Category Archives: Québec

Ce que mes amis sont devenus

Quelques anciens de Notre-Dame-de-PontmainOn a bien vieilli!
Quelques anciens de Notre-Dame-de-Pontmain

C’est-tu pas une belle gang, ça? Nous étions quelques anciens de l’école primaire Notre-Dame-de-Pontmain de Laval à bruncher ensemble en ce dimanche, 26 octobre 2008. Une journée à marquer d’une pierre blanche.

via Facebook | Photos de Notre-Dame-de-Pontmain

Il y a quelque-chose de profond dans le fait de revoir des amis d’enfance. Vraiment. C’est un peu difficile à verbaliser, mais ça se comprend bien.

Il y a un peu plus d’un an, je me demandais ce que mes amis étaient devenus. Je cherchais alors à contacter quelques personnes pour les inviter à mon anniversaire de mariage. C’est d’ailleurs en préparant cet anniversaire que j’ai parcouru des réseaux d’anciens. Suite à cet anniversaire, j’ai manifesté ma fierté d’avoir des amis si fascinants. Aujourd’hui, je souhaite de nouveau célébrer l’amitié.

Pour un papillon social, c’est pas très surprenant. J’aime entrer en contact avec les gens, que je les aie connus plus tôt ou non. Que voulez-vous, j’aime le monde. Tel que mentionné dans un billet précédent, je me suis autrefois senti ostracisé. Je sais pas s’il y a une causalité entre mon identité comme papillon social et mon enfance, mais je trouve que c’est un pattern intéressant: le type porté vers les autres, qui passe une enfance plutôt solitaire, devient un papillon social à l’âge adulte. L’image de la «chenille sociale» est assez forte aussi!

Outre la publication de cette photo, ce qui me motive à écrire ce billet c’est Facebook. Si si! Parce que ce petit groupe d’anciens poursuit la discussion. Parce qu’on se «retrouve», dans un sens très profond, grâce à Facebook. Et parce que j’ai revisité ma liste d’amis sur Facebook et je suis encore plus fier.

Voyez-vous, je créais une «liste d’amis» sur Facebook, pour ces anciens du primaire. Cette fonction de liste d’amis sur Facebook est un peu limitée mais elle peut être utile si, comme tout semble l’indiquer, notre groupe d’anciens décide d’organiser d’autres événements. Pour organiser le brunch, j’ai fait parvenir une invitation à tous les membres du groupe Facebook des anciens de notre école alors que j’aurais mieux fait de cibler ceux de ma «cohorte». C’est un petit détail pratique, mais ça m’a permis de réfléchir.

Parce qu’en créant cette liste d’amis, je me suis rendu compte à quel point j’ai une idée assez précise de ce qui me lie à chacun de mes contacts sur Facebook. Dans ce cas-ci, j’ai rapidement pu sélectionner ceux que j’ai rencontrés au primaire, ceux que j’ai connus au secondaire et ceux avec qui je suis allé au Cégep. Parmi les autres, il y a des blogueurs, des musiciens, des spécialistes de la bière et/ou du café, des collègues du milieu académique, quelques amis de mes amis, quelques anciens étudiants et quelques personnes qui ont manifesté un intérêt spécifique à mon égard. Pour le reste, ce sont des gens que j’ai rencontré en-ligne ou hors-ligne, généralement dans un contexte spécifique. Sur 471 contacts que j’ai sur Facebook à l’heure actuelle, moins d’une trentaine (27, pour être précis) que je n’étais pas en mesure d’identifier immédiatement. Parmi eux, peut-être trois ou quatre par rapport auxquels persiste une certaine ambiguïté. Et plusieurs personnes qui font partie de mon réseau direct mais que je n’ai pas rencontré très directement. En d’autres termes, des gens avec qui j’ai des liens moins étroits mais dont la présence dans mon réseau social est «pleine de sens», surtout si on pense aux fameux «liens faibles» (“weak ties”). D’ailleurs, ces liens faibles constituent une part importante de ce que j’ai tendance à appeler «l’effet du papillon social», par référence à l’effet papillon d’Edward Lorenz. Pour mémoire (selon TF1):

Prévisibilité : est-ce que le battement des ailes d’un papillon au Brésil peut déclencher une tornade au Texas?

