Self Managed Learnin Centers

1.0 The Philosophy

The philosophy of Self Managed Learning Centers – SMLC – reflects a belief that there will be an inevitable shift by society to developing a greater dependence on technology and that such a dependence will have a direct impact on educational organizational structure. Coupled with this belief, there is also the view that the present educational organizational structure is unsustainable and that if governments continue to reflect a 19th approach to a 21st challenge society runs the risk of becoming less egalitarian. This situation will branch from an inability of education to adequately cater to the needs of society because of the dependence of society on technology and the inability of government world wide, through education, to adequately implement or facilitate learning. These developments will stem from the parsimonious actions of governments, as they will be required to grapple with the ever-increasing burden of peak infrastructure. Peak Infrastructure is a term that reflects the same condition as peak oil when society finally realizes ‘that there is no more oil to find and that from here on in it’s all down hill’. Similarly, peak infrastructure relates to the time when governments realize that they will need to choose between infrastructure and taxes, in that the continued burden of governments on education, roads, health etc will become unsustainable without massive amounts of capital.

When peak infrastructure is reached, it will be too late for society to look for alternatives, for its delivery of a number of key elements: Education and Health. SMLC are developed around the need to undertake the re – construction of educational organizational structure via the implementation of a curriculum that reflects an entrepreneurial approach to the delivery of education in the 21st century and beyond that will ameliorate the shock of peak infrastructure. The eventuality of the movement of society to a more technology dependent structure, noted by the term ‘the singularity’, will also culminate in creating within society a greater division between ‘rich and poor’ as technology will play a more seminal role in employment.

One of the seminal elements of the development of SMLC is based around the implementation of a structured educational curriculum focusing on the student’s acquisition of self-managed learning skills. Self – managed learning skills (SMLS)
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is a developmental process that students undertake during the course of their education. It commences at the early stages of introduction to education in the K – 5 areas and continues to expand through the 6 – 12 areas. The application of SMLS revolves around a holistic approach (HA) to the delivery of education. An HA to education incorporates the university, school and family with each working in a symbiotic relationship. This relationship acknowledges the link that needs to exist between the three areas in order to ensure the development of a SMLC’s.
The development of SMLC’s will therefore incorporate the establishment of educational links with university to school and a continued development of those links via the family. In this way the nexuses that will be created ensures that SMLS become a seminal aspect in the early thinking skill development of students. Consequently, students in K – 5 will be introduced to the teacher facilitator(TF) philosophy whereby teachers within the K – 5 areas will deliver a curriculum that concentrates on ensuring that students acquire a mastering of numeracy and literacy skills. The acquisition of those skills will stem from the introduction and implementation of technology that will facilitate the learning of students by encouraging them to move towards self – managed learning. Self – managed learning will ultimately be the vehicle by which governments will be able to implement an educational system devoid of the constraints that are currently plaguing it. It will be through self – managed learning that an entrepreneurial approach to education will be introduced and successfully implemented. This introduction will culminate in the creation of self – managed learning centers.

The focus of SMLC’s will be three fold. Firstly, they will facilitate the introduction of technology within education to ensure that there will be equal access to all members of society. Secondly, SMLC’s should build the necessary infrastructure, within education, to ensure the development of an organizational network capable of delivering education on a number of sustainable and flexible levels. Finally, SMLC’s will be the vehicle by which the transition from the current delivery of education, a teacher-centered model, to a model more conjunctive to ‘the singularity’ will take place. This transition will be the result of a change in the focus of a educational model that encourages the development of critical thinking skills coalesced with student self – managed learning. SMLC’s therefore, are the culmination of the implementation of an holistic approach to education emphasizing a teacher facilitator pedagogy coupled with an emphasis on student self – managed leaning. A holistic approach to education emphasizes the development of links between university, school and
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family. It focuses on a need to ensure the establishment of a safety net designed to ensure that students in the K – 5 areas are adequately catered for with respect their numeracy and literacy skills. The central development of this safety net will be aided through the use of technology designed and developed to work in conjunction with the school and family to facilitate the managed learning of students, with an emphasis on self – managed learning.

