education

Young Scientists Growing Up Early and Embracing Ecology

Young Scientists Growing Up Early and Embracing Ecology

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.
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3 Weeks In Sri Lanka - Part 3 : Training The Teachers In The North

3 Weeks In Sri Lanka - Part 3 : Training The Teachers In The North

When you think to yourself youโ€™ll 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 wouldnโ€™t 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.

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3 Weeks In Sri Lanka - Part 1 : The Most Meaningful Work Iโ€™ve Ever Done

3 Weeks In Sri Lanka - Part 1 : The Most Meaningful Work Iโ€™ve Ever Done

It was the most meaningful and rewarding work Iโ€™ve ever done.

Bold statement for a man well into his thirties? Perhaps. But Iโ€™ll start from the beginning. I received an email from a friend that simply said โ€œWhat 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.

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My Experience In Trey Ratcliffโ€™s The Arcanum - Level 3: Wasim The Inspired!

My Experience In Trey Ratcliffโ€™s The Arcanum - Level 3: Wasim The Inspired!

So this is where it all got real. The experiences, the Networks, The Challenges. Itโ€™s 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.

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My Experience In Trey Ratcliffโ€™s The Arcanum - Levels 1 & 2

My Experience In Trey Ratcliffโ€™s The Arcanum - Levels 1 & 2

So if you havenโ€™t heard of it yet, you need to hear of it before yet. Like now. Right now. Itโ€™s the future of learning and education, itโ€™s based on the master/apprentice model, it was created by Trey Ratcliff, and it's called The Arcanum.

The idea is simpleโ€ฆa master chooses an apprentice, and the apprentice learns the craft. The craft in this case is photography. The executionโ€ฆis seemingly brilliant. Using todayโ€™s 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.

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Education: Disrupted - A Fascinating Peek Into The Future Of Education

Education: 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 โ€œEducation: Disruptedโ€ at Pepperdine University, an event that may have laid the groundwork for a meaningful shift in the paradigm of how education is approached. Itโ€™s 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.

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