Enfin… J’inclue surtout cette citation pour conserver quelques notes au sujet de cet effet. C’est une sorte de digression assez égoïste.

Toujours est-il que… Nous disions donc… Ah… Oui!

«Retrouver» mes amis, mes connaissances, mes liens, ça fait battre mes ailes de papillon social.

Flap flap!

More Notes on Myriade

Like all my recent posts, this post about my first coffee-tasting session at Myriade followed the RERO principle: not only was it a draft but I expect to come back to it. I could update the post itself but I think it’s useful to post a few more notes about Myriade’s first day, especially since I did go back to the café in the meantime.

via First Myriade Session « Disparate

So…

First factual point: all of Myriade’s espresso drinks are based on double-shots. It doesn’t surprise me given the fact that it’s pretty much the epitome of coffee’s so-called Third Wave and double-espresso is the very basis of West Coast-style Third Wave coffee. But I still assumed they would be pulling singles as well as doubles. A corrollary of this is that their extra shot makes for a triple.

Speaking of extras… Myriade’s menus are rather unique, IMHO. Not really because of specific items which aren’t found elsewhere or because of the price structure. The way the whole set of menus work together. It’s precisely the kind of thing a business-savvy person would notice and grok right away. I merely notice it. If I had had a camera (and the fine folks at Myriade had let me), I would have posted pictures of those menus (which happen to look pretty nice, and fit into the café’s overall design). There’s something there; I can’t put my finger on it; but it’s there.

I’m not sure what my friend Chris Capell’s official job title may be. He does seem to work there as a manager, but calling him the “manager” might have been stretching a bit. Not sure about that.

Though it should be obvious from the link I used for Scott Rao, I should have mentioned that Rao is the author of The Professional Barista’s Handbook. Fittingly, Scott’s book is available for sale at Myriade. I haven’t the book yet (I’m no barista, even though I played a barista judge before), but I’ve heard very good things about it. This specific book was discussed at length in episode 61 (27:30-31:34, MP3) of the CoffeeGeek Podcast (XML). Unfortunately, however, Mark Prince‘s review of that book has yet to appear online. Hopefully, that review will appear before the well-known CoffeeGeek editor comes to Montreal.

On my second trip to Myriade today, after writing that previous post, I got a chance to try a few different things. I did tweet about one:

Having Mei Shan oolong at Myriade. Getting seaweed, black currant, puffed rice, bit of grass. Perfect complement for the Taiwanese meal I just had. (Tweet)

The Taiwanese meal was the deep fried pork chops from Bao Dao Taiwan, at Faubourg Sainte-Catherine. That place happens to be one of my favourite food court places in town (along with that one Thai Express location at Carrefour Industrielle-Alliance). The seaweed I got in that tea really made for a great complement because that meal did have seaweed in it. This combination is one I want to repeat. Either I ask Myriade for the right to bring my Bao Dao meal to eat there or I get this Mei Shan to go, and bring it to Faubourg.

On that second trip to Myriade, I also had the occasion to take a couple of sips of the Miralvalle brewed through another method and what struck me that time was vanilla chocolate. Very different from the Eva Solo I’ve had of the Miralvalle, earlier. Given my passion for flavour diversity, this was a pleasant experience.

The last thing I’ve had at Myriade today was a mixture of honey, lemon, ginger, and water. It was described as a drink popular in New Zealand and it tasted pretty much like a high-quality version of what I know as a grog, without the rum. Knowing that Kiwis have a special relationship with alcohol, I’m assuming this same drink is frequently served with rum, over in Lambland.

As you can tell, I can’t stop talking about Myriade. One thing which is great for me is that I now have two good reasons to spend time on Concordia campus (the other one being that I teach at Concordia). I sincerely think that Myriade’s presence in the neighbourhood will help me do more at Concordia, in the coming months. In fact, I’ve written the previous blogpost from my office and I had a chance to chat with one of my office-mates who tends not to overlap that much with me. If, thanks to Myriade, I end up spending time on campus every day, I’m sure to have more opportunities to talk with more Concordia people. The neat thing about this is that I really like Concordia.

