E-180 : ça marche!

C’est mardi passé qu’a eu lieu le premier Marché des savoirs de E-180, organisé en collaboration avec À go, on change le monde! pour le Réseau des entrepreneurs sociaux du Québec. Comme l’a indiqué Heri Rakotomalala (à qui l’on doit aussi les photos) dans son billet sur Montréal Tech Watch, rien de mieux pour un startup technologique que délaisser l’écran afin d’aller tester des présupposés fondamentaux au succès de son entreprise live, avec des humains.

C’est ce que nous voulons faire avec E-180: faciliter la rencontre avec celui ou celle qui est en mesure de nous donner un coup de pouce pour démarrer ou pousser plus loin la connaissance dans un domaine. Créer un endroit de rassemblement pour tous ceux qui croient que l’éducation est une relation et qui sont prêts à donner un peu de temps pour partager leur savoir au dessus d’un café.

Et s’il y a plusieurs mois qu’on y pense, le Marché des Savoirs fut l’occasion de finalement tester l’idée. Celle-ci n’est pas nouvelle: plusieurs d’entre nous apprenons déjà de cette façon, en offrant le lunch à l’ami d’un ami pour en connaitre un peu plus sur un sujet. Une plateforme web sera un outil extraordinaire afin de regrouper les fans de cette approche, mais ce qui compte, c’est de dévoiler les connaissances des gens afin de les connecter.

Un exemple: Anne-Laure Putigny, spécialiste en entrepreneuriat et chargée de projet pour À go, on change le monde! veut faire le Marathon de Montréal en septembre. Aude Leroux-Lévesque, documentariste, veut mettre sur pied sa boîte de production. Et il se trouve que le partenaire d’Aude est un marathonien. Match parfait: “E-180, ça marche! Bien que je connaissais déjà Aude, le Marché des Savoirs m’a donné l’occasion de faire des “connaissances” un sujet dont on discute, qui devient d’actualité. C’est ainsi qu’on dévoile au grand jour des compétences qui auraient simplement pu rester dans l’ombre. Aude et Sébastien sont venus prendre un verre chez moi, et Sébastien avait vraiment préparé un plan d’entraînement sur la base de son expérience. Ça va me sauver un temps fou, et je crois bien avoir orienté Aude et Sébastien sur un bonne piste en ce qui a trait au développement de leur plan d’affaires” rapporte Anne-Laure, maintenant membre du comité fondateur d’E-180. (on est vraiment contents.)

Tous les matches n’ont pas besoin d’être aussi réciproques: il est possible que je veuille obtenir de l’aide pour mettre sur pied un système de comptabilité et que celle qui m’aide n’aie pas envie d’apprendre la photo. Qu’à cela ne tienne: à E-180, on croit au karma. Et la plateforme web aidera à récompenser ceux qui distribuent leur savoir généreusement.

Pour partager vos connaissances ou voir les offres et besoins dévoilés lors du Marché des Savoirs, consultez le #E180 sur Twitter ou revenez d’ici la fin de la semaine: je mettrai cette information en ligne. Contactez-nous si vous désirez rencontrer un des participants. christine [at] e-180.com

All you ever learned, yours, forever.

“Tell me and I forget. Teach and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” According to Piotr Wozniak, this saying should end with “Use repetition and spacing so that I become a genius”.

Just came across this fantastic article from Wired called Want to Remember Everything You’ll Ever Learn? Surrender to this Algorithm. It relates the story of Piotr Wozniak who created SuperMemo, a software that allows people to be remembered to remember what they want to remember (please set your UI expectations pretty low). Indeed, Wozniak thorough research on his own retention mechanisms led him to one simple conclusion (well, a part for dozens of articles on how to become a genius):

[There] is an ideal moment to practice what you’ve learned. Practice too soon and you waste your time. Practice too late and you’ve forgotten the material and have to relearn it. The right time to practice is just at the moment you’re about to forget.

