Can Storytime in the Laundromat Improve Early-Childhood Literacy? — from PBS News Hour, edweek.org, youtube.com
Description:
How about reading a book in between the wash and spin cycles? That is what’s happening in some of the nation’s laundromats as early-literacy groups, librarians, and laundromat owners combine forces to bring books and story hours to everyday locations.
Cathedral Thinking – Designing for the Next Century — from tarunagoel.blogspot.com by Taruna Goel
Excerpts:
With the cathedral thinking mindset, there are many questions that I am pondering about…
Educational Web Tools to Empower Students Voice in Class — from educatorstechnology.com
Excerpt:
At the core of progressive pedagogy is the empowerment of students by giving them a voice in class and making them part of the decision making. Unlike traditional instruction where students are viewed as passive receivers of pre-designed knowledge, a progressive instruction is primarily student-centered and dialogic in nature. It views students as subjects with a sense of agency capable of co-constructing their own knowledge. This pedagogical stance is especially popularized by educationists such as John Dewy, Paulo Freire, Maxine Greene, and Vygotsky. For these theorists, learning is driven by curiosity, inquiry and self-discovery, processes which involve students in their own learning and makes their learning meaningful.
With the help of web technologies, you can use a wide variety of web tools with students to provide them with an outlet through which they can express their voices. Here are some examples to try …
From DSC:
I ran into the posting below on my Twitter feed. I especially want to share it with all of those students out there who are majoring in Education. You will find excellent opportunities to build your Personal Learning Network (PLN) on Twitter.
But this idea/concept/opportunity also applies to current teachers, professors, trainers, special educators, principals, superintendents, school board members, coaches, and many, many others.
You will not only learn a great deal by tapping into those streams of content, but you will be able to share your own expertise, insights, resources, reflections, etc. Don’t underestimate the networking and learning potential of Twitter. It’s one of the top learning tools in the world.
One last thought before you move onto the graphics below…K-12 educators are doing a super job of networking and sharing resources with each other. I hope that more faculty members who are working within higher education can learn from the examples being set forth by K-12 educators.
Also see:
Also see:
From DSC:
First a posting that got me to wondering about something that I’ve previously wondered about from time to time…
College of Business unveils classroom of the future — from biz.source.colostate.edu by Joe Giordano
Excerpt:
Equipped with a wall of 27 high-definition video screens as well as five high-end cameras, the newest classroom in Colorado State University’s College of Business is designed to connect on-campus and online students in a whole new way.
The College of Business unveiled on March 29 the “Room of the Future,” featuring Mosaic, an innovative technology – powered by mashme.io – that creates a blended classroom experience, connecting on-campus and online students in real time.
From DSC:
If the pedagogies could be worked out, this could be a very attractive model for many people in the future as it:
If the resulting increase in students could bring down the price of offering the course, will we see this model flourish in the near future?
For struggling colleges and universities, could this help increase the ROI of offering their classes on their physical campuses?
The technologies behind this are not cheap though…and that could be a show-stopper for this type of an experiment. But…thinking out loud again…what if there were a cheaper way to view a group of other people in your learning community? Perhaps there will be a solution using some form of Extended Reality (XR)…hmmm….
Also see:
Also see:
Bad bargain: Why we still ask kids to factor polynomials and how we fix it — from gettingsmart.com by Tom Vander Ark
Excerpt:
OK, we cut a bad deal 20 years ago and it’s time to fix it.
Kids are still factoring polynomials and that’s just dumb. Requiring every student to pass a course on regurgitated symbol manipulation (Algebra 2) is torturous for many students and why some dropout. It’s an inequitable barrier to college and careers.
“The tragedy of high school math,” said venture investor and education advocate Ted Dintersmith (who has a Ph.D. in math modeling), “is that less than 20% of adults ever use algebra. No adult in America still does integrals and derivatives by hand – the calculus that blocks so many from career paths. It remains in the curriculum because it’s easy to test, not important to learn.”
Math educator Dan Meyer told the We’re Doing It All Wrong Podcast that algebra 2 is “arcane gibberish…not useful knowledge”…
…
Now, rather than the plug and crank of symbol manipulation, we should be teaching computational thinking. As mathematician Conrad Wolfram said, we should be teaching math as if computers existed.
Rather than a separate symbol language, Wolfram argues, math should be taught as computational thinking and integrated across the curriculum. That starts with problem finding–spotting big tough problems worth working on. Next comes understanding the problems and valuables associated–that’s algebraic reasoning. But rather than focusing on computation (including factoring those nasty polynomials), students should be building data sets and using computers to do what they’re good at–calculations.
…
To fix the problem, states that require Algebra 2 should swap it out for a course in coding and computational thinking. Colleges and college entrance exams should drop Algebra 2 requirements. They should start by asking young people about their contributions to solving big problems.