Educational skill acquisition will be based on outcomes, specific to each year. Those outcomes will be reflected through both numeracy and literacy. The facilitation of the student’s learning will be undertaken through the development of a teacher facilitator philosophy designed to utilize technology so as to rapidly acquire and assess the learning of individual students. The development and implementation of this technology will incorporate a three - pronged approach to the learning of students. This approach will center on the developing a reading module focusing on ensuring that each student’s literacy acquisition is carefully monitored. However, a mathematical module will be developed to similarly address the numeracy area. Both of these modules will rely heavily on the inclusion of technology in monitoring the learning of students. It will be through this monitoring that teachers will be able to facilitate and manage the learning of individual students, through K – 5.

The K – 5 learning environment will represent the focus on the initial development of both the student centered self – managed learning and teacher facilitator. A concerted effort will be undertaken in the K – 5 learning environment to create the development of Self – Managed Learning Centers. Hence, SMLC will have their inchoate development in the foundations of a multi – tasked learning environment that encourages the use of technology to manage the learning of students via a teacher facilitator. Within the K – 5 learning environment there will be an emphasis on establishing the foundations for the student self – management philosophy. The teacher, in conjunction with both the university and family, will facilitate this development. A vertical curriculum will be introduced within the school’s learning environment emphasizing a multi – tasking teaching environment focusing on multi – level facilitating teaching. A multi – level teaching environment MLTE will see the introduction of content that will move the student through a sliding content that focuses on encouraging the development of self – managed learning. As a student moves through the K – 5 learning environment their work is assessed via technology. When a student begins to exhibit qualities
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that reflect an increasing level of self-managed learning there is a commensurate decrease in the input of the facilitating teacher. Hence, as the student progressively acquires a more self – managed approach there exists the opportunity to create Self – Managed Learning Centers that are created to facilitate the learning of students as they enter years 6 – 12. These Centers would represent the vehicle by which an egalitarian society can be developed. Such a society would see the implementation of educational organizational structures developed around a philosophy espousing a belief that focuses on the establishment of multi – layered view to education. This view would see the development of private and government educational facilities responding to the needs of individuals via technology. A development that would reflect a divergence from the year 6 – 12 educational format. Such a divergence would represent the establishment of Learning Centers based not on the academic ability of the student but rather their capacity to exhibit self – managed learning. A capacity to exhibit self managed learning would be reflected in the student's ability to interact with technology with little facilitation from a teacher. However, the greater dependence on the teacher, facilitator, the less the dependence on technology. It would be envisaged that under this structure individuals who exhibit self management learning traits would be engaged in a non – government structure whilst students who are less self managed would be aligned to a government structure. In this way a more entrepreneurial approach to education could be implemented and developed.

2. The foundations of Self Managed Learning Centers.

The basic tenet surrounding Self Managed Learning Centers is that their genesis is dependent upon the establishment of the introduction of the Integrated Teaching Model – ITM, in to universities. ITM focuses on linking education within a holistic framework whereby the university, school and family are all directly linked to the education of the student. The underpinning element of ITM is the introduction of the teacher facilitator pedagogy which espouses a view to education that encourages students towards attaining self managed learning. Within the development of the teacher facilitator model an emphasis is placed on the introduction and application of technology, that encourages an educational environment that is focused on managing student learning. Consequently, the focus for students will be not just simply academic success but also an ability to move towards a self managed learning environment were the student is able to interact with technology on a virtual level. As students move through the educational matrix
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from K – 5 their education will focus on ensuring that the basic skills of literacy and numeracy are addressed, with an emphasis on encouraging and developing a self manged learning approach to schooling. It will be within the K – 5 area that an emphasis will be placed on the teacher facilitator model whereby, the teacher will focus on managing the learning of the student. Hence, as the student moves beyond year 5 to 6 – 12 their interaction with technology will increase as their self manged learning skills also develop. Eventually, in the upper years 8 – 12 students should become fully imbibed with the self managed learning approach and therefore, at this stage are able to interact with technology on a virtual level.

For those students who are unable to develop specific levels of self manged learning they will continue to move through the educational matrix, constantly being engaged by the teacher facilitator and having their educational content directed towards attaining self manged learning along with numeracy and literacy skills. In this way, the development of the educational organizational structure is one that will facilitate the learning of individuals within a framework that encourages students to move out of the mainstream educational environment, teacher facilitator, to one of self manged learning espousing a virtual paradigm. Therefore, within this model funding can be directed towards the efforts of improving all individuals involved in the educational process. This will be achieved because self managed students, by virtue of this skill acquisition, will be able to interact with technology on a virtual level. Whilst, students who have not acquired the necessary self manged learning skills can still have their needs attended to and as they progress through the organization, and acquire a greater degree of self manged learning they are able to move away in to the main stream.

