Jim Belshaw (no relation that we've figured so far) has been so kind as to post some links to help me with my Ed.D. thesis over at his blog. His aim is to bridge the education/training divide (he is a 'strategic consultant' for business looking to improve their performance):

1. Learning Circuits Blog. This e-learning blog sponsored by the American Society for Training and Development provides a useful entry point.

2. eLearning Technology. Tony Karrer's blog provides a very useful intro to a variety of issues in the on-line training environment.

3. Stephen's Web. Stephen Downes' site contains a range of useful material.

4. Jay Cross has two main blogs - Informal Learning and the Internet Time blog.

5. I find Dave Lee's eelearning because he often comes at issues from a different direction.

6. Brent Schlenker's corporate e-learning often provides insights especially on technical issues associated with e-learning.

7. Dennis McDonald's blog on Managing & Living with Technology remains a valuable source of information on developments in the on-line environment.

Thanks Jim! :-) 

I'm thinking expanding the scope of my thesis (probably at a time when I should be thinking of focusing a bit more, but never mind). Instead of perpetuating the dividing walls between schools, universities and businesses, perhaps I could look at broader themes and trends and then bring them down to a practical level for each. Kind of what George Siemens has done with Knowing Knowledge - although there's no way I could write anything as magnificent!

Stephen Downes links today in his OLDaily newsletter to an article by Dave Snowden entitled Natural Numbers, Networks & Communitiies. Dave realizes that attempts to create a taxonomy for knowledge management followed by forcing people to adapt to it does not work. Instead, he advocates embracing the messiness of learning and development through informal communities.

He goes on to talk about natural numbers and the amount of people who should be involved at each stage which isn't relevant to what I'm doing. What is relevant, however, is his identification of a 'messy learning' approach to knowledge management and the ways in which this can be harnessed in a positive way. If only schools were that responsive... 

Although it seems to have no posts after March 2006, the PSD Pink Study blog seems to be worth investigating, if only for the links it provides to various places where work surrounding that of Dan Pink, author of A Whole New Mind, can be found.

Some links to follow up:

• Dan Pink's blog
  
• 68-minute webcast about 'six essential aptitudes' needed for the future
• A rather handy Freemind-powered mindmap of A Whole New Mind's essential concepts (also this one)
  
• Glenn E. Malone has put together some del.icio.us links for the 'six senses of the conceptual age'
• A radio interview with Dan Pink entitled The Dawning Age of the Right Brain
• The Eide Neurolearning Blog (which I've come across before) looks at the needs of learners in the 21st century from a brain perspective.

George Siemens' blog pointed me towards Knowledge Jolt with Jack, a blog about, "knowledge management, personal effectiveness, theory of constraints and more."

Reminder to self: must find out the blogs to which George Siemens subscribes - will probably be useful for thesis. :-)

I've just heard back from my Ed.D. supervisor regarding my expanded thesis proposal outline. Unfortunately, as I suppose I was expecting, it's not focused enough. Now I've got to try and write another one before the end of the month! The problem is that I'm used to the broader (and shallower) practice of blogging, rather than the depth required for a thesis.

So at the moment I'm thinking that my new focus will be something along the lines of:

Does the nature and practice of schooling need to be modified to reflect the changing nature of knowledge in the 21st century?

(obviously this needs to be refined and focused as well, but it's a start...) 

I've just come across a new 'community' that has been set up at OpenThinking.ca. What is Open Thinking?

Open thinking is the tendency of an individual, group or institution to give preference to the adoption of open technologies or formats in regards to software, publishing, content and practice. Open thinkers critique, question and seek to reject technologies or formats that compromise the power of adopters, especially in the freedom to use, reuse, edit and share creative works and tools. Open thinkers value group-based problem solving and give preference to tools that enable social collaboration and sharing. Open thinkers actively strive to replace adopted technologies and formats with open alternatives. Open thinkers advocate for the adoption of open technologies and practice.

This might be useful for contrasting the approaches of different types of teachers and comparing their motivations.