Other research was conducted a century prior to Wozniak’s discovery by German scientist Hermann Ebbinghaus. He also concluded that an optimal spacing of the reactivation of knowledge was key to retention.

The most fascinating part of the article (not including Wozniak’s personality) is actually the lack of impact cognitive psychology’s discoveries have on the way we teach and perceive the learning process.

However, this technique never caught on. The spacing effect is “one of the most remarkable phenomena to emerge from laboratory research on learning,” the psychologist Frank Dempster wrote in 1988, at the beginning of a typically sad encomium published in American Psychologist under the title “The Spacing Effect: A Case Study in the Failure to Apply the Results of Psychological Research.” The sorrrowful tone is not hard to understand. How would computer scientists feel if people continued to use slide rules for engineering calculations? What if, centuries after the invention of spectacles, people still dealt with nearsightedness by holding things closer to their eyes? Psychologists who studied the spacing effect thought they possessed a solution to a problem that had frustrated humankind since before written language: how to remember what’s been learned. But instead, the spacing effect became a reminder of the impotence of laboratory psychology.

The “flashcard” aspect of the theory is not what’s the most groundbreaking, obviously. Wozniak spent the first moments of his experiment writing and trying to memorize flashcards, until he didn’t have time to actually learn anything new… Not the good approach, he concluded. What’s impressive about it is the algorithm created by Wozniak to calculate when is the optimal moment for recall: when are you juuust about to forget something? That’s where you need a little boost. And not the one suggested in this other Wired article…

La culture du partage

E-180 est en pleine production d’une série de podcasts sur le « hacking » de  l’éducation grâce aux nouvelles technologies, qui sera bientôt disponible sur Parole Citoyenne. Durant le montage des entrevues que nous avons menées, une évidence s’est imposée : la culture du partage fait partie intégrante de la culture web. Des mots comme « redonner, partager, archiver, contribuer » revenaient constamment  dans les propos de Yannick B. Gélinas, Marie-Julie Gagnon ou Aleece Germano, nos trois interviewées. L’effort est tellement moindre pour partager (tout est facilement embeddable, facebookable, twitterable…): de rendre public et disponible ses trouvailles, conseils, idées est sans aucun doute devenu de l’ordre du réflexe. Si Twitter en est l’exemple le plus percutant (pour ceux qui privilégient les hyperliens), des initiatives comme Creative Commons et Open Source Cinema (initiative de Brett Gaylor, l’homme derrière Rip! A Remix Manifesto)  favorisent la création dans un esprit plus communautaire.  Je parle donc du partage de connaissances devenu “valeur virtuelle”… du  partage entre les humains devant l’écran comme norme totale au sein des relations en ligne.

Je me permets de citer la très pertinente Marie-Eve Berlinger sur la culture du partage : “Tout ça pour dire qu’au delà de la pub traditionnelle et des moteurs de recherche, ce qui prime (thank God) c’est l’humain derrière et c’est lui qui réfère ce qu’il aime à travers la panoplies d’offres qu’ils trouvent sous ses yeux.”

Inbal Alon: Portrait of an international educator

E-180′s So you think you’re an educator is a series of portraits showcasing the work of individuals and organizations who redefine, by their work or their ideas, what it means to be an educator.

Inbal is a rare diamond. You know: the kind of person that immediately stands out because of her dedication, passion and vision. She just is. And from what I have seen, it inspires every single person she meets.
Inbal has worked with non-profit organizations to promote access to education for all children. Among many things, she has worked in Uganda with former child soldiers and children affected by conflict, in Tanzania with Congolese refugees, and in Kenya with youth committed to peace. Currently, Inbal works for the Bantwana Initiative, dedicated to providing comprehensive care and support to children orphaned and made vulnerable by HIV and AIDS.

Here’s her story, in her own words.