As a Montrealer and a coffee geek, I can just tell that Myriade’s future is bright. No, it’s not wishful thinking. Even if it is, Myriade will still work. 😉 One sign of this is that some key members of Montreal’s coffee scene were at Myriade today and everybody seemed really enthusiastic. As I keep saying, this is Montreal’s Coffee Renaissance. I sincerely think that “all the chips are on the table” and that the time is ripe for this rebirth in coffee enthusiasm. As World Barista Champion Stephen Morrissey has said (or so I heard), during the Canadian Barista Championship in Montreal, coffee is the ideal drink for culinary enthusiasts of all kinds (foodies, chowhounds, etc.) during these tough financial times. Just about any food enthusiast in a post-industrial society (i.e. OECD members) can easily “splurge” on a very fine coffee without making that big a hole in their budget and some people in GDP-poor contexts can eventually get quality coffee, especially if culinary coffee ends up improving the deal for coffee growers.

Call me an idealist all you want, I think this rosy picture I’m drawing makes quite a bit of sense! 😎

Québécois, officiellement

Ça y est, je suis officiellement redevenu un Québécois à part entière!
Ma carte d’assurance-maladie est arrivée, trois mois après mon retour au bercail.
Ça fait une énorme différence, pour moi. Non seulement par rapport aux soins auxquels j’ai droit, mais aussi pour des questions identitaires. Je n’ai perdu mon droit à l’assurance maladie que pendant quelques mois, mais j’étais devenu étranger dans mon lieu de naissance. J’ai conservé mes deux passeports (canadien et suisse), mais mon statut de citoyen québécois était en suspens. J’aurais eu le droit de voter ou, bien sûr, de travailler au Québec. Mais je ne faisais plus partie de la collectivité québécoise. La distinction peut sembler difficile à faire, mais elle permet de complexifier les concepts de pays, nations, états qui ont été construits depuis Rousseau.
En d’autres termes, je pense à la citoyenneté hors du nationalisme.

Selling Myself Long

Been attending sessions by Meri Aaron Walker about online methods to get paid for our expertise. Meri coaches teachers about those issues.

MAWSTOOLBOX.COM

There’s also a LearnHub “course”: Jumpstart Your Online Teaching Career.

Some notes, on my own thinking about monetization of expertise. Still draft-like, but RERO is my battle cry.

Some obstacles to my selling expertise:

  • My “oral personality.”
  • The position on open/free knowledge in academia and elsewhere.
  • My emphasis on friendship and personal rapport.
  • My abilities as an employee instead of a “boss.”
  • Difficulty in assessing the value of my expertise.
  • The fact that other people have the same expertise that I think I have.
  • High stakes (though this can be decreased, in some contexts).
  • My distaste for competition/competitiveness.
  • Difficulty at selling and advertising myself (despite my social capital).
  • Being a creative generalist instead of a specialist.

Despite all these obstacles, I have been thinking about selling my services online.

One reason is that I really do enjoy teaching. As I keep saying, teaching is my hobby (when I get paid, it’s to learn how to interact with other learners and to set up learning contexts).

In fact, I enjoy almost everything in teaching (the major exception being grading/evaluating). From holding office hours and lecturing to facilitating discussions and answering questions through email. Teaching, for me, is deeply satisfying and I think that learning situations which imply the role of a teacher still make a lot of sense. I also like more informal learning situations and I even try to make my courses more similar to informal teaching. But I still find specific value in a “teaching and learning” system.

Some people seem to assume that teaching a course is the same thing as “selling expertise.” My perspective on learning revolves to a large extent on the difference between teaching and “selling expertise.” One part is that I find a difference between selling a product or process and getting paid in a broader transaction which does involve exchange about knowledge but which isn’t restricted to that exchange. Another part is that I don’t see teachers as specialists imparting their wisdom to eager masses. I see knowledge as being constructed in diverse situations, including formal and informal learning. Expertise is often an obstacle in the kind of teaching I’m interested in!