From DSC:
This posting reminded me that, just the other day, I took the picture below…it’s outside a local mall. The annotated picture below gives you some of my thoughts on this ridiculous setup.
The Changing Landscape of Online Education, 2019 is now available — from qualitymatters.org
This report is the continuation of a multi-year study by QM and Eduventures to examine the changing landscape of online education, provide results to those who can use them and help those involved with online education place their institution within a broader context and possibly influence strategic decisions and organizational changes. Please complete the form on this page to gain access to the 2019 CHLOE 3 Report.
CHLOE 3 breaks new ground in identifying a number of different institutional approaches to online learning, as crystallized in the descriptions of five models (e.g. Enterprise Schools, Community Colleges). Major themes in CHLOE 3 include a more complete picture of the growth, prevalence, and scope of the Chief Online Officer position; the emergence of online committees and councils as a component of institutional shared governance; associations between online course structure, student engagement and outcomes; and the widespread neglect of coordinated blended learning.
Examples/excerpts:
From a fairly recent e-newsletter from edsurge.com — though I don’t recall the exact date (emphasis DSC):
New England is home to some of the most famous universities in the world. But the region has also become ground zero for the demographic shifts that promise to disrupt higher education.
This week saw two developments that fit the narrative. On Monday, Southern Vermont College announced that it would shut its doors, becoming the latest small rural private college to do so. Later that same day, the University of Massachusetts said it would start a new online college aimed at a national audience, noting that it expects campus enrollments to erode as the number of traditional college-age students declines in the coming years.
“Make no mistake—this is an existential threat to entire sectors of higher education,” said UMass president Marty Meehan in announcing the online effort.
The approach seems to parallel the U.S. retail sector, where, as a New York Times piece outlines this week, stores like Target and WalMart have thrived by building online strategies aimed at competing with Amazon, while stores like Gap and Payless, which did little to move online, are closing stores. Of course, college is not like any other product or service, and plenty of campuses are touting the richness of the experience that students get by actually coming to a campus. And it’s not clear how many colleges can grow online to a scale that makes their investments pay off.
“It’s predicted that over the next several years, four to five major national players with strong regional footholds will be established. We intend to be one of them.”
University of Massachusetts President Marty Meehan
From DSC:
That last quote from UMass President Marty Meehan made me reflect upon the idea of having one or more enormous entities that will provide “higher education” in the future. I wonder if things will turn out to be that we’ll have more lifelong learning providers and platforms in the future — with the idea of a 60-year curriculum being an interesting idea that may come into fruition.
Long have I predicted that such an enormous entity would come to pass. Back in 2008, I named it the Forthcoming Walmart of Education. But then as the years went by, I got bumbed out on some things that Walmart was doing, and re-branded it the Forthcoming Amazon.com of Higher Education. We’ll see how long that updated title lasts — but you get the point. In fact, the point aligns very nicely with what futurist Thomas Frey has been predicting for years as well:
“I’ve been predicting that by 2030 the largest company on the internet is going to be an education-based company that we haven’t heard of yet,” Frey, the senior futurist at the DaVinci Institute think tank, tells Business Insider. (source)
I realize that education doesn’t always scale well…but I’m thinking that how people learn in the future may be different than how we did things in the past…communities of practice comes to mind…as does new forms of credentialing…as does cloud-based learner profiles…as does the need for highly efficient, cost-effective, and constant opportunities/means to reinvent oneself.
Also see:
Addendum:
74% of consumers go to Amazon when they’re ready to buy something. That should be keeping retailers up at night. — from cnbc.com
Key points (emphasis DSC)
“In New England, there will be between 32,000 and 54,000 fewer college-aged students just seven years from now,” Meehan said. “That means colleges and universities will have too much capacity and not enough demand at a time when the economic model in higher education is already straining under its own weight.” (Marty Meehan at WBUR)
Huge study finds professors’ attitudes affect students’ grades — and it’s doubly true for minority students. — from arstechnica.com by Scott Johnson
Excerpt:
Instead, the researchers think the data suggests that—in any number of small ways—instructors who think their students’ intelligence is fixed don’t keep their students as motivated, and perhaps don’t focus as much on teaching techniques that can encourage growth. And while this affects all students, it seems to have an extra impact on underrepresented minority students.
The good news, the researchers say, is that instructors can be persuaded to adopt more of a growth mindset in their teaching through a little education of their own. That small attitude adjustment could make them a more effective teacher, to the significant benefit of a large number of students.
Along these lines, also see:
Higher Education’s 2019 Trend Watch & Top 10 Strategic Technologies — from EDUCAUSE Center for Analysis and Research (ECAR)
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