Wednesday, June 24, 2009

6 words

We shared new ways of teaching

Saturday, June 13, 2009

A Lesson for Educators

Slashdot, the website that highlights "news for nerds", reports on the experiences of San Jose State University student Kyle Brady, who, after completing his assignments in computer programming, published the code he wrote online. His professor attempted to force him to delete the posts, citing the school's academic integrity policy. Kyle claimed that he posted his work in the spirit of sharing knowledge as well as part of a digital portfolio for future employers.

Thankfully, the University ultimately ruled that posting the work was acceptable and did not violate either copyright or the school's academic integrity policy.

The lesson is this, as stated by Cory Doctorow on Boing Boing: "Profs...fall into the lazy trap of wanting to assign rotework that can be endlessly recycled as work for new students, a model that fails when the students treat their work as useful in and of itself and therefore worthy of making public for their peers and other interested parties who find them through search results, links, etc. But the convenience of profs must be secondary to the pedagogical value of the university experience...Students work harder when the work is meaningful, when it has value other than as a yardstick for measuring their comprehension."

An important lesson for all of us in education.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Thought for the Day:

"The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn."

Alvin Toffler,
American futurist

Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Wisdom in Digital Form

Marc Prensky, famous for his depiction of people as Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants, has come up with a new term, Digital Wisdom, to describe the results of living in the Digital Era on the human brain. Prensky believes that both cognition and wisdom will evolve as a result. According to Prensky, “Technology alone will not replace intuition, good judgment, problem-solving abilities, and a clear moral compass. But in an unimaginably complex future, the digitally unenhanced person, however wise, will not be able to access the tools of wisdom that will be available to even the least wise digitally enhanced human.” There are obvious implications for education, specifically, to stop asking students to memorize arcane facts that they can look up on Google. Prensky’s entire article can be found on the Innovate website: http://www.innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=705&action=article

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Top 5 Learning Trends for 2009

Chief Learning Magazine recently published its Top 5 Learning Trends for 2009.

While I normally don't pay attention to "Top" lists, this one hit home, as embedded into everything I do every day is the search for the solution to the question, "How can we improve learning?"

Included in the list are Mobile Learning, Do-It-Yourself Learning, Flexible Learning Environments, Virtual Worlds, and Games and Simulations.

One of the fascinating parts of this List is the reasoning behind it. Stated in the justification for the various choices are statements such as "drawing people in" and "responding to the gaming culture of younger workers".

IMO, schools would do well to address these issues as well.

VP