Funnily enough, I don’t tend to think of expertise as something that is easily measurable or transmissible. Those who study expertise have ways to assess something which is related to “being an expert,” especially in the case of observable skills (many of those are about “playing,” actually: chess, baseball, piano…). My personal perspective on expertise tends to be broader, more fluid. Similar to experience, but with more of a conscious approach to learning.

There also seems to be a major difference between “breadth of expertise” and “topics you can teach.” You don’t necessarily need to be very efficient at some task to help someone learn to do it. In fact, in some cases, being proficient in a domain is an obstacle to teaching in that domain, since expertise is so ingrained as to be very difficult to retrieve consciously.

This is close to “do what I say, not what I do.” I even think that it can be quite effective to actually instruct people without direct experience of these instructions. Similar to consulting, actually. Some people easily disagree with this point and some people tease teachers about “doing vs. teaching.” But we teachers do have a number of ways to respond, some of them snarkier than others. And though I disagree with several parts of his attitude, I quite like this short monologue by Taylor Mali about What Teachers Make.

Another reason I might “sell my expertise” is that I genuinely enjoy sharing my expertise. I usually provide it for free, but I can possibly relate to the value argument. I don’t feel so tied to social systems based on market economy (socialist, capitalist, communist…) but I have to make do.

Another link to “selling expertise” is more disciplinary. As an ethnographer, I enjoy being a “cultural translator.” of sorts. And, in some cases, my expertise in some domains is more of a translation from specialized speech into laypeople’s terms. I’m actually not very efficient at translating utterances from one language to another. But my habit of navigating between different “worlds” makes it possible for me to bridge gaps, cross bridges, serve as mediator, explain something fairly “esoteric” to an outsider. Close to popularization.

So, I’ve been thinking about what can be paid in such contexts which give prominence to expertise. Tutoring, homework help, consulting, coaching, advice, recommendation, writing, communicating, producing content…

And, finally, I’ve been thinking about my domains of expertise. As a “Jack of All Trades,” I can list a lot of those. My level of expertise varies greatly between them and I’m clearly a “Master of None.” In fact, some of them are merely from personal experience or even anecdotal evidence. Some are skills I’ve been told I have. But I’d still feel comfortable helping others with all of them.

I’m funny that way.

Domains of  Expertise

French

  • Conversation
  • Reading
  • Writing
  • Culture
  • Literature
  • Regional diversity
  • Chanson appreciation

Bamanan (Bambara)

  • Greetings
  • Conversation

Social sciences

  • Ethnographic disciplines
  • Ethnographic field research
  • Cultural anthropology
  • Linguistic anthropology
  • Symbolic anthropology
  • Ethnomusicology
  • Folkloristics

Semiotics

Language studies

  • Language description
  • Social dimensions of language
  • Language change
  • Field methods

Education

  • Critical thinking
  • Lifelong learning
  • Higher education
  • Graduate school
  • Graduate advising
  • Academia
  • Humanities
  • Social sciences
  • Engaging students
  • Getting students to talk
  • Online teaching
  • Online tools for teaching

Course Management Systems (Learning Management Systems)

  • Oncourse
  • Sakai
  • WebCT
  • Blackboard
  • Moodle

Social networks

  • Network ethnography
  • Network analysis
  • Influence management

Web platforms

  • Facebook
  • MySpace
  • Ning
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • Jaiku
  • YouTube
  • Flickr

Music

  • Cultural dimensions of music
  • Social dimensions of music
  • Musicking
  • Musical diversity
  • Musical exploration
  • Classical saxophone
  • Basic music theory
  • Musical acoustics
  • Globalisation
  • Business models for music
  • Sound analysis
  • Sound recording

Beer

  • Homebrewing
  • Brewing techniques
  • Recipe formulation
  • Finding ingredients
  • Appreciation
  • Craft beer culture
  • Brewing trends
  • Beer styles
  • Brewing software

Coffee

  • Homeroasting
  • Moka pot brewing
  • Espresso appreciation
  • Coffee fundamentals
  • Global coffee trade

Social media

Blogging

  • Diverse uses of blogging
  • Writing tricks
  • Workflow
  • Blogging platforms

