It’s been awhile since I got back to reading these blogs by Clarke, so I thought today would be as good as any to get back into it. Here is the blog entry: http://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/rousseau-1712-1778-prickly-paranoid.html.

Quote: “… he saw civilisation as a corrupting influence, creating inequalities and conflict. His educational theories are an attempt to avoid such corruption within the mind of essentially good human beings, the antithesis of the Hobbesian notion of our intrinsic savagery.”

Reflection: I tend to agree with Rousseau here. Society often is the largest obstacle to the education of many. Luckily, as a member of a free society, I can overcome many of the obstacles and use the experience of overcoming as a learning experience and chance to build character.

Quote: “… natural growth, matched by education appropriate to these natural stages of development. It is the learner that matters and the learner who develops in a natural fashion, not shaped by teachers but growing in response to opportunities for development.”

Reflection: Discovery learning

Quote: “The child, naturally good, needs simple freedom and not rushed into inappropriate or unnatural educational activity. Play and self-reliance are important.”

Reflection: I find that my wife and I use this philosophy with our children. But there is a point at which play must make way for weightier endeavors.

Quote: “… the presentation of self-paced  e-learning, open access to knowledge through Google, Wikipedia and Open Educational resources and projects such as the hole-in-the-wall’ work of Sugata Mitra, are heirs to the Rousseau dream.”

Reflection: There are definite ways to introduce this type of learning into a course, but I personally think that students tire of this type of experience since they use this approach naturally in practice. Hopefully, a course can at least make the process a bit less laborious for the learner so that the educational experience can be a bit more efficient.