____________________________________________

Current job
Program Officer
Bantwana Initiative, World Education

Studies
Bachelor of Public Affairs and Policy Management, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada
Master of Education, International Education Policy, Harvard University
Photography, high school, and my dad
Creative writing, from all my favorite authors

What does education means to you?
Education to me is a process that empowers people to be the best version of themselves. I think we all have something important to contribute to this world, and good education gives (or at least should give) us the skills and the language to achieve our potential. My involvement with education has mainly been in a supportive role, meaning, I am usually not the teacher, but I support programs that help to get the kids in the school, or support teachers to do a better job. Mainly I work in Africa on programs that support children who have been left out of school, such as orphans or children affected by conflict, to have the opportunity to get back into school and learn like other children. Sometimes, when I have the opportunity to interact directly with young people, I encourage them to dream and to have a vision of their best future. A big part of education, in my opinion, and motivation, and re-igniting in people the desire to learn and to create.

What brought you to that view of education?
I have been blessed by having so many supportive people around me throughout my life. From childhood to now, I have always had people around me that believe in me, in my talents, and in my potential to contribute to the world. The more I saw of the world, the more I realized that no everyone has this kind of support. That’s where my vision of education comes through, to give every child, regardless of where he or she is born, the opportunity to learn in a safe environment that nurtures curiosity and builds self-confidence.

Tell us a story, something that inspired you to do the work you do.
When I worked in Northern Uganda, I was part of a team that managed a very large scholarship program for children who had been affected by the 20 years of conflict in the region. Many of our beneficiaries were former child soldiers, or girls who had been abducted and raped, or children who lived in villages that got attacked. Secondary education was not free at the time in Uganda (there are some efforts now that are just starting to cover some of the school fees for secondary school by the government) and the demand for our program was much more than we could handle. We’d often have huge line ups outside our office, mainly people who had applied and wanted to check up on their progress. Young people would come day after day, walking long distances, to try again and again to get their chance. One day, a student came in asking if he had been accepted. I recognized him as he had been there many times before, and unfortunately, he was not one of the students we could sponsor. Although I knew he was not one of our students, I decided to double check, our of respect for his determination. As chance would have it, we had actually made an error and Morris was supposed to be one of our students, hidden before by a mistake in our data entry. When I told Morris, he was so surprised he could barely speak.
‘You can go to school, we have you registered at a vocational school in Kitgum,’ I told him, ‘we have a truck taking some students there that is leaving in two hours… I know it is short notice.’
‘Madam, it is ok. I will be back here. Thank you. Thank you Thank you.’
An hour later, Morris was back, with all of his belongings in a small box, ready to go on the truck, to a town he has never been, with people he does not know, and he was delighted.
I remembered my own preparations going to college, the weeks leading up to it, packing and unpacking, visiting the place, contacting my roommate. Even moving to Uganda was a production, a few days of trying to decide what to bring, months of mental preparation for the big change. And here was this young man, ready, willing, excited to pack his entire life with a one hour notice, for a chance at education. I realized thanks to Morris that youth in Africa are hungry for opportunities to be education, to gain skills, to have an opportunity for a good job, to make something of themselves. I admire this courage, strength, and passion for opportunities, and it is this hunger for education that motivates me to do the work I do.

How did you learn the skills you needed in order to make the jump from the classroom to international education?
I would say that working in international development you learn the most by being in the field. All the classes and reports in the world cannot prepare you for what it feels like to try and conduct a workshop outside under a tree with groups of kids pointing at you because you look different, or how paralyzed you feel sometimes in a refugee camp with so much suffering, or how amazing it feels to see a group of girls leading a performance about human rights, or how frustrating it can be to plan something and have none of it work out but remain flexible to plan it again. I learned my skills by listening a lot to people I respect and trust, especially friends from countries where I have worked. I have also learned a lot by doing, just jumping into things, recognizing that I am going to make some mistakes, and working with people to improve. Whenever I start something new, I consult with a lot of colleagues, other organizations, and beneficiaries of the program, to try and create something that works for all of us and draws on our collective knowledge and skills.