Podcasts

  • Advantages of podcasts
  • Podcasts in teaching
  • Filming
  • Finding podcasts
  • Embedding content

Technology

  • Trends
  • Geek culture
  • Equipment
  • Beta testing
  • Troubleshooting Mac OS X

Online Life

Communities

  • Mailing-lists
  • Generating discussions
  • Entering communities
  • Building a sense of community
  • Diverse types of communities
  • Community dynamics
  • Online communities

Food

  • Enjoying food
  • Cooking
  • Baking
  • Vinaigrette
  • Pizza dough
  • Bread

Places

  • Montreal, Qc
  • Lausanne, VD
  • Bamako, ML
  • Bloomington, IN
  • Moncton, NB
  • Austin, TX
  • South Bend, IN
  • Fredericton, NB
  • Northampton, MA

Pedestrianism

  • Carfree living
  • Public transportation
  • Pedestrian-friendly places

Tools I Use

  • PDAs
  • iPod
  • iTunes
  • WordPress.com
  • Skype
  • Del.icio.us
  • Diigo
  • Blogger (Blogspot)
  • Mac OS X
  • Firefox
  • Flock
  • Internet Explorer
  • Safari
  • Gmail
  • Google Calendar
  • Google Maps
  • Zotero
  • Endnote
  • RefWorks
  • Zoho Show
  • Wikipedia
  • iPod touch
  • SMS
  • Outlining
  • PowerPoint
  • Slideshare
  • Praat
  • Audacity
  • Nero Express
  • Productivity software

Effective Web searches

Socialization

  • Social capital
  • Entering the field
  • Creating rapport
  • Event participation
  • Event hosting

Computer Use

  • Note-taking
  • Working with RSS feeds
  • Basic programing concepts
  • Data manipulations

Research Methods

  • Open-ended interviewing
  • Qualitative data analysis

Personal

  • Hedonism
  • Public speaking
  • GERD
  • Strabismus
  • Moving
  • Cultural awareness

Four-Hundred Years

So, apparently, today is Quebec City’s actual 400th birthday:

Samuel de Champlain — Britannica Online Encyclopedia

The whole year is designated as «Le 400è de Québec» so it’s interesting to have a precise date.

Obviously, we could quibble as to the significance of any given date. And there’s a lot to say about the negative impact of colonialism. So, the title refers to Bob Marley as much as to Quebec City’s celebration.

Judging Eastern Canadian Espresso

For an ethnographer, it’s always a treat to gain entry in a new group. These past few days, I was given a glimpse, and possibly even some new contacts, into an espresso scene which includes dedicated coffee professionals from diverse regions.

I was acting as a sensory judge for the Eastern Regional competition of the Canadian Barista Championship, right here in Montreal.

Part of this event was blogged:

» Blog Archive » Bravo Montreal!

Though the event was held on Sunday (June 15) and Monday (June 16), I haven’t been able to report back on the experience until today. And I still haven’t completely debriefed with myself about this.

A general comment I can make is that there does seem to be a move toward an enhanced espresso scene in Eastern Canada. And although this recent competition’s first place was given to a barista from Ottawa (sincere congratulations, Laura!), I maintain that Montreal can be at the centre of a coffee renaissance.

Of course, I’m completely biased. And I’ve been talking about this same issue for a while. What is new, for me, is direct experience in Montreal’s espresso scene. Participant-observation in a very literal sense.

As a personal aside: though it’s the furthest thing from what I try to be, some people tend to find me intimidating, in daily life. As a judge, I was apparently quite intimidating, even to people who already knew me. I usually feel weird when people find me intimidating but, given the context, the reaction seems quite appropriate. I had to maintain a straight face and to refrain from interacting with competitors throughout the competition. Though it was a bit hard to do at first, it seems to have worked. And I felt very consistent, fair, and impartial throughout the competition.

Also somewhat personal, but more directly related to the task at hand, being a judge required me to temporarily change my perspective on espresso. Specifically, I had to separate my personal taste from the competition calibration. This barista championship has some strict guidelines, taken from the World Barista Championship. We weren’t judging whether or not the espresso was flavourful or complex. We were assessing the degree to which baristas were able to produce espresso which responded to some very specific criteria. To this ethical hedonist, it was a challenge. But it wasn’t as difficult a challenge as I expected.