In this way every student will be able to acquire various levels of self manged learning and skill acquisition. Consequently, the introduction of technology will not have an adverse effect on individuals due to the 'smooth transition' created by the implementation of the model.

3. Development of Self Managed Learning Centers.

The development of Self Managed Learning Centers will focus on four seminal points. Integrated Teaching Model, Technology, Teacher Facilitator Pedagogy and Entrepreneurial Education. Before, the establishment of any of the other three areas there needs to be an integration of university, school and family.
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This integration will need to be established via the Integrated Teaching Model or ITM. ITM highlights the need to ensure that educational links are established between university, school and family so that the education process is undertaken via a holistic approach. This focus is seminal to the development of Self Managed Learning Centers (SMLC) because the key skill area of literacy, encompassing computer literacy, is interwoven within a holistic framework. It is through the holistic approach that technology and its attributes can be imbibed by society. The emphasis is on establishing a need, and a credible link, for the application of technology and the benefits that can be derived from that technology. Hence, the outcomes for all in society are moving towards an 'egalitarian' structure as opposed to the current 'hit and miss' structure.

Universities, within the ITM framework, must acknowledge that they are responsible for the education of the whole of society and not just the select few. This development will take place, not by allowing all individuals access to universities, but rather universities undertaking to develop a more entrepreneurial approach to the delivery of education. Under this development universities, particularly faculties of Education, must actively seek to develop future markets for educators of the 21st century and beyond. Those markets will encourage the introduction and application of technology so that technology and the educational establishment are able to maintain a sustainable and credible link. Consequently, under this model education will be dispersed throughout society. Coupled with this universities, must encourage the establishment of 'Think Tanks' focusing on the development, application and implementation of technology, in conjunction with educators, to facilitate the next generation of tools designed to facilitate the managed learning of students. These 'Think Tanks' need to be interconnected, on a world wide stage, and engaged in the active creation of concepts that are focused on delivering education to society in the 21st century and beyond. Those same 'Think Tanks' also need to be linked with 'cluster schools' whereby, concepts can be discussed and expanded upon through teacher, student and parent involvement. In this way the advances that occur in the application of technology can be derived by not only large businesses but also the interaction that can occur between universities and those same businesses. The development of the application of the technology can therefore, be the product of a number of principle players who can, in some ways, link ownership to the creation of that technology. Hence, the technology is no longer deemed as a threat or something that is foreign.

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Once the ITM concept has been imbibed by the university the faculty of Education, needs to establish links with ICT distributors and suppliers, with a view to driving the development of future ICT's. Within the framework of the university those links could also include the ICT faculty at the university. The establishment of this type of link will help to create the necessary vehicle by which further research and development, at the university, can take place in conjunction with society, school and family, and further enhance the capacity to undertake an entrepreneurial approach to the delivery of education. This will be created via the educational organizational structure.

Educational Organization structure will need to undertake a metamorphosis in that the development of that structure and should focus on three areas – pedagogy, content and self manged learning. At university the emphasis will be on educating teachers to undertake an approach to teaching education, in the K – 7 area, that focuses on a teacher facilitator pedagogy. This pedagogy will emphasize the need to manage student learning, and to encourage students to undertake a more self managed or self directed approach to education. The emphasis here is on creating an educational environment, in the 8 – 12 years that will help students to become more technology centered, virtual teacher, and less teacher facilitator centered. Consequently, there will be an emphasis, in the K – 7 area of maximizing student learning, via the introduction of technology that will be facilitated by the teacher. Hence, in this period the student's learning will be augmented by the teacher facilitator engaged in managing the student's learning via technology.

Content will emphasize the need to establish literacy and numeracy skills in the foundation years of education, in particular computer literacy skills. Consequently, there will be an emphasis on developing the literacy and numeracy skills of all students in the K – 7 area plus ensuring that those skill acquisitions are related to individualization via technology. Couple with this the individualization of those skills will reflect a 'family' involvement in cementing those skills within the home environment. This will not be undertaken within a homework type philosophy but rather a integrated approach whereby, the family will review material through reinforcement at home. By undertaking this approach technology will facilitate learning through focusing on raising user satisfaction by broaden participation and support.

