Comments for Ryan Flood's Weblog

Comment on Welcome! by Debbie Flood

Debbie Flood — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:15:29 +0000

Great Blog Ryan, thanks for the link. I especially enjoyed the students art work. You are inspiring change. Keep up the good work.

Comment on The Necessary Revolution by ryanflood

ryanflood — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:58:47 +0000

Thanks Mrs. Welsh!

Comment on The Necessary Revolution by Bettina Welsh

Bettina Welsh — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:09:32 +0000

Very cool Mr. Flood!!

Comment on On my rock, thinking… VISIONING. by Elita

Elita — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 23:28:39 +0000

You’re such a good friend…let’s all hang out more often ; )

Comment on On my rock, thinking… VISIONING. by ryanflood

ryanflood — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 23:06:56 +0000

Thanks for the kind words, Elita. You are such a ray of positive light! I wanted to respond here, on this page, so that I could link to your site – The Smiling Mask. I see that you have a DVD of a documentary out soon – your site looks amazing. That is so exciting! Keep up your excellent work! I am proud of you as well. Take care… Ryan

Comment on On my rock, thinking… VISIONING. by Elita

Elita — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 17:20:55 +0000

You and I speak the same language. This is my and our Smiling Mask Team’s mission for families, our families, our children..our future. We, as parents are the ultimate role models; we must live our values in order to continue constructive change; we must acknowledge the valuable change that IS occurring; we must be thankful for all the good we have already co-created, for gratitude begets our wishes. Thank you for sharing your goodness of spirit and the love for yourself and community : )

I’m proud of you….Elita

Comment on On my rock, thinking… VISIONING. by Garth

Garth — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 19:46:18 +0000

Ryan . . . as a follow-up to our chat after class below is an excerpt from that former student of mine who provides his take on how things have changed . . . it causes one to pause with respect to the concept of change, acceptance and the challenges that may or may not arise depending upon perception.

I continue to journal while traveling the subway and observing the interactions that go on there. I have been watching the interaction between young people (since I am a teacher) and the elderly (since I am on the cusp). The young people, usually plugged in to their iPods, or moving in large groups of friends, don’t even seem to notice the elderly. They push past them and knock them with their bags. They sit in seats when they are empty and, since they don’t notice anyone else, never offer their seats to elderly people who get on the subway after the seats are full. It’s fascinating to watch perhaps 100 people all crowded together and yet most of them “in their own world.” Even groups of students, talking incessantly, will use language and talk about issues as if there was no one else around. The lack of social graces, or even recognition that they are in a “public” place is quite astounding.

Then again, I traveled the Go Train last week and a businessman, younger than me but certainly old enough to know better, sat in the seat facing me and talking loudly on his cell phone the entire time. Aside from the fact that I did not want to listen to his conversation, it struck me that he was treating me as an invisible person, carrying on his conversation as though he was in his private office, once again proof that all space has been turned into private space where people seem to think they can do whatever they want, regardless of who else is there.

People on the subway can’t use cell phones so it is relatively quiet, but on the Go Train, there are one-sided conversations everywhere. When you sit back and watch it, it appears quite odd, but then when you go out on the street and see hundreds of those conversations take place, you realize you have become a relic. All public places ARE now private places and I just need to adjust to that. If I plug in my iPod and retreat into my own world, I can do that but somehow that feels incredibly impersonal to me. Imagine a city of 4 million where most people are ignoring each other all day? No wonder people feel lonely despite being surrounded by masses of others!

Talk to you sooner than later and see you Thursday.

Garth

Comment on Hope in Corporate Partnerships? by Garth

Garth — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 19:41:03 +0000

Ryan . . . great stuff and provocative. The challenge is to understand the formative influence schooling has had on our “corporate psyche.” What role has education and teacher education played in all of this and what if anything can we do about it? You just do not hear “teacher” and “education” in corporate lingo!