Since my approach to food and beverages is based on reflective olfaction, the fact that aromas weren’t part of the judging calibration seemed especially surprising to me.

Obviously, I observed a lot more. And I could blog about my perception of the competitors. Yet because I was acting as a judge, talking about specific competitors would seem unethical. On the other hand, I will have occasions to talk with some former competitors and give them my impression of their work. This should be quite fun.

So, overall, I’m quite grateful to everyone involved for an occasion to get a glimpse into a part of Eastern Canada’s espresso scene.

Should be fun during the national competition of the Canadian Barista Championship, which will be held on October 21 and 21, during the Canadian Coffee & Tea Show. Not sure I’ll be a judge then, but I’m convinced it’ll be a fine event.

And We're Still Lecturing

Forty years ago this month, students in Paris started a movement of protests and strikes. May ’68.

Among French-speakers, the events are remembered as the onset of a cultural revolution of sorts (with both negative and positive connotations). As we reached the 40 year anniversary of those events, some journalists and commentators have looked back at the social changes associated with the Paris student revolts of May, 1968.

The May ’68 movement also had some pedagogical bases. Preparing an online course, these days, I get to think about learning. And to care about students.

As I was yet to be born at the time, May ’68 resonates more for generational reasons than pedagogical ones. But a Montreal journalist who observed some of those events 40 years ago has been talking about what she perceived as irrationality surrounding such issues as abolishing lecture-based courses («cours magistraux»).

This journalist’s reaction and a cursory comparison of the present situation with what I’ve heard of pre-1968 teaching both lead me on a reflection path about learning. Especially in terms of lecturing.

As a social constructivist, I have no passion for “straight lectures.” On occasion, I bemoan the fact that lecturing is (still) the primary teaching mode in many parts of the world. The pedagogical ideas forcefully proposed more than a generation ago are apparently not prevalent in most mainstream educational systems.

What happened?

This is an especially difficult question for an idealist like me. We wish for change. Change happens. Then, some time later, changes have been reversed. Maybe more progressively. But, it seems, inexorably.

Sisyphean. Or, maybe, buddhist.

Is it really the way things work?

Possibly. But I prefer to maintain my idealism.

So… Before I was born, some baby-booming students in Paris revolted against teaching practises. We still talk about it. Nowadays, these teaching practises against which students revolted are apparently quite common in Paris universities. As they are in many other parts of the world. But not exactly everywhere.

Online learning appears more compatible with teaching methods inspired by social constructivism (and constructionism) than with “straight lecturing.” My idealism for alternative learning methods is fed partly by online learning.

Online lectures are possible. Yet the very structure of online communication implies some freedoms in the way lecture attendees approach these “teachings.”

At the very least, online lectures make few requirements in terms of space. Technically, a student could be watching online lectures while laying down on a beach. Beaches sound like a radically different context from the large lecture halls out of which some ’68ers decided to “take to the streets.”

Contrary to classroom lectures, online lectures may allow time-shifting. In some cases, prerecorded lectures (or podcasts) may be paused, rewinded, fastforwarded, etc. Learning for the TiVo generation?

Online lectures also make painfully obvious the problems with straight lecturing. The rigid hierarchy. Students’ relative facelessness. The lack of interactivity. The content focus. All these work well for “rote learning.” But there are other ways to learn.

Not that memorization plays no part in learning or that there is no value in the “retention of [a text’s] core information” (Schaefer 2008: xxi). It’s just that… Many of us perceive learning to be more than brain-stuffing.