A primary school teacher has 45 students that have just entered their class
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for the first time. The students are in grade 1 and are of mixed ability. There are two key areas that the teacher will need to assess very quickly – literacy and numeracy. How will the teacher undertake that activity?

This will be accomplished with the assistance of the 'Literacy Evaluation Tool'. A tool developed to facilitate learning through focusing on raising user satisfaction by broaden participation and support. The school which the students will be attending has developed a reading program that focuses on skill acquisition, with a clear emphasis on critical thinking. This reading program commences with the establishment of very clear outcomes for students, in grade 1, with respect their reading, writing, speaking and listening. Those skill acquisitions are focused on technology and the ability of technology to support relationships and activities that enrich the uses experience that are in harmony with the user. This content will focus on three areas. Firstly, word recognition both visual and oral, secondly, word contextual (meaning) and finally, word application. Word visual and oral has an emphasis on students being able to recite the word correctly and to locate the word within a given context. Contextual, refers to the use of the word in a given application, whilst word application relates to connecting a number of words, together to form sentences. Sub planted within this content are also aspects of grammar and punctuation.

The student will undertake managed learning via the tool and that learning would involve the following. Firstly, the outcomes for the grade 1 students would be developed and the content specific material would have been formulated. For example, all of the reading material relating to student outcomes would have been obtained via the online process. This would entail the 100 books that are related to the outcomes. For example, by the end of year 1 students should be able to read these level of books. From this the student's individual spelling list would be developed. All of the words that are related to all of the reading material, that is related to all of the outcomes. Secondly, the use of data acquisition tools that have been developed to enable the teacher to achieve their goals rapidly and gracefully in an atmosphere of trust and responsibility. And that these tools are specifically related to the human needs of the teacher so that in future they could help guide the design for information and communication technologies. Finally, the application of this format is linked directly to the university that has instigated a link with this implementation of technology and it's course structure. Hence, student teachers engaged in pre – service activities associated with this
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class are directly exposed to the use of technology to assist in the management of student learning. Further more the data obtained from the tool can be accessed by the Principal of the school, the parents/caregivers and follow the student throughout their school lives as it could be passed from one class to the next one school to the next.

New computing must be innovative, focus on raising user satisfaction broaden participation and support meaningful accomplishments. Education is the only organization that takes on new groups of people every year and assumes that those students have acquired specific skills. Unfortunately, it can take weeks before we find out if a student has actually grasped a skill or not and by then in some cases it will be too late. The tool outlined will attempt to address this situation via implementing a computing tool that is innovative and that focuses on raising user satisfaction, broaden participation and support meaningful accomplishments. This will be achieved by the following. Firstly, the tool that will be developed will have an assessment, evaluation and teaching application. This application will engage teacher, student, university, technology, undergraduate, caregivers and society. The tool's application will focus on the development of a Literacy Evaluation Tool that can perform tasks, within hours, that would have usually taken the teacher weeks to undertake. Those tasks would involve using technology to acquire data rapidly on individual students so that the information on those students can be promulgated and therefore, disseminated to all those involved in the learning process.

Hence, via this tool the teacher will be able to learn more about the student's skill acquisition and then develop strategies that could either enhance those skills or undertake tasks that will address possible short falls. That information about student skill acquisition can be forwarded directly to care givers, with possible strategies to further assist student's skill acquisition. Clearly, there are a number of groups in society that could benefit from this information. Secondly, the application of the tool would be linked directly to the course work of the undergraduate thereby, linking their course work inextricably to that of the class. In this way the implementation of this tool will also address the learning skills of the undergraduate and move away from the view that most users of the internet are not interested in technology they are focused on their own information needs and relationships. This will occur because a direct relationship will exist between the information needs of the undergraduate and
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their relationship with the students, university and teacher mentors. They same can be said for the care givers as their information too is now linked to the relationship that will be developed between the school, teacher and themselves. Finally, as the application of this technology begins to take effect its development will become more a symbiotic relationship between the universities and the developers of the technology. Coupled with this, as the development begins to expand out the four circles of relationships (that are interconnected via the ITM process) are further enhanced and this will culminate in the acceleration of technological innovations. Why? Because technology within this application will have a immediate and far reaching impact on the school's community. How will this occur? Through the application of aspects of the various forms of technology.

