Carnegie Scholarship

The Carnegie Scholarship
of Ted Nellen

The Ecology of Learning

        In the rays of the Palo Alto sun,
        I'm contemplating the razing of the school
        To raise scholarly issues
        In praise of the ecology of learning.

My scholarship of teaching will be to explore the topic of the ecology of education. This two year project began 7/99. It is reflective of our leader, Lee Shulman, who explains scholarship as a trinity of
1. make it public
2. solicit peer review
3. encourage replication.
I will be working under these conditions, so your input is crucial, your involvement is vital. It is interactive. It is the ecology of education.

My initial inquiry began into the nature of the classroom. I am concerned with the inefficiency of the classroom. I am investigating a model in which the change of the ecology of the classroom, as we know it, will be replaced by a more efficient classroom. Technology plays a major role in that change. By ecology I am using a working meaning of the physical plant itself, the people, and the business of education. As the scholarship progresses, this will change and evolve and morph.

My laboratory is the class I teach called Cyber English. This will provide you a glimpse of the microcosm I have created so that you will have an idea of the macrocosm I will consider in my scholarship. This hypertext environment will introduce you to my previous scholarship, to the coursework of the class, and most importantly to the work of my scholars over the past five years. It is the place and the source of all my work.

  • My first step: Presented 7/12/99. This provided me an opportunity to lay the groundwork with my colleagues and to begin the process of inquiry into the direction of what I wish to pursue. It demonstrated my previous scholarship and my curreent theory and practice. It is a view into how I wish to proceed based on what I know.

  • These ramblings or narrative accompanies the above PowerPoint presentation.

    My Inquiry into The Ecology of Learning

    Chaos to Order to Chaos...
    Microcosm-Macrocosm
    Practical Theory
    Community
    Assessment
    Teacher Culture

    So in the true spirit of scholarship I offer up my work for peer review and welcome all comments. So please email Ted Nellen.

    The temporary Carnegie Listserv

    What I'm in most need of are readings: books, journals, URLs.... So please send titles, even if you think I've read it or not. Nothing is worse than not knowing a title which someone thinks you have read and haven't. So it would not be insulting on your part to suggest any and all titles of relevant readings you think may help me unpack this. Thanks;)

    © Ted Nellen 1999