Self-Directed Learning Flourishes Online—Unless We Lose Net Neutrality

This is about more than just saving money: when the internet is a place where anyone, anywhere, can set up a website to talk about their passion and interact with like-minded people, and where anyone with an internet connection can find them, self-directed learning can take us anywhere … If we can't save net neutrality, young people who want to take charge of their own education will find that the internet has been turned into just another place where someone else decides what they can read, watch, and listen to …

How We See Self-Directed Education

"Informal or spontaneous learning is often far more effective than formal learning." If you agree with this position, please share this video with your friends and let us know your thoughts, or join the Alliance: http://www.self-directed.org

Why I Support the Alliance for Self-Directed Education

We want ASDE to be a self-sustaining and steady voice in support of self-directed education in this time of intense technological and bureaucratic surveillance and control of our lives and learning. We want self-directed education to be seen as normative, rather than alternative, in the public discourse about education . . .

Not-Back-to-School Support

Getting into the Ivy League is not a good reason to homeschool—there's no guarantee you will gain admission and why put all that pressure on a young child? But following your children's interests and developing their character are good reasons to homeschool, as these stories show.

The Art of Self-Directed Learning

Boles always moves from the theoretical to the practical in this book, and I enjoy how he doesn’t present learning as a series of boxes to check on a report card, but as an adventurous journey that shapes your life right now, not after graduation and you enter the “real world.”

The Self-Directed Learning Award

North Star celebrates self-directed learning in its local community with an annual award that goes to a publicly nominated person who did not complete high school (though they may hold a GED) and who “lives as a model of successful self-directed learning . . ."

Towards a Different Kind of Teacher

The role of the teacher is different when the child decides when, where, how, and from whom to learn, and the context and purposes of teaching are radically different in this configuration . . .

What is the role of teacher when children do self-directed learning?

I’m delivering a keynote at the online Learning Revolution conference early tomorrow morning. It is being recorded so you can listen to it on your own schedule, but if the topic interests you and you’d like to participate with questions and comments, please grab a cup of coffee and join me. I'm speaking about "What is the role of teacher when children do self-directed learning?" . . .

Learning and Teaching, Learner-centered curriculaPatrick FarengaApril 23, 2014Teaching, self-directed learningComment

New Unschooling Videos

Three types of media for you to enjoy: The slides, bibliography, and videos from my recent talk about how parents of preschool-age children can best help them learn; a new video about Holt's Learning All the Time; and a synchronized update of my slides and video, Homeschooling and Unschooling, presented at the Alternatives to Compulsory Schooling conference at Harvard University in April 2013.

A Million Dollars to Create Self-Organized Learning Environments

Autodidact, Homeschooling Current Issues, Learner-centered curricula, Learning and TeachingPatrick FarengaMarch 4, 2013Sugata Mitra, self-directed learningComment

Better Than College: Part 2

Blake Boles is the author of books, articles, and web projects about learning and finding good, meaningful work without going to college whose work I have followed for some time. His recent web projects include Zero Tuition College, the Grown Unschooler Opportunity Network, and Trailblazer: "a gathering for self-directed learners, ages 18–22+. From June 10-15, 2013, you'll connect, learn, and grow with other young adults blazing their own trails through life" Blake's most recent book is Better Than College which we discuss, as well as how he came to support the world of homeschooling and unschooling so energetically even though he, himself, was never homeschooled. This is the second part of a three-part interview.

Community, Jobs and Credentials, CollegePatrick FarengaJanuary 11, 2013Better Than College, Blake Boles, self-directed learningComment

Learning Without Us

We need to shift our thinking from a goal that focuses on the delivery of something—a primary education—to a goal that is about empowering our young people to leverage their innate and natural curiosity to learn whatever and whenever they need to. The goal is about eliminating obstacles to the exercise of this right—whether the obstacle is the structure and scheduling of the school day, the narrow divisions of subject, the arbitrary separation of learners by age, or others—rather than supplying or rearranging resources. (p. 6)

The Willed Curriculum

Homeschooling Current Issues, Learning and TeachingPatrick FarengaJanuary 30, 2012The WIlled Curriculum, self-directed learning, unschoolingComment

More free online learning resources for adults and children

Alternative schooling, Learner-centered curricula, UnschoolingPatrick FarengaJanuary 25, 2011Homeschooling, online learning, self-directed learning Comments

Child-driven Education

Alternative schooling, Homeschooling Current Issues, UnschoolingPatrick FarengaSeptember 16, 2010Sugata Mitra, child-driven education, self-directed learning, unschooling Comments

John Holt GWS