Anything else you want to share?
Over the years I have recognized that in addition to contributing to education programs in Africa, I also have an important role to play in educating others about the work I do and some of the stories I come across. I have come to see my role as building bridges, between the places I work and the rest of the world. I think there is huge potential in initiatives that link people across places in a positive way, such as inter-cultural exchanges, micro-lending, scholarship programs, fair-trade and others, and I think all of these programs depend on people caring about others, the ability to empathize. I really enjoy creative writing so over the years I have written to my family and friends about my experiences, so that I can share with them a bit of my experiences and in doing so allow them to see a bit of another part of the world. I believe that through stories we can help people to see the world through another person’s eyes, and through this empathy, we develop care, and care can lead into action, global action and change which is so needed.

_________________________________

You can follow Inbal’s amazing work and thoughts on her blog.
Also, feel free to contact her if you want some advice on how to make the jump into international education: inbal.alon@gmail.com

Montréal, Quartier Général

E-180 a fait beaucoup de progrès, dernièrement, autant dans la définition de sa mission que dans sa “stratégie de déploiement”. Si nous comptons participer, cet été, à un Incubateur Web afin de développer notre plateforme, il est aussi de plus en plus clair que E-180 formera une communauté à part entière, où les visiteurs pourront révolutionner l’éducation. Car si le nouvel ère numérique (le nouvel me semble un peu archaïque, non?) englobe la démocratisation des médias, du cinéma, de la création en général, il me semble tout à fait logique qu’il circonscrive aussi la démocratisation de l’éducation, au coeur de notre mission sociale. Si la culture web questionne le rôle de l’artiste au sein des possibilités infinies de créations médiatiques, E-180 se positionne comme lieu de réflexion et de questionnement sur le rôle des “transmetteurs de connaissance”, et la définition même de ces connaissances. Car cette préoccupation est au coeur de notre stratégie de développement: Comment amener les membres de E-180 à définir leurs connaissances? Yannick B. Gélinas, dans son billet sur la Création pour les nouveaux médias, insiste sur le fait que les usagers du web savent trouver les contenus les plus pointus disponibles sur Internet; à l’instar de ces contenus spécialisés (l’exemple de la danse contemporaine de Yannick est très pertinente), les membres de E-180 sauront aussi trouver des connaissances spécifiques dont ils ont besoin pour atteindre leur plein potentiel. À nous de fonder les assises de la plus exhaustive des banques de données!

Si nous avons la chance de participer à Techstars (à Boston ou à Boulder), DreamIt (à Philadelphia) ou au Canadian Incubator à Silicon Valley (situé dans les enceintes de Plug and Play) et que nous nous exilons pour quelques mois in Obamaland, il n’en demeure pas moins que Montréal* restera notre quartier général, et que nous sommes plus qu’ouverts à développer des partenariats au Québec et au Canada!

*J’ai redécouvert avec bonheur la série Montréal en 12 Lieux, ce week-end… de me promener à nouveau à travers les différents lieux, sur un site interactif aussi inspirant, a su raviver ma flamme pour Montréal…!

You can’t postpone the life of the mind

If you read our profile or follow our tweets, you know that we promote consensual education through social media and social entrepreneurship. Rightfully so, @warhawke recently ask me what we meant by consensual education.

I want to answer this question, since it is obviously an important one. I feel there’s too much to be said about it to write one sole and only post on the topic. A book might do, but that’s not on the agenda. Yet.

The beginning of my answer is encompassed is one of my favorite quotes of all times, by Whitehead:

With good discipline, it is always possible to pump into the minds of a class a certain quantity of inert knowledge. [The rationale behind this action is that] the mind is an instrument, you first sharpen it, and then use it […] I have no hesitation in denouncing [this analogy] as one of the most fatal, erroneous, and dangerous conceptions ever introduced into the theory of education. The mind is never passive: it is a perpetual activity, delicate, receptive, responsive to stimulus. You cannot postpone its life until you have sharpened it.” (Whitehead, 1929:17-18)

Radical educators wanted!