From this site, I stumbled upon Alec Couros' blog where he posted last month that he's successfully defended his PhD thesis on The Open Movement: Possibilities and Implications for Education. Again, this could be useful for looking at the motivations and approaches of educators. :-)

George Siemens' book Knowing Knowledge is an excellent work and is available freely online at knowingknowledge.com. The bibliography especially is likely to help me with my thesis. Here's references from the book with links and references to holdings at Durham University Library, where appropriate:

• Benkler, Y. (2006) The wealth of networks (not available @ Durham)
  
• Bloor, D. (1983) Wittgenstein: A social theory of knowledge (Main, L1, 192 WIT/BLO)
• Boghossian, P. (2006) Fear of knowledge (not available @ Durham)
• Bryan, L.L. & Joyce, C. (2005) The 21st Century Organization (subscription needed to access, unless available elsewhere)
  
• Downes, S. (2005) Connective knowledge
• Downes, S. (2004) New Directions in Learning (PPT)
  
• Driscoll, M. (2000) Psychology of Learning for Instruction (not available @ Durham)
  
• Gates, B. (2005) What’s wrong with U.S. high schools—and how we
  can make them better
• Hagel, J.(2004, November 1) Return on attention and infomediaries
  
• Knight, P.T. (1997) The half-life of knowledge and structural reform of the education sector for the global knowledge-based economy
  
• Locke, C., Levin, R., Searls, D. & Weinberger, D. (2001) The Cluetrain Manifesto (Main, L3, 658.872 CLU)
  
• McLuhan, M., Fiore, Q. & Agel, J. (1967) The Medium is the Massage: an inventory of effects (not available @ Durham)
• Morris, D.M., Mason, J., Robson, R., Lefrier, P. & Collier, G. (2003) A revolution in knowledge sharing (PDF)
  
• Oblinger, D. & Oblinger, J. (eds.) (2005) Is it age or IT: First steps toward understanding the net generation
• Pink, D. (2005) A whole new mind: moving from information age to conceptual age (not available @ Durham)
• Polanyi, M. (1958) Personal Knowledge: towards a post-critical philosophy (Main, L1, 121 POL)
  
• Postman, N. (1995) The end of education (not available @ Durham)
  
• Restak, R. (2003) The New Brain (not available @ Durham)
• Sahasrabuddhe, H.V. (no date) Half-life of knowledge (PPT)
• Siemens, G. (2003) Learning ecologies, communities, and networks
  
• Siemens, G. (2006, June) Networks: Revisiting Objective/Subjective
• Surowieki, J. (2004) The Wisdom of Crowds (Main, L4, 301.1554 SUR; Business AEF/LXMF Sur)
  
• Weinberger, D. (2005, June 27) The New Shape of Knowledge
  
• Wilson, L.O. (1997) New View of Learning: Types of Learning
  

Weak Lensing @ Flickr

I came across a word that I didn't know today in Johann Muller's Reclaiming Knowledge - Systematicity. It's not in the dictionary, so I turned to Google's define: function and...

Systematicity: this term refers to the quality of entailment carryover defined in the previous item: the logic of the source domain carries over to the target. It referss to the application of a system of logical relationships (part-whole, cause-effect, sequence of events, good-bad, etc.) from the source domain in the target domain. If TIME IS A LIMITED RESOURCE, then, since limited resources can run out, time can "run out". If a limited resource can be saved, then time can "be saved". If a state is conceived of as a location, then moving into or out of the location will be interpreted as experiencing the state or ceasing to experience the state ("falling in and out of love", for example).

