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Juliette LaMontagne

Founder & Managing Director, Breaker

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What are the advantages/disadvantages of learning models that exist outside of traditional educational institutions?

With the growing number of alternative learning pathways and opportunities to better serve the needs of individual students, what's working best? And what can we learn from the failures and tensions? Where and how have the models in the margins effectively disrupted the status quo?

I'll add to the conversation my current initiative, Breaker - driving alternative learning and social innovation by mobilizing interdisciplinary teams of young creative collaborators to design product solutions to global challenges.

This Live Conversation will start on Feb. 15, 2012, 1:00pm EST/ 10:00am PST

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Topics: Live Conversation design ed social enterprises
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    paul bettinson

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    Feb 15 2012: It OK to discuss which models etc. but what is more important is the space given to formative assessment in any one of these models. For example, in a MOOC, Blended or traditional classroom setting formative assessment (assessment for learning) is still the most valuable space for (life-long) learning to happen.

    Formative assessment holds within all aspects of motivation, pace, peer group work etc - the very essence of developing the love of and how to learn.

    Whatever model is designed at any stage or context, formative assessment is the key, as the very use of it helps us know how to develop new models of learning, or new communities of pedagogy.
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      Juliette LaMontagne 500+

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      Feb 15 2012: are these based on assessment tasks? What does it look like? portfolio work?
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        paul bettinson

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        Feb 15 2012: summative assessment criteria does cast its dark shadow over the process yes, and this is the framework in which a group of educators would be as pedagogically creative as possible to reach these goals. However, summative assessment happens every week, two weeks or 6 months for example., whereas formative assessment is the in-the-moment assessment by a teacher so that the learning taking place can be properly paced, thrown-out(!) re-grouped, etc. Dylan Wiliam (and Black) has done much work in the past 10 years on this. Its very inspiring to know ore about (assessment FOR learning than assessment OF learning) however, to do probably brings into question how creative or resourceful an individual teacher/learner/community can be.

        A portfolio of work is awesome where the learner has gained a good push into doing/solving a problem. but ultimately this portfolio succumbs to an assessment OF learning. All of the above is based on what I see as a traditional setting for learning.

        With new spaces online, or blended, seem not to consider such change of learning pace, motivation ALL OF LEARNING (where formative assessment is the catalyst) in their models. Its a if no-one has stopped to ask where learning happens in the Y-generation (or Alpha!) and where learning actually is - its in the very moment of discovery, as an immersed experience, closed to the life value of that individual facilitated by an educator or a team of educators who share the learning experience. Who do not know the "answers" and change the framework of learning based on the learning taking place at that moment.

        It should happen faster than any app can do it :)

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