[NLA] Re Thurs Notes

[Harry Forster]

Gloria

Thank you for your reply and I will look more closely at the white paper
that you referenced.

The NGA is quite obvious.   The ASTD is also familiar.  I see it as a
super group of adult education in that it can include adult education of
the form that the NLA represents and it also can include the training
industry that puts on commercial dog and pony shows (I understand dog
and pony shows because I used to do them when I was in the defense
industry and when I taught electronics at a community college and a
university.).  This latter group does not have the industry structure
with oversight and controls like the AE field has.  I see ASTD as also
representing groups quite different from you.

The question really is who is the The Commission on Technology and Adult
Learning?

E-learning  is a loaded term.  First of all it is not well defined.   I
am not sure that there is an accepted body of research that proves its
effectiveness.  Another thing that bothers me is that I am not sure that
I want to remove human intervention in the testing (and teaching) of
humans.  I am working on the application of computers, linguistics, and
artificial intelligence to teaching and communications systems.   I am
awed at the progress that has been made in all of these areas but I see
technology as a support tool for the educator, not a replacement. The
desires to have assessment and standards can certainly be commended but
in the proposed ideas the devil is in the details (which we are not
being given).

I am afraid that present policies are overlooking the warnings that
already exist.  For example, the increased demands for graduation,
standardized testing, and a monolithic curriculum is driving students
out of public education and into AE.  If we now accept this scenario
then lets look at a possible consequence of the proposed system in light
of some recent events.  If all states are required to put assessment on
the internet then a student goes to the terminal in high school and
takes the test.  The student does not do well, as is the present
result.    Will the student then go to AE?   With actions like we saw in
MA there will not likely be an AE like we now know it.  It will be like
the one that is presently be proposed in which the student "studies" on
the internet (distance learning).  This will likely end with the student
taking the same assessment on the internet that was taken in high school
(as I read the above report) but with minimal human support.

A large portion of what I read on this list is about compassionate
persons who are very sensitive to the personal relationship that they
have with their students.  Where is that relationship in the above
scenario?

What I see is an educational fiasco that is much larger than the new
math fiasco.  There will be a huge investment in technology.  There will
be a total realignment of AE.  From my experience in teaching adults and
working with special ed students that will be your students, there will
be another disaster.


If you are not funded then where will you be?  Where is AE in the new
educational structure of contracted education administration by school
boards (see Philadelphia), school board oversight of charter schools,
public school provision of AE, public schools contracting out education
of students, internet high schools (see Texas),  Community Technology
Centers (see recent position posting in Thurs Notes 3/14/02)?  Are you
working for Edison School's,  are you absorbed into CTCs?  OR....?

Is anything that I say meaningful?  If so how do your present policies
and plans link to it?


Thanks for your reply
Harry

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