This comes from a page entitled Terms and concepts for metaphorical and metonymic analysis on the website of the English Dept. at California Polytechnic State University

Cielo e catane @ Flickr

I've been reading an excellent book today, Reclaiming Knowledge by Johann Muller (London, 2000). The following is a list of references I could follow up (information in brackets = availabilty at University of Durham library)

• Archer, M., (1979) The Social Origin of Educational Systems (not avaialable @ Durham)
• Ball, S.J. (1994) Education Reform: a critical and post-structural approach (Education, 379.41 BAL)
  
• Berger, P. & Luckmann, T. (1971) The Social Construction of Reality: a treatise in the sociology of knowledge (Education, 301.31 BER)
• Bernstein, B. (1990) The Structuring of Pedagogic Discourse (Education, 306.44 BER)
• Castells, M. (1993) End of Mlllennium (Main, L4, 909.82 CAS)
  
• Dale, M. (ed.) (1976) Schooling and Capitalism: a sociological reader (Main, L4, +370.193 OPE)
• Gibbons, M., et al. (1994) The New Production of Knowledge (not available @ Durham)
  
• Law, J. (ed.) (1986) Power, Action and Belief: a new sociology of knowledge? (Main, L4, 053 SOC(32)
• Rorty, R. (1989) Contingency, Irony and Solidarity (Main, L1, 100 ROR)
• Stehr, N. (1994) Knowledge Societies (Main, L4, 301.152 STE)
  
• Taylor, N. (ed.) (1993) Inventing Knowledge: contests in curriculum construction (not available @ Durham)
• Usher, R. & Edwards, R. (1994) Postmodernism and Education (Education, 370.1 USH)
• Worsley, P. (1997) Knowledges: what different peoples make of the world (Main, L3, 306.42 WOR)
  
• Young, M.D.F. (1998) The Curriculum of the Future: from the 'new sociology of education' to a critical theory of learning (Education, 375.001 YOU)
• Young, M. (1999) Knowledge, Learning and the Curriculum of the Future? (British Educational Research Journal, 25:4)

I also found:

• OECD (1994) The Curriculum Redefined: schooling for the 21st century (Education, 375.006 CUR)
  

melting pot @ Flickr

Today I'm reading Schools and the Changing World: struggling toward the future by Levin and Riffel. The following are references from the book to follow up and the information in brackets is holdings at the library of the University of Durham:

• Beare, H. & Boyd, W.L. (eds.) (1993) Restructuring Schools (Education, 371.207 RES)
• Elmore, R. (1992) 'Why restructuring alone won't improve teaching', Educational Leadership, 49, 7, pp.44-8
  
• Eraut, M. (1991) Education and the Information Society (Education , 370.285 EDU)
  
• Hargreaves, A. (1994) Changing Teachers, Changing Times (Education, 371.1 HAR)
  
• Nickerson, R. & Zodhiates, P. (eds.) (1988) Technology in Education: Looking Towards 2020 (not available @ Durham)
• Rudduck, J., Chaplain, R. & Wallace, G. (eds.) (1996) School Improvement: What Can Pupils Tell Us? (Education, 371.207 SCH)
  

. a c i d @ Flickr

There's a post over a EdVentures in Technology that links to some articles relevant to a graduate course being taught this year. Quite a few of them may be relevant for my thesis (if only for context...)

The course wiki that puts all this together is at: http://edventures.pbwiki.com/ 

I've been reading Breaking Down the Digitial Walls: learning to teach in a post-modem world by Burniske & Monke. Here are some references to follow up (holdings at Durham University Library in brackets):

• Apple, M. (1990) Ideology and Curriculum (Education, 306.43 APP)
  
• Birkerts, S. (1994) The Gutenberg Elegies: the fate of reading in an electronic age (not available @ Durham)
• Bowers, C.A. (1988) The Cultural Dimensions of Educational Computing: understanding the non-neutrality of technology (not available @ Durham)
• Hutchins, E. (1996) Cognition in the Wild (Main, SLC, 153 HUT)
• Ihde, D. (1990) Technology and the Life World (not available @ Durham)
• McLuhan, M. & Powers, B. (1989) The Global Village: transformations in world life and media in the 21st century (not available @ Durham)

I've just come across this article which I think probably deserves a closer look:

P.T. Knight  (1997) The Half-Life of Knowledge and Structural Reform of the Education Sector for the Global Knowledge-Based Economy

After my last attempt wasn't specific or focused enough, I've completely re-written it. If you're interested, have a look here:

http://docs.google.com/View?docid=ajdmqgcb7rbb_13g2bx4s&re