Joe Morris - September Summary

I have commented on the blogs prepared by Charlene Jackson and Joseph Haynes

During the first week of September, I established the Group 1 Blog entitled The Highlander Effect.  I had never created a blog or posted to a blog prior to this class.  After a few noble attempts, our group will be holding its first meeting via teleconference on Tuesday, September 30^th.    We intend to use Go to Meeting or a similar platform in the future so that we can have video conference meetings instead of teleconferences.  Fortunately, each group member has a firm idea regarding their role - at least in this first group project.  Here is an outline of our responsibilities:

•          Adult Educator 1

•          Joe Morris will research Cora Wilson Stewart of The Moonlight Schools as an adult educator.

•          *Adult Educator 2

•           Janice Miller and Ross Reynolds will research Myles Horton of the Highlander School.

•          *Summary

•          Frances Robinson will write the group summary

*These roles are subject to change

This month, each group member completed individual research on the history of Adult Education during a specific decade in the United States.  All members have posted their answers to questions about our assigned readings.  We have exchanged ideas and gained insight by sharing research and our opinions.  Everyone posted a YouTube video introducing themselves to the class. 

For me, the first six weeks of class has been a valuable learning experience.  Adult learning takes place formally, non-formally, and informally all over the world – every minute of every day.  I was pleased to see that there were theorists researching and publishing scholarly works within the field of field of Adult Education like Malcolm Knowles and John Dewey.  I learned about Liberal and Progressive perspectives and how they contrast with Behaviorist and Humanist perspectives.   My understanding of historical accounts has been made clearer now that I understand that each researcher reports history more or less from his/her own perspective.  A Celebrationist account of history generally pays tribute to a person or a time and place.  A Narrative historical account involves the telling of stories; attempting to explain the how and what, but not the why.  A Critical account of history involves telling a story from the past, but it does so through the author’s personal lens.  For example, Gore Vidal wrote about President Lincoln from a narrow perspective.  Oliver Stone directed the movie JFK from a “conspiracy” viewpoint, which is in direct opposition to the government’s Warren Commission report about the assassination. 

I believe our first group research effort around the topic of Adult Educators will prepare us to be more methodical as we compile our assignment on Unique Adult/Community Education Programs.  For my part, I hope to utilize technology a bit more in my research.  I’d like to add a video and updated graphics to make my work more interesting for the reader.  I will employ my new technical skills as I create presentations and conduct research for my supervisors at work.