Challenging times and questions interestingly; not truly answered. The concepts of “teacher” and “school” have not changed. As I wrote in “Senselessness: the Manifestation of Educational Practice” related to teacher education:

to set out on a “historical journey of educational progress” current and future teacher educators need to grasp the gravity of preparing teachers for the future of the earth. While the idea may be simple we know it is most challenging. The resolution to the tension between our current reality and the vision of changing the way we “do” teacher education is as emotional as it is creative. (Pickard, 2009, p. 208)

I am concerned that we have not yet understood the gravity of the situation. I guess the challenge to us both is to raise the stakes of educational practice. Now this is worth following up on.

Comment on Sustainability and Well-being…hmmm… by Garth

Garth — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 22:17:05 +0000

Ryan . . . great stuff . . . I have just begun to dig into your work. The first thing that jumped out at me was the notion that we “have to change” . . . which caused me to pause and question how we interpret the term.

No doubt you have heard the phrase “change is not a choice”, however I wonder if the term has lost or even had true significance. What do older or real young people think about the term? Is there a tendency to forget the “lineage” of the universe? Are we “chasing our tails” thinking that where we are will be actually different? Are we not change in actuality? . . . so we just need to get on with life!

Possibly we might wish to think differently with respect to the notion of change. For instance, just “stop” the change process as we in the “West” tend to understand it. Ken Wibur (2007) The Integral Vision. (Shambahala, Boston) and others have a different take on the concept.

Some say that we do not have any control over what actually happens; therefore the notion of change is perception only. This idea might be worth exploring through curricula initiatives . . . eh!

I ramble . . . I will continue to work through your Blog and continue to ponder!

Talk to you sooner than later.

Comment on Blog by e-mail by Savannah

Savannah — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 10:59:40 +0000

Awesome blog! I thought about starting my own blog too but I'm just too lazy so, I guess I'll just have to keep checking yours out. LOL,

Comment on EC&I Wrap-up Reflections by Rosanne

Rosanne — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 02:25:22 +0000

You’ve done some great work. I’m sure that students will benefit from your knowledge. Good luck in the future.

Comment on EC&I Wrap-up Reflections by Shaun Loeppky

Shaun Loeppky — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 02:33:08 +0000

You said, ” In the last couple of years working with Ed. Tech, I’ve had grand ideas, but have been so focused on repairing computers and network cabling, that these ideas were seldom implemented.” Wow, I hear you. That and all the theory! Great to learn some practical stuff, and so much to reflect upon.
Take care!

Comment on A Shining Example of What a PLC Could Be by Connie Cossar

Connie Cossar — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 20:45:54 +0000

I have really enjoyed reading other classmates’ posts too. It has been invaluable to my learning experience and will keep everyone on my Reader in hopes that people continue to post to their blogs. I know I am going to make it a goal for myself to keep blogging.

Comment on Welcome! by shasliva

shasliva — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 10:11:52 +0000

Great Blog! Really enjoyed some of the comments, just dropped by to say hello, look forward to joining in the discussion later.

Comment on Not What I Expected. by Todd Volk

Todd Volk — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 19:25:50 +0000

Great post Ryan. Your thoughts are very similar to many of my own. I agree that Stephen is obviously a very influential person, but I too was disappointed with his presentation. I’m sure the code writers found it quite interesting, but a lot of what he went through was beyond me, Greek you might say. I guess presentations have to try and touch everyone and maybe Stephen did that. He touched on code writing for those that can and do. For people like us he introduced ideas of the power of the network and the idea of personal learning. He is right about those concepts. I have learned a lot as part of this network and continue to be exposed to things I would never know about. Our latest discussion on the closure of Al Upton’s blog is something I may not have come across. To add to this we will have a discussion about it. Like the discussion on internet safety, being able to hear the opinions of many others enhances the quality of the information I will be exposed to. So Stephen is dead on, networks and personal learning through networks is so powerful.