As should be obvious from my tone and previous posts, I count myself as one of those who perceive lectures to be too restrictive. Oh, sure, I’ve lectured to large and medium-sized classrooms. In fact, I even enjoy lecturing when I get to do it. And I fully realize that there are many possible approaches to teaching. In fact, my observation is that teaching methods are most effective when they are adapted to a specific situation, not when they follow some set of general principles. In this context, lecturing may work well when “lecturer and lecturees are in sync.” When students and teacher are “on the same page,” lectures can be intellectually stimulating, thought-provoking, challenging, useful. Conversely, alternative teaching methods can have disastrous consequences when they are applied haphazardly by people who were trained with “straight lecturing” in mind. In fact, my perception is that many issues with Quebec’s most recent education reform (the “competency based program” about which Quebec parents have been quite vocal) are associated with the indiscriminate application of constructivist/constructionist principles to all learning contexts in the province. IMHO, a more flexible application of the program coupled with considerate teacher training might have prevented several of the problems which plagued Quebec’s reform.

Unlike ’68ers, I don’t want to abolish lectures. I just hope we can adopt a diversity of methods in diverse contexts.

Back in 1968, my father was a student of Jean Piaget, in Geneva. Many of Piaget’s ideas about learning were quite compatible with what Parisian students were clamoring for.

Beyond the shameless name-dropping, my mentioning Piaget relates to something I perceive as formative. Both in my educational and in my personal lives. My mother had much more of an impact on my life. But my father supplied me with something of the Piaget spirit. And this spirit is found in different places. Including online.

The compatibility between online learning and lecture-less teaching methods seems to be a topic for frequent discussions among eLearning circles including LearnHubNing, and the Moodle community. Not that online technology determines pedagogical methods. But the “fit” of online technology with different approaches to learning and teaching is the stuff constructionist teachers’ dreams are made of.

One dimension of the “fit” is in terms of flexibility. Online, learners may (and are sometimes forced to) empower themselves using personal methods. Not that learners are left to their own devices. But the Internet is big and “wild” enough to encourage survival strategies in learning contexts. Perhaps more than the lecture hall, the online world makes critical thinking vital. And critical thinking may lead to creative and innovative solutions.
Another dimension to the fit, and one which may be more trivial than some EdTech enthusiasts seem to assume, is the “level of interactivity” afforded diverse online tools. You know, the Flash-based or other learning objects which should make learning fun and effective. I personally like the dancing mice a lot. But my impression is that these cool tools require too much effort for their possible learning outcomes. I do, however, have high hopes for the kind of interactivity common to the “social platform” sometimes known (perhaps abusively) as “Web 2.0.” Putting things online is definitely not a panacea for adequate pedagogical practise. And while “School 2.0” is an interesting concept, the buzzwordiness of some of these concepts makes me take pause. But, clearly, some students are using adequate learning strategies through the interactive character of online communication.

As I’ll be teaching online for several weeks, I’ll surely have many other things to say about these learning issues in a pseudo-historical context. In the meantime, I assume that this blogpost may bring me some thoughtful comments. 😉

Reminiscing about Mont-de-La Salle

While discussing educational systems in relation to Finnish results in the OECD’s PISA results, I got to think about my high school. Here’s a slightly edited version of my forum post.

Focusing on those who need help? Interesting learning philosophy. Several WSJ forum comments mentioned this and it goes well with some parts of the article itself.

As it so happens, this is close to the model used at the high school I attended. 😉 This high school (École secondaire Mont-de-La Salle) was a “semi-alternative school” («école semi-alternative»). The school was consistently the highest-scoring public school in the province while I was there. 🙂
One thing about that school was that, contrary to many other schools, there wasn’t much of a stigma attached to academic success. Those who got high grades weren’t “called names.” And though some students were probably a bit condescending, having difficulty grasping some of the material was viewed as a normal thing. Students would help each other out quite frequently.
One thing about our school was that we had increasing amounts of free time. From 20% the first year to 50% the third and final year, IIRC. For many of us, that time was devoted to a passion which often remained important throughout our lives. For instance, like most members of the concert band, I spent a good proportion of that time on private rehearsal. Chances are that I wouldn’t have become an ethnomusicologist if it hadn’t been for that time.
Another dimension of our schedule which was quite useful is that we had “resource center” time («centre de ressources»). During that time, a teacher would be available for questions and students would try and help each other out.
Partly through the whole dynamic (and partly through self-selection), we had incredibly dedicated teachers. The kind of teacher who actually answered questions when you bumped into her/him in the corridor. I distinctly remember a math teacher to scribbling down some explanations to a problem on a student’s locker door. And things like these weren’t uncommon.

