I'm Crazy about Frick!

Today, I'd like to talk about Frick - Professor Theodore W. Frick - and his brilliantly prophetic fastback.  What's a fastback, by the way?!  Dr. Frick is definitely moving faster than a Mach 1!

Nice Attribution!

Theodore W. Frick, professor emeritus in the Department of Instructional Systems Technology at Indiana University Bloomington, is a alongside Edward Castrova - Exodus to the Virtual Worlds - & Lee  Sheldon - The Multiplayer Classroom - who has a working relationship with Jesse Schell, Earthbound VR God - The Art of Game Design - at Carnegie-Mellon Entertainment Technology Center. Nice.

A bunch of educational technology superheros, these guys.

Dr. Frick lays out a model for which credits a wonderful teacher & educational philosopher, Elizabeth Steiner.  The model puts in clear terms the four crucial elements (and their respective relationships) of the educational system:  Teacher, Learner, Context, Content.  The balanced interaction of those essentials creates harmony & equilibrium in educational systems.  This model might be visualized so:

An analysis of the way things are vis-a-vis each other, for example, Teacher-Learner Relationships or Learner-Context Relationships follows.  Then, prophetically, Dr. Frick sets up a series of "what ifs" that might occur in the best of all possible educational worlds.  Below, I've attached screenshots of Fricks brilliant & foresightful fastback.  

Teacher-Learner Relationships

Learner-Content Relationships

Teacher-Content Relationships

Learner-Context Relationships

Teacher-Context Relationships

Content-Context Relationships

Educational System-Environment Relationships

Many of the "what ifs" have come true.  The ones that have not have an infrastructure of technology in-place to manifest themselves.  I believe it is only a matter of time.

Bravo Dr. Frick, keep pushing the envelope - for you know better than most of us that the future is not really predicted . . . it's created by visionaries who can see a whole forest while the many of us only see the acorn as food for squirrels.

Cheers!