ARRFF proves versatile

I first saw the ARRFF learning model here... http://change.mooc.ca/how.htm and I thought it was quite neat, moderately useful: (1) Aggregate (2) Remix (3) Repurpose (4) Feed Forward. But the more I've worked with it, the more it grows on me. If you're familiar with the COLLES survey (built-in in Moodle) then you'll understand me when I say I choose "Almost always" to question 5, "I think critically about how I learn". I decide to have a period of Aggregation and I don't even attempt to move on to Remix. This phase could last three days or three months. Then one day I'll take two index cards I've scribbled notes on and push them together, and I know I've moved into Remix. Like some people go into rehab, but I go into remix. Re-purpose may follow swiftly, or it may be a long time in gestation. At some point much further downstream there'll be an article, or a blog post, and I'll have Fed Forward. Some people I talk to see it as being a bit like spiral development; but for me it's pretty linear more like the weather map... it's kind of nebulous (pun intended), and it may trend north or south, but it marches resolutely from west to east. As the last idea exits right, a new system is building in the Tasman. Although I work with a lot of other models for clients, MOOC's ARRFF seems to entirely cover my own lifelong learning meta-needs.

Black arts

We heard a lot about Generation Y today. It made me flick through the pages of Peter Sheahan's book again, reminding myself of his various insights. On page 96 he quotes Linda Botter: "What Generation Y want to know are the intangibles. How are you going to develop me?" Translating that into my speak... they want to be given ownership of the process. They want to plug and play. So I think it may be time that teachers revealed the secrets of their black arts, their pedagogies. I certainly have no problem with that... here are mine... Park 4 Types, Vectors, CLD, MOOC, and of course a test for VARK. It all fits on a side of A4 and can be grasped by a novice in about 10 minutes. Given the process, and encouraged in model thinking, and in critical thinking, and if STEM then in the scientific method, all that is left is to release them into the problem domain. They will find their own way. It's not so much about what we do, as what we are prepared to relinquish; to not do.