Understanding by Design
Ben,
Just wanted to say thanks for your post about Grant Wiggins work re: Understanding by Design. Interestingly, Mr. Wiggins lives not far from me in New Jersey, USA -- but sad to say that most of his offerings are incredibly expensive :( I love the title "Understanding by Design." My library had the older version -- I just checked it out.
I've felt for a long time that education needs to move in a different direction (more accessible, personalized/customized, inherently rewarding for each individual learner -- I agree it's all about the long tail!) and am so excited to find here in wikieducator so many like-minded folks trying to make this happen.
Have you read the book Disrupting Classrooms: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns by Clayton Christensen, et. al? I wrote a quick piece on my occasional blog Savor the Differences about Christensen's theory. It seems to me that wikieducator is facilitating the innovation and disruption that Christensen is talking about. Thought you might be interested.
Your Wikifriend, Alison
Hello Alison,
Let me know what you think about the UbD book. I feel that UbD concepts have a strong place in language learning but have come across others that don´t necessarily share my enthusiasm. I'd be interested to know your opinion.
I´ll check out Christensen's book...it looks very applicable in explaining the WE phenomenon.
Your Wikiamigo, Benjamin
