Today - Maurice Gibbons on Self-Directed Learning

Join me tonight, Thursday, February 21st, for a live and interactive FutureofEducation.com conversation with Maurice Gibbons on self-directed learning. Gibbons is the author of The Self-Directed Learning Handbook, was a founding member of Challenge Education Associates that produced The Self-Directed Professional program for teachers, he was the founder and director of Personal Power Press which produced a dozen books on SDL, and he was a founding member of World Citizens for a Universal Curriculum, a global education project designed to empower students to create a sustainable world.

The publisher's description of the book:

The Self-Directed Learning Handbook offers teachers and principals an innovative program for customizing schooling to the learning needs of individual students-- and for motivating them to take increasing responsibility for deciding what and how they should learn. Whether the students are struggling or proficient, the program is designed to nurture their natural passion for learning and mastery, challenging them to go beyond the easy and familiar so they can truly excel. The program can be introduced in stages in any middle or high school classroom and enables students of diverse abilities to design and pursue independent course work, special projects, or even artistic presentations, community field work or apprenticeships. Using this approach, the students take on an increasingly autonomous, self-directed role as they progress. The heart of the program is the action contract (or learning agreement) whereby the student sets challenging yet attainable goals, commits to a path for achieving them, and evaluates the results. Special emphasis is placed on developing skills and competencies that can serve the student well in his or her academic and career endeavors.

Date: Thursday, February 21st, 2013
Time: 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern (international times here)
Duration: 1 hour
Location: In Blackboard Collaborate (formerly Elluminate). Log in at http://www.futureofed.info. The Blackboard Collaborate room will be open up to 30 minutes before the event if you want to come in early. To make sure that your computer is configured for Blackboard Collaborate, please visit the support and configuration page.
Recording:  A full Blackboard Collaborate recording is at https://sas.elluminate.com/p.jnlp?psid=2013-02-21.1701.M.9E9FE58134BE68C3B413F24B3586CF.vcr&sid=2008350 and an audio mp3 recording is available at http://audio.edtechlive.com/foe/mauricegibbons.mp3 and at http://www.futureofeducation.com
Mightybell:  A Mightybell space with interview resources and conversation is at https://mightybell.com/spaces/23960.

(From his website) Maurice Gibbons is a Canadian who grew up on the west coast, completed his BA at the University of British Columbia, his MA in English at the University of Washington, and his doctorate at Harvard where he was on the editorial board of the Harvard Educational Review.

He taught in elementary and secondary schools before teaching at the University of British Columbia and at Simon Fraser University, from which he is now an emeritus professor. A specialist in the creation of innovative approaches to instruction, the programs he has designed emphasize self-direction, challenge and excellence. In 2007, Gibbon’s was awarded the Malcolm Knowles Memorial Self Directed Learning Award at the 21st annual International Self Directed Learning Symposium.

Gibbons publishes fiction and poetry and is an exhibiting sculptor. He used SDL methods to learn to carve wood and has exhibited his work in Vancouver, San Francisco, Sydney and New York -- website coming soon. Gibbons was arrested at Claoquot Sound in civil disobedience against the clearcutting of old-growth timber in the Pacific Northwest. He is married and lives in West Vancouver, British Columbia, where he carves, writes and consults. Gibbons is well known for the provocative speeches and hands-on workshops he presents worldwide.