FW: MSAL - Maitland School of Advanced Learning
Nicoletta Manns
-----Original Message-----
From: Bill Ellis [mailto:tranet@...]
Sent: March 26, 2001 3:39 AM
To: LearningCommunities
Cc: [email protected]
Subject: [LearningCommunities] FYI
Index Projects Latest News Publications Links Email Co-Ordinator
Table of Contents Study Groups About MSAL Email Webmaster
What is MSAL?
The short answer: MSAL stands for Maitland School of Advanced Learning. It
was created in 1980 by rebellious thirteen year olds who could not stand to
continue in traditional schools. It has evolved into an organization which
is both an online alternative education organization and an experiment in
how to take full advantage of the information revolution.
Charles ChampionMSAL Student & Founder
(http://www.champgroup.com/MSAL/)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
A more detailed overview of MSAL:
MSAL is one of the few academic organizations in the world formed by
students rather than by professional teachers or by institutions such as
governments or churches. This has resulted in certain profound differences
between MSAL and other organizations. A few key examples:
(1) There are no teachers. Students learn from more advanced students or on
their own.
(2) There are no grades.
(3) There are no attendance requirements.
(4) There is no tuition.
(5) There are no admission requirements.
(6) There is no school building. MSAL operates on the internet and in the
real world, not isolated in classrooms.
(7) There are MSAL students who are teenagers and others who are senior
citizens, and they come from around the world. They are not divided into
classes by age, race or religion but only by their own interests .
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Additional information can be found in the two texts below. They detail the
story of the founding of MSAL, as well as MSAL's belief that the right of
students to choose what they have to learn must be respected.
Question Authority (1992) -
The HTML version is available here. Alternatively, download the original
text version here.
The MSAL Student Handbook 3rd Edition (1999)
The HTML version is available here. Alternatively, download the original
text version here.
(http://www.champgroup.com/MSAL/)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Study Groups and Projects
MSAL is not about grades or diplomas or degrees. It is about learning what
you want to learn, learning things you never imagined before and using that
knowledge to carry out ambitious projects. Sometimes the projects are for
fun. Sometimes projects are carried out to make a lot of money. Sometimes
projects are carried out to change the world.
There are two main forms of organization at MSAL. One is study groups which
are simply groups of students informally learning about some particular
subject. The other is student projects. Projects are usually group efforts
and typically attract students from more than one study group. Any student
may start a new study group or project, they are not part of any set
"curriculum" decreed by the school.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Student Revolt and Information Revolution
MSAL is still serving its original purpose of giving young people an
alternative to the traditional school system. It is also striving to create
a new kind of future for its students.
Among college students, there is often an atmosphere of idealistic visions,
of becoming aware of the wider world and the vast possibilities it holds.
But then comes graduation and the conventional wisdom is that you must at
some point leave school, get a job, settle into a routine existence and
spend the rest of your life doing what someone tells you to do even if it is
boring and has no great significance in the scheme of things.
It is becoming increasingly obvious that this is no longer a recipe for
success if it ever was. Success increasingly depends upon being able to
constantly learn new things and develop new products, new technologies and
new ways of doing business.
The ideals and visions of youth should not be abandoned. A sense of vision,
an ability to see possibilities and effectively pursue them... this is what
is needed to thrive when change is rapid and constant. Is there any reason
to graduate and quit learning? On the contrary, we need that sense of
youthful idealism, those grand visions of the possible. We need lifelong
learning, not a degree. And we need it in the real world, not locked away in
a classroom somewhere, disconnected from everyone else.
The world is in the middle of a vast transformation which is sometimes
called the "information revolution." The most obvious result of this
revolution is to make available to us immense amounts of information and to
quicken the pace of change.
Information is thrown at us in the form of junk mail, spam e-mail,
telemarketing and advertising of every kind. The pace of technological and
economic change is increasing and most individuals and organizations are not
able to closely monitor the changes which affect them directly, much less
the changes which are longer term or indirect. Most people and organizations
can scarcely wade through the flood of information rushing at them, much
less explore the oceans of information which are sitting out there on the
internet, but which are not part of the news announcements and
advertisements which grasp for our attention.
Modern library systems and the internet make it relatively easy, for the
first time in human history, to access every bit of knowledge written down
by the human race in the last 6,000 years and to access current information
on what is happening now in every part of the world.
Who is fully using the potential of this global information network? There
are trillions of dollars to be made from this, political upheavals waiting
to happen, new frontiers which will be opened, and transformations of
society which will occur because of the information revolution.
