User talk:ASnieckus

Phil,

Thanks for pointing me to this page. Really fascinating. A number of ideas I'd never thought about. I'd always wondered if different people see individual colors differently, but never thought about the physics to realize that objects don't have color -- we interpret color. Wow.

You should put a sign up on this kinda stuff "Beware, some of the ideas below could blow your mind."

Thanks for sharing, Alison

P.S. I thought about editing the subject header, but there's something enjoyable about it. I'm leaving it as is.

• ASnieckus (Talk | contribs)
• 14:22, 20 September 2009
• View source
• History
• Permalink
• Reply

Robin,

You're welcome. Don't hesitate to ask if you have a question about particular wiki editing format. I did a lot of asking when I first started.

Thanks for the explanation of how your LMS will be used in your school. Seems like it's a real leap forward in helping students and teachers collaborate. I've thought about using a moodle site for some of the collaborative work that I do with teens, but haven't gotten much farther than making an account.

Were you able to embed your user page into the LMS? I'm very interested to try this, also. Like you, my hope is to find ways to effectively use the wiki OERs in a rich learning environment. A number of WE members work with their students right on WikiEducator. There will probably be many different methods, each suited to a different situation.

Cheers, Alison

• ASnieckus (Talk | contribs)
• 17:12, 25 June 2009
• View source
• History
• Permalink
• Reply

Gladys,

What a coincidence that you left this message today. I was thinking (in the shower) earlier this morning that I wanted to leave you a note saying how it was you that helped me find a place to be on Wikieducator and to be confident in those first few weeks about what I could contribute. And the best thanks I can offer is that I am "paying it forward" by offering friendship and guidance to other newcomers. For example, I've been encouraging Nedal, as you encouraged me. It's fun and I do learn a lot.

Did you see that Wayne posted (a few weeks ago now) about the possibility of a partnership with Connexions. I decided to stop work for a bit on statistics material because there is quite a bit of very good material in Connexions, and it'd be silly for me to copy and adapt when it might happen automatically. I figured I'd give it a few months and then check in to see how likely.

Gladys, you are doing such wonderful work here on wikieducator. I too am glad to have gotten to know you in those very first days. Thanks so much for your friendship.

Alison

• ASnieckus (Talk | contribs)
• 20:30, 16 April 2009
• View source
• History
• Permalink
• Reply

Well, this is a hard question. For me, it's a "lifestyle" choice. I have a vision for what "pursuing an education" should be like and when my boys attended primary school, our experience was not at all what I wanted, for me or them. Too much crying, frustration, and learning to "hate" certain subjects. If my younger son had to read all of the required books in school, I'm pretty sure he'd graduate "hating" reading. What a shame that is. I'm lucky to be in a situation where we have enough money to be comfortable without my having a "regular" job.

I cherish having the freedom to encourage my children's education as we see fit. We use a self-directed student-centric approach, where the learner decides what's important to him and then we work together to lay out and implement an educational plan. Some call this method "eclectic", meaning that we use lots of different styles and methods. Some homeschoolers replicate the school methods at home--timing, subjects, teaching methods... I don't see this as helpful for me. Others use a method called "unschooling" that works from the premise that people are learning all of the time, and that education comes from living a life (the author John Holt coined the term). I'm not sure if we're unschoolers or not. I'm not sure why homeschooling has grown, except to say that it offers a wonderful life and maybe more and more people can see that and choose it for themselves, if they can.

The potential of homeschooling is, IMHO, the implementation of self-directed, student-centric learning. I'm just finishing the book "Disrupting Class" by Clayton Christensen, Curtis W. Johnson, Michael B. Horn. Their premise is that over the next few years methods of educating children are going to move sharply toward computer-based courses and then to student-centric learning, based in online adaptive learning tools. I think wikieducator will be part of making this happen. The authors are likely talking only about the USA, but I think student-centric learning will become the dominant paradigm world-wide, hopefully in my lifetime.

I'm interested to see how countries that don't allow homeschooling will deal with this change. I wonder if entrenched schools will be capable of making the shift, and what will happen if they don't.

--Alison Snieckus 03:41, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

• ASnieckus (Talk | contribs)
• 03:41, 10 February 2009
• View source
• History
• Permalink
• Reply

Gladys, Thanks for the warm welcome. I added my name to the project contributors list. To start I think I'll tackle some of the statistical terms. I'm glad to be a part of the project. Alison

• ASnieckus (Talk | contribs)
• 20:51, 3 February 2009
• View source
• History
• Permalink
• Reply

Thanks for the welcome. (I'm just up to how to "talk" in the WE tutorials, so thought I'd try it out :-)

I wonder what the grayed-out (279) means after your title "Greetings!"....

• ASnieckus (Talk | contribs)
• 21:57, 31 January 2009
• View source
• History
• Permalink
• Reply