First off, there will need to be a tool that can research the net to locate reading material that relates to the outcomes associated with grade 1. Then that same tool needs to be able to selectively create lists of spelling that are directly related to those reading material. Those lists will need to be extensive and repetitive. Coupled with this this will also need to be a tool that can undertake the task of both the oral and listening component. This tool will need to be able to read the word to the student and also listen to the student's response, rating the student's response against a master. A tool will also need to be developed that can rate the student's reading against a master that is specific to the outcomes of the grade 1 student. A lot of this technology is currently available and is being used like most software . . . for individual use. What is being advocated here is the integration of this technology. Finally, all of this needs to be linked to data capsule that is able to analyze the information for the teacher to interpret.

The final stage of this development will be the movement towards self manged learning. Here the emphasis will be on the acquisition of skills that are associated with not only academic performance but also the student's ability to interact with technology in a self manged way. In this way, the student will be able to interact with technology in a virtual format devoid of the current constraints that exit within our present day educational structure. The outcomes for this development will be that as the student requires less human interaction, teacher facilitator input, they are acquiring more virtual learning skills that will enable them to move in to the mainstream educational organization environment. This educational environment will be driven by a government and non – government
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educational sector comprised of Self Managed Learning Centers. Those learning centers will be developed around an environment that encompasses a number of educational outcomes. Therefore, the focus of these centers will be to undertake activities in conjunction with other private providers within the community. In this way, for example, each school would not require it own sport's field or swimming pool etc. rather there will be an integration of these facilities and that integration will be shared by a number of Self Managed Learning establishments. In this way the focus of the Self Learning Centers is focused on the acquisition of skills in a number of areas and those skill acquisitions are based around the involvement of the community at various levels.

By developing these centers there are a number of areas that can be addressed and ameliorated. Firstly, students who enter the education system in their formative years are focused on acquiring skills that will be essential for the 21st century and beyond. Secondly, society via the model will also benefit from the application of these centers as their development, with respect their holistic approach will impact directly on the family. Thirdly, by developing this type of approach the education process can allow for the integration of technology and thereby, enhance its development as opposed to retard it. Fourthly, avenues are created for the creation of a number of markets whereby, future educationalists will have the opportunities to within the educational area so that the impact of 'the singularity' is not seen as a threat to educationalists but rather as an opportunity to engage in a educational environment that is truly reflective of the 21st century. And finally, in this model all students are catered to, in that the the role of education, within the framework of 'the singularity' is developed through a virtual world. This undertaking is established through the nexus that will exist within the K – 7 development and the movement of students beyond that educational environment. Within the K – 7 area the emphasis will be on creating an environment that focuses on literacy and numeracy, in an environment that is technology based and the teacher engages the students in facilitator role.

Within this role the teacher will manage the learning of students and focus on ensuring that technology is used to create a learning environment that focuses on the needs of the student and in doing so will 'catch' those how fall through the net. In that students who are at risk will be 'found' much sooner than later in the process. Consequently, the emphasis will be on students to move out of the K – 7 structure and in to the self manged learning environment.
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However, if students are unable to achieve this goal by the year 7 stage efforts will be undertaken to focus on helping those students achieve that outcomes. Hence, in this way as students move through the educational system funding can be directed towards those students who need the most help, the teacher facilitator areas. Yet, those students who have moved beyond the year 7 area, and have exhibited self manged learning skills they to can be further assisted, via technology, to advance their education. In this way the needs of society are meet and addressed.

One of the key elements of this development will be the undertaking by the university to engage both the pre – service teacher and the teacher facilitator in the education of the family. Clearly, in order for there to be a sustainable and stable relationship between technology, school and home there needs to be a direct link with those engaged in the delivery of education along with those receiving it. Hence, the development of an holistic approach to the delivery of education will ultimately culminate in creating the necessary environment whereby, a smooth transition can take place leading on to the singularity. Coupled with this an emphasis on encouraging self manged learning will undoubtedly result in a break down of the current educational organization structure and see a more entrepreneurial approach to the delivery of education. Where the education system is no longer represented by large buildings, structures, that are economically unsound but rather small cluster schools interacting with the local community and businesses. In this way educational funding can be delivered and applied to all and so ensure, via the implementation of technology focusing on self managed learning, that society remains egalitarian.