March 3: How to read Baudrillard

We will carry over the issues from last class that we did not get to. In particular:

1. An "music" example of "the medium is the message"
2. A CBC blog from last Sunday Edition show.

In addition, two postmodern readings. I am not sure that I spent enough time on how to approach the Baudrillard article. Do not read it in the normal way. His style is radically different and you can easily throw your hands in disgust and confusion. Read holistically. Try to engage in his radical ideas. Better yet, be playful with this paper. It is considered a classic and is without doubt the most well known of the class readings. Indeed, if there is one paper you need to remember from this course, it is Baudrillard's.

Feb 24. Is curriculum design merely a method to deliver propaganda?

Or, how can we know whether we are teaching "the right stuff?" It is well and good to show how we can select, design , teach, and evaluate content. And we always give "lip service" to critical thinking skills. But do we really examine why we do what we do, and whether we are teaching the right material? Most often, we don't have time for such considerations. We, in the words of the Nike slogan, "just do it".

So, I would like to take some time examining simple things we miss.

The assumption in what follows is that curriculum lies between what we teach and how we teach it. 

1. I have just purchased a copy of the Manitoba Encyclopedia. Now here is a unique curriculum resource that Winnipeg Foundation has given free to every school in the province. Pretty nice. So in class, I will go over a few bothersome issues for me. At some level, the bothersome issues may take over from the value of the book. I will demonstrate in class...

2. I am also a reviewer for a Grade 3 set of math books. My task is to help assure that the book is culturally appropriate for Canadian audiences. Again, we shall take a look...

3. CBC Sunday Edition of Feb 24, 2008 began with a 3 minute editorial on the purposes of education... an editorial by Robert Enright. We will listen to the blog of that broadcast and relate it to "curriculum."

4. To get back to Marshall McLuhan, time permitting, I want to provide you with a concrete example of "the medium is the mesage." I will present (like last day, through music) a message... using two different media. If it works to you, then the message will be different in both cases, though the message is identical! in fact. I will present the message in three ways!

 

Feb 24. Picking up the pieces after the break...

Hello, everyone. We are almost back. We only missed one class...both midterm break and Louis Riel, but it is quite amazing how the momentum that we had built up tends to dry up. I notice that most have not gotten back to entering reflections on the blogs re private schools and McNeil, though both of those topics stimulated serious discussion. (Brad, you were having trouble with your UM account. Is that cleared up yet?)

This Monday, we have three presentations. That should take us 30 minutes each (counting discussion) and some time for me to refocus.

The major issue will be putting together a final paper.

For those who are still mulling around ideas, I did present you via email and on nicenet a possibility to explore "curriculum in the 21st century." What I wrote then was the following:

I have just been told that this fall I am potentially assigned to teach a graduate course titled "Curriculum in the 21st century." It struck me that that might be an excellent topic for several of you, especially if you are still looking for a topic and have not yet settled in.

What is a 21st century curriculum? Does it have explicit characteristics already developed as we come to the end of the first decade of the century? Is the 21st century merely an extension of the 20th century curriculum? Does the concept "21st century curriculum" really mean a technology based curriculum? Or, on the other hand, since we are already in the 21st century, is not the 21st century curriculum nothing more than the curriculum we are currently teaching?

It would be fascinating for me to collect some data for this course from the real experts: YOU. You both are teaching and will teach a 21st century curriculum. Perhaps the term is not a useful one. Or perhaps it does suggest certain parameters, ideas and directions.

Anyone interested in traveling this road? growing into the concept? putting the basic elements onto the assembly line to see the final product?

Of course, just because I have a technology orientation, that does not mean that an exploration in this direction needs to be about technology. On the contrary, there is more to future and present curriculum that technology. Regardless of how anyone might want to tackle this issue, there is ample room for exploration.

As we move into a postmodern mindset, traditional ways of doing things become more unsettling. I have tried to "explode" the definition of curriculum design from its normal and traditional view. There is no doubt that we think of curriculum design as some variant of Tyler's four questions. Some of the papers we are exploring expand upon Tyler, but others start to take a different trajectory. A case in point is today's discussion of Vallance. (Remember you will have to download this from JSTOR. Elizabeth Vallance ( a student and colleague of Elliot Eisner is interested in applying an aesthetic dimension to the evaluation component of curriculum design. You will quickly see that this is not normally how we evaluate curriculum. In fact, Valance argues that in fact this is really curriculum description, something we don't do enough of.

Feb 11: Goodson and McNeil

We continue our examination of the course readings. Goodson and McNeil will provide two very different takes on curriculum.

Some guiding questions on curriculum design...

The following set of questions comes from a course outline for a CTL course titled Teaching and Learning in Post-Secondary Education. The questions below are useful guiding questions for this course. As you continue your assigned readings, keep these in mind:

1. What decisions do teachers need to make prior to teaching?
2. How do teachers organize ideas, knoweldge, and skills into meaningful course structures for teaching purposes?
3. What organizing elements do teachers consider when developing courses?

• scope
• sequence
• continuity
• balance
• big ideas
• key questions
• assignments
• assessment procedures

4. How are course elements balanced to achieve curriculum consonance?
5. What instructional tools and resources are available to teachers?
6. What organizing elements do teachers consider in their planning for everyday classes?

1. group interaction
2. guided discovery
3. inquiry
4. concept attainment
5. critical thinking
6. problem based
7. active experience based
8. direct instruction
9. lecture-discussion
10. questioning
11. demonstration
12. other

What organizing elements do teachers consider in their planning for everyday classes

1. descriptive course data
2. guiding questions/themes/objective
3. learning strategies and procedures
4. special considerations
5. notes
6. reminders
7. materials and equipment
8. assessment tools
9. reflective notes for improved practice

In addition, a qualifier to the above, should be that our focus at the advanced graduate level should be on depth more than breadth; on the deep dive rather than a superficial overview.
This is where the greatest challenge lies.

Timeline for presentations and readings

January 28

• Ellsworth(Michelle)
• Applebee (Angela)

Feb 4.

• Aoki (Kim)

Feb 11

• Goodson. (Roland and Jason)
• McNeil (Gwen)
  

Feb 25

• Vallance (Dianne) (Note: This reading must be downloaded from JSTOR)
• Toepfer (Jamie)
• Chambers (McColm)

March 3

• Slattery (Marc) 

• Baudrillard (Garry). (Download from google. Search <"Precession of simulacrum" Baudrillard>

March 17

• Ornstein (Francis)

TBA: Marsh (Kala)