Is there any government, any corporation, any charitable organization, any
academic organization, anyone at all who is putting to use the vast
potential of the information revolution? No. There is not. Yet, the tools
for this revolution are available to anyone with a library card and internet
access.
What is lacking is an understanding of how to set up an organization to
process and act on such a vast amount of ever-changing information. For that
matter, there is a lack of understanding that this is a goal which
individuals and institutions should be working toward. Yet the stakes could
not be higher.
Whoever can create an organization which can effectively process ALL the
available information in the world, recognize the knowledge which is
important, and act on it... whoever can do that first will have undreamt of
possibilities before them.
If the chaotic mass of information which is now available can be
assimilated, understood and used to guide the progress of mankind, it will
be a level of intelligence which has never existed before. No one has ever
had access to all the public information which exists, in real time, in a
form which quickly and easily can be used to make informed decisions.
Every human being and every human organization in the world from
corporations to governments is stumbling through life without the benefit of
that knowledge. Life and death decisions affecting millions of people are
being made based on an analysis of only one millionth of the available
information simply because there is no way to assimilate it all. Whoever
solves that assimilation problem will transform civilization. It will be
like a blind man gaining sight for the first time. It will be like a
sleepwalker awakening.
How much more money could be made, how much economic prosperity could be
achieved, if business decisions had the benefit of most or all of the
relevant information? How much better would our government be if the voters
had most or all of the relevant information when they voted?
What new technologies would be developed if scientists could know everything
which was already known including things which had just been discovered
today? Extended life spans, space colonization, utopian societies,
unimagined prosperity, nanotechnology, understanding the workings of the
human brain, genetic engineering... who knows what is possible with that
kind of information processing capability?
MSAL is trying to be such an organization, to be among the first of a new
generation of human institutions, focused on the pursuit of knowledge and
the realization of the full potential of the information age.
Index Projects Latest News Publications Links Email Co-Ordinator
Table of Contents Study Groups About MSAL Email Webmaster
Community email addresses:
Post message: [email protected]
Subscribe: [email protected]
Unsubscribe: [email protected]
List owner: [email protected]
Shortcut URL to this page:
http://www.onelist.com/community/LearningCommunities
Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
From: Bill Ellis [mailto:tranet@...]
Sent: March 26, 2001 3:39 AM
To: LearningCommunities
Cc: [email protected]
Subject: [LearningCommunities] FYI
Index Projects Latest News Publications Links Email Co-Ordinator
Table of Contents Study Groups About MSAL Email Webmaster
What is MSAL?
The short answer: MSAL stands for Maitland School of Advanced Learning. It
was created in 1980 by rebellious thirteen year olds who could not stand to
continue in traditional schools. It has evolved into an organization which
is both an online alternative education organization and an experiment in
how to take full advantage of the information revolution.
Charles ChampionMSAL Student & Founder
(http://www.champgroup.com/MSAL/)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
A more detailed overview of MSAL:
MSAL is one of the few academic organizations in the world formed by
students rather than by professional teachers or by institutions such as
governments or churches. This has resulted in certain profound differences
between MSAL and other organizations. A few key examples:
(1) There are no teachers. Students learn from more advanced students or on
their own.
(2) There are no grades.
(3) There are no attendance requirements.
(4) There is no tuition.
(5) There are no admission requirements.
(6) There is no school building. MSAL operates on the internet and in the
real world, not isolated in classrooms.
(7) There are MSAL students who are teenagers and others who are senior
citizens, and they come from around the world. They are not divided into
classes by age, race or religion but only by their own interests .
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Additional information can be found in the two texts below. They detail the
story of the founding of MSAL, as well as MSAL's belief that the right of
students to choose what they have to learn must be respected.
Question Authority (1992) -
The HTML version is available here. Alternatively, download the original
text version here.
The MSAL Student Handbook 3rd Edition (1999)
The HTML version is available here. Alternatively, download the original
text version here.
(http://www.champgroup.com/MSAL/)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Study Groups and Projects
MSAL is not about grades or diplomas or degrees. It is about learning what
you want to learn, learning things you never imagined before and using that
knowledge to carry out ambitious projects. Sometimes the projects are for
fun. Sometimes projects are carried out to make a lot of money. Sometimes
projects are carried out to change the world.
