Week 11 started with a session on special education where there was a ggreement and harmony in participants view for the importance of the inclusion of students with learning disability with normao ones. This is to some extent useful but really, in my opinion, is not always the case simply because students in general have different ways of learning (multiple intelligient theory, Gardner,1985) and also different pereceptions so the sepcial education students or students with learning disability surely have various 'special 'ways' to learn which can nt really be the same way as the normal students do. i think that the inclusion idea of special education students with the normal ones should be reconsidered!
Next workshop was social networking where the basic idea is to have an influential network, a fact that should be thought of. The point is that in my observation, there was no enough theoritical ground and input from 'communication startegies area' and behavioral psychology' domain along with public relationship foundations. So thhe session was really not very beneficial as it does nt seem , at least to me, quite practical to jump off directly to the practical part without any previous platform that really touches the and re ground!.
the trip to the park was great and we really had a good time so thanks Irmili and annasite (her son) and david.
The trip to Nokia was out of my interest and maybe because it is completely out of my area and came at the end of the program where we were very tired?.
Next workshop was social networking where the basic idea is to have an influential network, a fact that should be thought of. The point is that in my observation, there was no enough theoritical ground and input from 'communication startegies area' and behavioral psychology' domain along with public relationship foundations. So thhe session was really not very beneficial as it does nt seem , at least to me, quite practical to jump off directly to the practical part without any previous platform that really touches the and re ground!.
the trip to the park was great and we really had a good time so thanks Irmili and annasite (her son) and david.
The trip to Nokia was out of my interest and maybe because it is completely out of my area and came at the end of the program where we were very tired?.
I agree that inclusion is not an easy matter! From my experience as a teacher in a special school for students with special needs I'd be inclined to say that academically the students might be better of in a special school, where the class sizes are small, the teachers have special training to meet different kinds of learning challenges and there are more possibilities for individual support. On the other hand I welcome inclusion, because there are so many other things one learns in school except for the official topics in the curriculum.
ReplyDeleteFriendships are formed for life in school. Also, it is good to have examples of achievement in the class. Sometimes in a special school the students don't get enough example of what is possible and they settle for too little. In a city like helsinki it's possible to live at home even when attending a special school, but in smaller towns the students would have to move away from home to attend a school, and sometimes that could be hart breaking.
Many times it is easier to see the big picture, when it is one's own child who has special needs. I believe my twins are fully capable of performing the tasks the working life expects from an engineer. In some areas they are even much more talented than some of the "normal" students, nevertheless, they would benefit, if the UAS they attend would better take into consideration their dyslexia. As it is now, they have a hard time with some of the courses emphasizing writing as the means of demonstrating your knowledge. This personal attachment has helped me realize there are other students who could benefit some extra scaffolding.
But as I said, I'm not an idealistic fool who doesn't see the obstacles in inclusion! I fully understand that different people can benefit from different learning arrangements, and all people are not fit for every job, no matter how much extra support we teachers give them. Nevertheless, I believe that there is room for students with special needs also in regular schools, if we provide them the support they need. The regular teacher should always have some extra resources, be it an assistant, parallel teaching or co-teaching, extra materials and tools etc.
Networking has become very important in Finland, when all upper secondary level students attend 20 cr in on-the-job learning. Also many projects require networks between the schools and the world of work. The informal communities of practice are of growing import (for instance I have never taken an official course in on-line education or social media. I have learned it all in different informal communities of practice, mainly by following blogs and contributing myself in those communities. Also in research world these informal networks are of utmost importance. For instance, I have learned to know personally some of the leading scholars in my field by informal networks. One example: I think it is so awesome, that I actually learned to know Bill Gartner, a guru in entrepreneurship studies, by inviting him to a shared Dropbox-file! By the way, if you don't yet have a Dropbox account, I strongly suggest you get one at http://db.tt/OQV8EmH) So, in this program we wanted to give you a glimpse of what potential networking has. In a one day workshop the underlying theories weren't perhaps as explicitly revealed as you might have wanted, but if you are interested in the area, I suggest you read more on communities of practice, e.g. by using Etienne Wenger as a search word in google scholar.
The trip to Nokia was under bad stars: the very day you visited Nokia, the company announced that it is going to shut down its last manufactiring plant in Finland (in Salo), close down its office in Germany and Canada... closer to 4000 people will be unemployed. A bad day for Nokia and for Finland!
- Irmeli