(1) The Israeli Association for Literacy Conference, Zzippi Margalit
(2) Conference Feedback: Insights
Gained from the Henry Ford Museum, Francois Moll
(3) Summary
of Dr. Danilo Sirias’s Presentation at the 5th Annual TOCFE
International Conference, Beatrice Kovacs
Editors’
Notes
(4) Kay
Buckner-Seal, Cheryl A. Edwards
(1) The Israeli Association for Literacy
Conference
From Zzippi
Margalit
While
reading all these feedback letters about the Detroit conference, I feel happy
and excited to hear about the success.
On the other end, you know, I’m also jealous because I still remember
the warm atmosphere and the enthusiasm at the Monterrey conference last
year. Good luck to everyone!
I’m also
happy to tell you that I was invited to share my ideas about TOC, in a very
special conference of the Israeli Association for Literacy. They were interested on the idea of using
news group/forums on the Internet in order to work cooperatively and from a
distance, on an ambitious target. And
this the way it works:
In the
subject field of the root message, you write the ambitious target. (e.g.
I safely lead the people of Israel from Egypt to the Promised Land.) You can, of course, add more information in
the body of the message. In the subject
fields of the responses to the root message, you write the obstacles. (e.g. the population includes children
and elderly people.) And in the
subject fields of the responses to the obstacles, you write the goal. (e.g. adjust the rhythm.)
As I
mentioned in the Monterrey conference and in other opportunities, the
advantages of this activity are:
• Teamwork
and knowledge pooling towards a shared creation, without the need of
appointments
• Flexibility in time; no
need to make a synchronous appointment
• Intuitive
thoughts are written with no pressure, no limits of time, and therefore are
deeper and more meaningful (Feenberg, 1991; Garrison, 1997).
• Ideas
are written on the screen, and therefore are permanent, visible, articulated
and explicit (Vygotsky 1978).
• Clear outline of the
procedure is created.
• Whole procedure is
written to a protocol and can be reviewed.
• Material
can be used in any computerized application for rewriting and summarizing.
Love to all
and may God be with all of us.
(2) Conference Feedback: Insights Gained
from the Henry Ford Museum
Francois
Moll, South Africa
Firstly,
thank you for the hospitality; we really felt very welcomed.
Thinking
about the conference, I had an interesting experience on my last day in
Detroit. We visited the Henry Ford
Museum and Greenfield Village (Well worth the visit!). The exhibition on Henry Ford as a person
focused on his life-long learning and what it means to be an innovator. Now read this in the light of the conference
and TOC in general (the words are verbatim from the exhibition).
About learning:
1. Never stop learning
2. Teach your children
well
3. Learn how you learn
best
4. Satisfy your curiosity
5. If something excites
you, follow it
6. Don't let doubts stop
you from trying
7. Master new skills one
at a time
8. Education is where you
find it
9. Innovation does not
watch the clock
10. What appears simple,
often isn't
11. Seek out your inspiration
12. Encouragement can
make a difference
About innovators:
1. Innovators educate
themselves
2. Innovators take risks
3. Innovators have great
expectations
4. Innovators lead,
follow or get out of the way
5. Innovators are open to
diverse opinions
6. If you don't do it
first, do it better
7. When the rules change,
innovators adapt
8. New circumstances can
change the rules
9. Innovators seek new
challenges
What are we
unleashing on the world!
(3) Summary of
Dr. Danilo Sirias’s Presentation at the 5th
Annual TOCFE International Conference
By Beatrice Kovacs
·
Many concepts are solutions.
·
If a concept is a solution to a problem and we
want students to invent the solution then we must first make them aware of the
problem.
·
The objective is to teach a content that is a
solution to a conflict.
·
The focus is on understanding the problem and
finding an assumption that invalidates the solution.
·
The Cloud can be used to teach concepts that are
solutions to a conflict.
·
The teacher decides the content to be taught and a
conflict resolved by the solution.
·
The teacher guides students towards finding the
conflict, finding a solution, and naming the concept. When guiding students to find the cloud there are two options:
1.
If the students have some experience with the
subject discuss the advantages and disadvantages.
2. If
students have no experience use case studies or stories.
·
The teacher introduces the model for the
cloud. The teacher leads the students through
the steps for creating a cloud.
1.
Determine an undesirable effect (UDEs) if the
solution did not exist. Make it as
specific as possible.
2. Write
the opposite of the specific UDEs. This
is the Cloud’s B.
3. Find
an action you can take to achieve B that is not as efficient as the solution
you are teaching. This becomes D.
4. Not
doing D becomes D’.
5. C
is the opposite of the UDEs caused by D
6. Find
Common Goal A
7. Refine
Cloud.
Danilo used the story
about a friend who lost a coin and wanted to direct a second friend to locate
the coin without directly showing the second friend the coin’s location.
(1) Specific UDE if the concept did not
exist: I can not find my friend’s coin
in the field next to my house
(2) Opposite of UDE: B-I find my friend’s coin
(3) Alternative solution: D-I randomly look for coin
(4) Not doing D: D’-I do not randomly look for the coin
(5) Opposite of UDE caused by D: C-Avoid wasting time
(6) Goal:
A-Make good use of my time
(7) Refine
cloud: In order to (A) feel good about
myself I must (B)find my friend’s coin.
In order to find my friend’s coin I must look for it randomly. On the other hand, in order to feel good
about myself I must (C) go home and finish my homework. In order to go home and
finish my homework I do not look for the coin.
When students understand
the concept the cloud can be applied to another concept. Danilo chose another
example: concept of estimation.
Helping student’s
find the solution
Danilo reminded the
teacher to:
·
concentrate his/her efforts on the arrow that is
broken by the solution that you are trying to teach
·
develop as many assumptions as possible
·
develop actions to invalidate the assumptions
Danilo
also reminded us that in most classes teachers are teaching a series of
connected concepts. To improve
retention of these concepts, the concepts must be linked to a logical
sequence. A modification of the TrT
(transition tree) forces you to create these links among topics.
To demonstrate, Danilo
developed a TrT whose topic was the Importance of Data. He guided students through the tree
(thinking process) so that they would see the disadvantage of using the
traditional file environment. Through
cause and effect techniques students find the disadvantages and problems of the
traditional file environment.
(4) Kay Buckner-Seal, Cheryl
A. Edwards
It’s
always wonderful to hear from our colleagues, thanks for sharing. Please feel free to share with us. Send by mail to Cheryl A. Edwards, 2253 S.
Hill Island Rd., Cedarville, MI 49719, USA.
Or, send hyperlink to <redwards@sault.com> or
<bucknek@earthlink.net.
To
view TACTics in its intended formatting and to read previous issues,
visit the TOC website at: www.tocforeducation.com