We haven’t talked too much about our education beliefs: I mentioned a couple of times that we firmly believe in the “doing” approach to learning. Breaking news: we also believe that learning can only happen under meaningful circumstances, and that it has to be consensual.

One of the most interesting and controversial movement in education is Free Schooling. Present in many countries, it is born out of the Spanish Anarchist movement of the late 19th century and promotes a non-hierarchical schooling structure, a curriculum defined by the students and the teachers together and a democratic decisional process. One of the most famous free school is Summerhill School, founded by A.S. Neill and still ran today by his daughter. Neil wrote a cult-book, A Radical Approach to Child Rearing, which illustrates his radical perception of education and of children’s sovereignty.

The high school program of the Albany Free School, the longest running inner-city democratic free school in United States, is currently looking for a full-time teacher, and so is the elementary program. They are offering a unique opportunity to learn more about this movement, its values, challenges and hopes. They even made a movie about the school, which allows us to penetrate the very seldom daily routine of this learning community, with its ups and downs.

They also have internship positions available.

Good luck!

I’m not feminist, but…

Feminism: The belief in the right of women to have political, social, and economic equality with men. (Wikipedia) According to this definition, how can people NOT BE feminist?

Well, it seams that most of us don’t believe in these rights:

• Women in South Africa walk the equivalent of 16 Earth/Moon back-and-forth a day in order to get the water their families need. (source: UNEP)
• Half of the girls in Africa will drop elementary school due to its unsatisfactory sanitary conditions, hence lack of bathrooms or water. (source: UNPD)
• Systematic rape was a prominent feature of the conflicts in Bosnia-Hergovina, DR Congo, East Timor and Haiti, and is ongoing in the Darfur region of Sudan. (source: BBC)
• In Canada, on average, women still make only 70% what men make, even when employed full-time, year-round. (source: Statistic Canada in NDP)

I think being feminist is to be hurt, as a woman or a man, when you think about this pain and all the potential that will never bloom because of someone’s gender. It’s to shake your head when a girl gets involved in gangs to get some “love” and “protection”. It’s to be proud when women get involved in influential fields strongly dominated by men. It’s to feel angry when a government doesn’t recognize the right for women to fight for equality in the workplace.

Here’s something for you. And for the geeks among us, he is the stickiness deconstruction of the video.:

Do you believe in the Girl Effect? What would be the girl effect necessary where you live? What is the place of social entrepreneurship and social media in the equality and justice for women?

Non-profit, For-profit or For-Change?

This question is still haunting us, even after our readers’ great insights. As found on Futureshifters, an article from Entrepreneur brings an interesting light and many answers to our dilemma.

After all, social enterprises traditionally lean toward the nonprofit model because of the perks they can receive from the business’s perceived “aura of goodness,” says William T. Hutton, a nonprofit attorney and longtime law professor in San Francisco. “Particularly in the educational sphere,” says Hutton, there’s “an innate suspicion that [nonprofits] are much more inclined to be selfless.” This perception, as well as the generous tax breaks that nonprofits typically provide to donors, make it significantly easier for social enterprises to raise funds and land government grants.

Of course, it isn’t just about the ability to reap charitable donations; there are plenty of other reasons to launch a nonprofit social enterprise. The confusing thing is there are just as many reasons — if not more — for social entrepreneurs to set up a for-profit business as well.

To help you figure out which model makes more sense, we weigh the pros and cons… (Read more)

One thing the article does not consider though, is the possibility for non-profits to have revenue-generating activities/products to insure their sustainability without having to rely on grants, donors and philanthropy. A good example is the Albany Free School, which owns several apartments that provide an income helping to lower tuition for its students.

School kills creativity, he says.

With 4 days to go until the next TED, we thought we would share one of our favorite TEDtalk with you.

Why don’t we get the best out of people? Sir Ken Robinson argues that it’s because we’ve been educated to become good workers, rather than creative thinkers.

His latest book, The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything was published in January 2009.