There are two main forms of organization at MSAL. One is study groups which
are simply groups of students informally learning about some particular
subject. The other is student projects. Projects are usually group efforts
and typically attract students from more than one study group. Any student
may start a new study group or project, they are not part of any set
"curriculum" decreed by the school.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Student Revolt and Information Revolution
MSAL is still serving its original purpose of giving young people an
alternative to the traditional school system. It is also striving to create
a new kind of future for its students.
Among college students, there is often an atmosphere of idealistic visions,
of becoming aware of the wider world and the vast possibilities it holds.
But then comes graduation and the conventional wisdom is that you must at
some point leave school, get a job, settle into a routine existence and
spend the rest of your life doing what someone tells you to do even if it is
boring and has no great significance in the scheme of things.
It is becoming increasingly obvious that this is no longer a recipe for
success if it ever was. Success increasingly depends upon being able to
constantly learn new things and develop new products, new technologies and
new ways of doing business.
The ideals and visions of youth should not be abandoned. A sense of vision,
an ability to see possibilities and effectively pursue them... this is what
is needed to thrive when change is rapid and constant. Is there any reason
to graduate and quit learning? On the contrary, we need that sense of
youthful idealism, those grand visions of the possible. We need lifelong
learning, not a degree. And we need it in the real world, not locked away in
a classroom somewhere, disconnected from everyone else.
The world is in the middle of a vast transformation which is sometimes
called the "information revolution." The most obvious result of this
revolution is to make available to us immense amounts of information and to
quicken the pace of change.
Information is thrown at us in the form of junk mail, spam e-mail,
telemarketing and advertising of every kind. The pace of technological and
economic change is increasing and most individuals and organizations are not
able to closely monitor the changes which affect them directly, much less
the changes which are longer term or indirect. Most people and organizations
can scarcely wade through the flood of information rushing at them, much
less explore the oceans of information which are sitting out there on the
internet, but which are not part of the news announcements and
advertisements which grasp for our attention.
Modern library systems and the internet make it relatively easy, for the
first time in human history, to access every bit of knowledge written down
by the human race in the last 6,000 years and to access current information
on what is happening now in every part of the world.
Who is fully using the potential of this global information network? There
are trillions of dollars to be made from this, political upheavals waiting
to happen, new frontiers which will be opened, and transformations of
society which will occur because of the information revolution.
Is there any government, any corporation, any charitable organization, any
academic organization, anyone at all who is putting to use the vast
potential of the information revolution? No. There is not. Yet, the tools
for this revolution are available to anyone with a library card and internet
access.
What is lacking is an understanding of how to set up an organization to
process and act on such a vast amount of ever-changing information. For that
matter, there is a lack of understanding that this is a goal which
individuals and institutions should be working toward. Yet the stakes could
not be higher.
Whoever can create an organization which can effectively process ALL the
available information in the world, recognize the knowledge which is
important, and act on it... whoever can do that first will have undreamt of
possibilities before them.
If the chaotic mass of information which is now available can be
assimilated, understood and used to guide the progress of mankind, it will
be a level of intelligence which has never existed before. No one has ever
had access to all the public information which exists, in real time, in a
form which quickly and easily can be used to make informed decisions.
Every human being and every human organization in the world from
corporations to governments is stumbling through life without the benefit of
that knowledge. Life and death decisions affecting millions of people are
being made based on an analysis of only one millionth of the available
information simply because there is no way to assimilate it all. Whoever
solves that assimilation problem will transform civilization. It will be
like a blind man gaining sight for the first time. It will be like a
sleepwalker awakening.
How much more money could be made, how much economic prosperity could be
achieved, if business decisions had the benefit of most or all of the
relevant information? How much better would our government be if the voters
had most or all of the relevant information when they voted?
What new technologies would be developed if scientists could know everything
which was already known including things which had just been discovered
today? Extended life spans, space colonization, utopian societies,
unimagined prosperity, nanotechnology, understanding the workings of the
human brain, genetic engineering... who knows what is possible with that
kind of information processing capability?
MSAL is trying to be such an organization, to be among the first of a new
generation of human institutions, focused on the pursuit of knowledge and
the realization of the full potential of the information age.
Index Projects Latest News Publications Links Email Co-Ordinator
Table of Contents Study Groups About MSAL Email Webmaster
Community email addresses:
Post message: [email protected]
Subscribe: [email protected]
Unsubscribe: [email protected]
List owner: [email protected]
Shortcut URL to this page:
http://www.onelist.com/community/LearningCommunities
Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/