Obviously, many people complained about the way the school worked. Some people said that it encouraged dropouts. In fact, before I attended it, the school had a reputation for soft drug use. When I attended that school, I know some students smoked pot (and I remember smelling it on occasion) but it actually wasn’t ever an issue for me. I didn’t want to smoke so I never smoked. And, contrary to many private schools, hard drugs weren’t common.
Apart from the fact that I tremendously enjoyed my time at that high school and that it actually opened my horizons, I sincerely think that it was excellent preparation for college (Cegep), which was excellent preparation for university. For those of us in music, the training was especially valuable and a disproportionate number of us went on to play in different contexts. Friends of mine who pursued careers in hard sciences found some college courses easier than some of what we had in high school.
We were also very engaged in learning. When the school board threatened to close our school, some of us demonstrated peacefully while school was off. We organized a campaign to mobilize parents and to help school board commissioners see the value in our school. We eventually “won” in the sense that the school wasn’t closed. But they merged it with another school which followed a more “mainstream” model and eventually changed the educational model used at our school. From what I heard, that school is now pretty much like any other school in that same school board.
Ah, well…

Sure, it’s partly nostalgia. But there was something special about that school. Not only for me. For a significant number of students attending MDLS in the late 1980s. We cared and we became engaged students.

Like Finnish high schools described in the Wall Street Journal, our school was about equal opportunity, not about internal competition. We did compete with other schools in some contexts. But we usually didn’t care so much about school rivalries.

Ok. This “we” may not apply to everyone who attended MDLS during those years. But there were enough of us to make for an interesting dynamic.

A criticism which might be levelled at us is that, in a way, many of us were likely budding young geeks. Given the current state of things in North America, I’m personally not sure that this part is so much of a problem.

Obviously, this all reminds me of social networks and their current online forms. There are several MDLS groups on Facebook and it hasn’t been that difficult for me to reconnect with some school friends through Retrouvailles, Classmates, and Facebook itself. Although, there still are some people about whom I haven’t heard anything in many years.

Ah, well…

Comportement dans le métro de Montréal

Quelques principes de base qui peuvent aider à diminuer le niveau de stress de tout le monde.Facebook | LES RÈGLES DU MÉTRO – “ÇA SE FAIT PAS, ÇA !”J’ai  partagé ce lien sur Facebook et un de mes amis m’a répond que cette liste de règles semblait assez agressive.Ma réponse à ce commentaire: 

Ça ressemble à de la frustration accumulée. Mon attitude est en général moins agressive mais je peux comprendre que quelqu’un soit réellement tanné.En fait, quand je voyais du monde adopter les comportements décriés dans cette liste, je souriais en me disant que le monde se donnait pas le tour pour être de bonne humeur.Par exemple, le coup du sac à dos. Ça m’est déjà arrivé d’être avec une personne que j’apprécie beaucoup et qui était enragée avec le monde du métro. Cette même personne portait un sac à dos et dérangeait le monde sans s’en rendre compte.Ou le truc de rentrer dans un wagon avec les autres soient sortis. Ceux qui le font ont souvent l’air tannés eux-mêmes. Mais s’ils attendaient trois secondes, ça prendrait moins de temps pour tout le monde.J’aurais des choses à ajouter à la liste mais comme je suis plus dans le réseau Montréal, je peux pas m’inscrire.Un de mes “pet peeves” c’est le fait qu’à Berri, dans l’escalier entre les directions Côte-Vertu et Angrignon (vers l’arrière de la trame), les gens prennent l’escalier à gauche comme à droite de la rampe, ce qui fait que ça prend beaucoup plus de temps pour tout le monde. Et c’est souvent du monde pressés, fatigués, tannés…Sinon, il y a ceux qui laissent leurs «poussettes de compétition» en plein milieu du wagon, en pleine heure de pointe. Ça m’a déjà fait écrire un “rant“.

Évidemment, ça me fait un peu drôle de penser à tout ça alors que je suis à 2000 miles de Montréal… 😉