I walked into a 3rd grade classroom to hear them asking their teachers if they had to worry about being shot by guns. An hour later, I found myself joining the school in a walkout to protest gun violence.
The next class I walked into had a list on their TV of steps to take to identify 'fake news.'
While I haven't been in a third grade classroom in decades, I was pretty sure this was certainly not the 3rd grade I knew...
I was here to shoot photos for Ecology in Classrooms and Outdoors (ecologyoutdoors.org), a non-profit I've recently joing the board of that's dedicated to connecting children to nature, especially minorities and those in undeserved areas.
ย
education
3 Weeks In Sri Lanka - Part 3 : Training The Teachers In The North
When you think to yourself youโll be taking a trip that would last a little over 3 weeks to the Southeast Asian island of Sri Lanka, and 10 of those days would be spent traveling through, and experiencing some of the lushest landscapes and most culturally significant areas in all of Asia, you wouldnโt think that the most memorable and enjoyable part of the trip would be the other 12 days. The ones spent isolated in a 2-structure walled-in compound built by the World Bank in the outskirts of Vavuniya, one of the most impoverished communities in the country that lay right in the midst of some of the least exciting topography on the island.
Read More3 Weeks In Sri Lanka - Part 1 : The Most Meaningful Work Iโve Ever Done
It was the most meaningful and rewarding work Iโve ever done.
Bold statement for a man well into his thirties? Perhaps. But Iโll start from the beginning. I received an email from a friend that simply said โWhat are you doing the first two weeks of February.โ Mind you, this was closing in on the last week of January. 48 hours later, a round trip ticket to Colombo, Sri Lanka in my name arrived in my email box.
Read MoreMy Experience In Trey Ratcliffโs The Arcanum - Level 3: Wasim The Inspired!
So this is where it all got real. The experiences, the Networks, The Challenges. Itโs all part of the process here in The Arcanum, but all of it, at first, seems a bit disconnected, another virtual forum, albeit a more positively engaging one sans the trolls and the, but, still,
I am now Wasim The Inspired!!
And with that, things immediately get a bit more serious.
Read MoreMy Experience In Trey Ratcliffโs The Arcanum - Levels 1 & 2
So if you havenโt heard of it yet, you need to hear of it before yet. Like now. Right now. Itโs the future of learning and education, itโs based on the master/apprentice model, it was created by Trey Ratcliff, and it's called The Arcanum.
The idea is simpleโฆa master chooses an apprentice, and the apprentice learns the craft. The craft in this case is photography. The executionโฆis seemingly brilliant. Using todayโs technologies - everything from real time screen sharing and VR on-location sharing - mixed with a structured and tiered leveling system, and you have yourself what could be a glimpse into the future of education.
Read MoreEducation: Disrupted - A Fascinating Peek Into The Future Of Education
So I had a pretty privileged experience about a week ago. A man I do a lot of work for over the past several years, Frank Fitzpatrick, organized and hosted and produced โEducation: Disruptedโ at Pepperdine University, an event that may have laid the groundwork for a meaningful shift in the paradigm of how education is approached. Itโs no secret that the current education system has its fair share of challenges, and methods of keeping students interested, engaged, and motivated seem to have become ever-elusive memories of a not-so-distant-yet-forever-ago past. Having already introduced his Why:Music interactive education initiative to everyone from Perimeter Institute to Singularity University and TEDx, Fitzpatrick seemed ready to stir some new questions into the mix, likely one of his big motivators in producing this thing.
Read More