymoon

Color Telephones! Better than deploying rural broadband... Awesome!

Found this while doing real research. Likely more invested here by incumbent telcos than on real rural infrastructure.

The Brass Figlagee: Gene Shepherd on iTunes

2010-04-04T22:19:00.001-05:00

The Brass Figlagee

Wonderful set of his work. Woot @BrassFigalagee

Official Google Blog: Model Your Town Competition: Cast your vote!

2010-04-02T14:20:00.001-05:00

Official Google Blog: Model Your Town Competition: Cast your vote!

Tools for thought. More mashup potential.

"Local and Regional Foods in Community and Economic Development" from Cornell et.al.

2010-04-02T12:05:00.002-05:00

Well crafted presentation. Concise tutorial.

Cornell Presentation

View more presentations from Ed Morrison.

Kudos to the authors, Rod Howe, Katherine Lang, Bernadette Logozar, Heidi Mouillesseaux-Kunzman, and Duncan Hilchey

My friend Dayna Conner at Food Works here in deep Southern Illinois pointed me to an upcoming webinar on Local and Regional Food Systems by Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development (NERCRD) that led me to that presentation. Her organization's blog is here.

Discussion and Reception w/ Paul Polak on Poverty | NYU Stern School of Business

2010-04-01T11:27:00.001-05:00

A Discussion and Reception w/ Paul Polak on Poverty | NYU Stern School of Business

Thoughtful, pragmatic, effective views on successful design for the world. Market driven = sustainable.

More about Paul Polak's work at http://www.paulpolak.com/

The NYT highlights a key food-system gap: infrastucture | Grist

2010-03-31T19:05:00.000-05:00

The NYT highlights a key food-system gap: infrastucture | Grist

Here in Southern Illinois, this is a biggie. Good writing.

One problem here - we need milli, not mega. Fish processing facility way overbuilt, resultant low utilization.

Guy Kawasaki writes about "good problems" = high demand for customer service because you sold more than expected.

Compare to "bad problems" = low utilization in early market.

Kudos @grist

Small Scale Fresh Food Prototyping With Rusty Bookcase + Ladybug

2010-03-31T13:38:00.000-05:00

Good Bugs and Good Eats

But fresh, even small scale, makes the winter days brighter.

Got started late this year and have only anemic prototypes of growing tomatoes, but have achieved proof of principle.

I use a rusted out metal bookcase in a south window. That works too. It's been a safe house for the many ladybugs that pop out during the warmer days here. They've been munching some kind of pests on the plants and it seems a fair deal. (Introducing exotic species generally a very poor idea. Finally starting to see native lady bugs again).

So the bookshelf's not really a bona fide prototype, but I bought a bunch of end of season seed geraniums for a dime on the dollar which faded, then came back and made me smile throughout the winter.

Even had success with some cherry tomatoes that I started in September. They're horribly abused but I have a few green ones now. Brandywines started at same time about a foot high, and wintered over not much the worse for wear. Nice early start for spring (if something doesn't eat 'em when transplanted from the pots).

Urban food, local food, good eats. We'll get there.

More urban farming at Will Allen's www.growingpower.org/

TechneBlog

Four Themes in New Education and Ivan Illich Was Right

Will Allen Growing Power Aquaponics and Greenhouse

A Few Days of TechneBlog Redesign

Selected Economic Gardening Links for Canada

Economic Gardening Canada

Economic Gardening Canada resources

Supporting Economic Gardening through GIS - Spatial Roundtable

'Economic gardening' helps B.C. SMBs revive economy

Community Futures - Economic Gardening Home

ESRI Canada - News Releases

Economic Gardening Second Meeting of the Steering Committee To be...

Selected Economic Gardening Links

Economic Gardening

Economic Gardening

Economic Gardening - Metro Orlando Economic Development Commission...

Center for Economic Vitality: Economic Gardening in Washington state

Florida Economic Gardening Institute / GrowFL - Statistics - LinkedIn

Economic Gardening and Propelling a New Economic Direction for ...

Browncoats: Redemption | A Firefly Fan Film for Charity

Steep Canyon Rangers Free Track from "Rare Bird Alert"

Blockhead and Eggbuster - Small Ubiquitous Gizmos and Content

Quick note on "80 Essential Blogs for the Modern-Day Marketing Student | Online Colleges"

A return to the land, and fresh food, in the backyards of the Delta | Grist

Via Local Dirt: Rooftop gardens from around the world - Garden Plants and Gardening Forum - The Grow Spot

Reporting from Sankalp 2010 | Blog | NextBillion.net | Development through Enterprise

Beyond PowerPoint: Prezi

OSLOOM Open Source Manufacture of a Jacquard Loom

Cellphone Payments Offer Alternative to Cash - NYTimes.com

My friend Tommy Sowers on the Road in Missouri

cias.wisc.edu on Distribution Models of Local Food and Maps

Distribution Models for Local Food

On Job Creation—Local Fruits and Vegetables vs. Corn and Soybeans | CommonDreams.org

Once Upon a Honeymoon

The Brass Figlagee: Gene Shepherd on iTunes

Official Google Blog: Model Your Town Competition: Cast your vote!

"Local and Regional Foods in Community and Economic Development" from Cornell et.al.

Discussion and Reception w/ Paul Polak on Poverty | NYU Stern School of Business

The NYT highlights a key food-system gap: infrastucture | Grist

Small Scale Fresh Food Prototyping With Rusty Bookcase + Ladybug