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On 05/08/2013,
in adjunct faculty, change, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, education reform, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, faculty, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, hearts -- matters of the heart, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, K-12 related, learning ecosystem, more voice more choice more control, motivation, pace of change, passions, personalized/customized learning, real-world assignments, reinvent, staying relevant, student teaching/teacher education, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning,
by Daniel Christian
Also, from Steve Wheeler’s Are you a meerkat or an ostrich?
Etienne Wenger recently declared: ‘If any institutions are going to help learners with the real challenges they face…(they) will have to shift their focus from imparting curriculum to supporting the negotiation of productive identities through landscapes of practice’ (Wenger, 2010).
We live in uncertain times, where we cannot be sure how the economy is going to perform today, let alone predict what kind of jobs there will be for students when they graduate in a few years time. How can we prepare students for a world of work that doesn’t yet exist? How can we help learners to ready themselves for employment that is shifting like the sand, and where many of the jobs they will be applying for when they leave university probably don’t exist yet? It’s a conundrum many faculty and lecturers are wrestling with, and one which many others are ignoring in the hope that the problem will simply go away. Whether we are meerkats, looking out and anticipating the challenges, or ostriches burying our heads in the sand, the challenge remains, and it is growing stronger.
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Also see:
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Also see:
- The Nature of the Future: The Socialstructed World — from nextberlin.eu by Marina Gorbis, Institute for the Future
Marina Gorbis, Executive Director of the Institute for the Future (iftf.org) discussed the evolution of communication and its consequences at NEXT13. She analyzed the perks and challenges of the new relationship-driven or “socialstructed” economy, stating that “humans and technology will team up”. Her new book ‘The Nature of the Future: Dispatches from the Socialstructed World’ was published in early 2013. Watch her inspiring talk on April 23, 2013 at NEXT13.
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From DSC:
My best take on this at this point:
- Give students more choice, more control of their learning
- Help them discover their gifts, abilities, talents, passions
- Help them develop their gifts, abilities, talents, passions
- Provide content in as many ways as possible — and let the students work with what they prefer to work with
- Implement story, emotion, creativity, and play as much as possible (providing plenty of chances for them to create what they want to create)
- Utilize cross-disciplinary assignments and teams
- Integrate real-world assignments/projects into the mix
- Help them develop their own businesses while they are still in school — coach them along, provide mentors, relevant blogs/websites, etc.
- Guide them as they create/develop their own “textbooks” and/or streams of content
On 03/14/2013,
in creativity, education, education reform, education technology, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, future, K-12 related, more voice more choice more control, participation, real-world assignments, strategy, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning,
by Daniel Christian
VIDEO | The Educational Landscape in 50 Years — from the evoLLLution.com by The Khan Academy
Excerpt:
In this video, Salman Khan, founder of the Khan Academy, a not-for-profit online education provider, shares his thoughts on what the educational landscape will look like in 50 years. By 2060, Khan predicts three major shifts in education: a change to the classroom model, a change to the credential model and a change in the role of the instructor.
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On 02/28/2013,
in corporate / business world, Daniel S. Christian, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, MBA, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, online learning, real-world assignments,
by Daniel Christian
MOOCs and online learning: An interview with Jack Welch — from edudemic.com by Paul Glader
Excerpt:
WA – What do you think of this trend in Massive Open Online Courses, or MOOCs? Where is it going?
JW – Tom Friedman talked about it a few weeks ago (in the New York Times). It seems a little like the stigma associated with online learning, similar to online dating sites, is washing away. Every trend is going in that direction. We can give an MBA for $30,000 and you keep your job and are moving up in a company. Contrast that with leaving a job for two years and you lose $100,000 or whatever your salary is. You pay these exorbitant MBA costs for two years – $125,000. The economics are all going in the right direction for online education. It’s just as rigorous or more rigorous because you can’t just BS the classes. Everything is going in our direction. We can offer a rigorous MBA program while we make you a better leader. The theme of our school is we teach you on Tuesday and you put it into practice on Wednesday. In other MBA programs, you learn on Tuesday and, two years later, you put it to work.
From DSC:
I continue to wonder if and when corporate training and development programs/departments will shift their attention to two main things:
I continue to wonder if and when corporate training and development programs/departments will shift their attention to two main things:
- Helping employees build their own learning ecosystems — based upon each employee’s career goals, current/near-future positions, projects that they are working on, etc.
- Creating MOOCs — and/or what MOOCs eventually morph into — for their own companies; then selecting the cream of the crop for an interview or an immediate job offer
On 02/22/2013,
in communities of practice, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, experimentation, faith, hearts -- matters of the heart, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, instructional design, interactivity, K-12 related, leadership, learner profiles, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, lifelong learning, love of learning, morals/values, more voice more choice more control, real-world assignments, social learning / networks, strategy, student-related, vision/possibilities,
by Daniel Christian
From DSC:
Some very frustrated reflections after reading:
- It’s time to worry: Boys are rapidly falling behind girls in school — from takepart.com by Peg Tyre
Reporter Peg Tyre explains why the challenges boys face in school need to be taken much more seriously.
Excerpt:
Right now, boys are falling out of the kindergarten through 12th grade educational pipeline in ways that we can hardly imagine.
This situation continues to remind me of the oil spill in the Gulf (2010), where valuable resources spilled into the water untapped — later causing some serious issues:
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From DSC:
What are we doing?!!! We’ve watched the dropout rates grow — it doesn’t seem we’ve changed our strategies nearly enough! But the point that gets lost in this is that we will all pay for these broken strategies — and for generations to come! It’s time to seriously move towards identifying and implementing some new goals.
What should the new goals look like? Here’s my take on at least a portion of a new vision for K-12 — and collegiate — education:
- Help students identify their God-given gifts and then help them build up their own learning ecosystems to support the development of those gifts. Hook them up with resources that will develop students’ abilities and passions.
. - Part of their learning ecosystems could be to help them enter into — and build up — communities of practice around subjects that they enjoy learning about. Those communities could be local, national, or international. (Also consider the creation of personalized learning agents, as these become more prevalent/powerful.)
. - Do everything we can to make learning enjoyable and foster a love of learning — as we need lifelong learners these days.
(It doesn’t help society much if students are dropping out of K-12 or if people struggle to make it through graduation — only to then harbor ill feelings towards learning/education in general for years to come. Let’s greatly reduce the presence/usage of standardized tests — they’re killing us! They don’t seem to be producing long-term positive results. I congratulate the recent group of teachers who refused to give their students such tests; and I greatly admire them for getting rid of a losing strategy.)
. - Give students more choice, more control over what their learning looks like; let them take their own paths as much as possible (provide different ways to meet the same learning objective is one approach…but perhaps we need to think beyond/bigger than that. The concern/fear arises…but how will we manage this? That’s where a good share of our thinking should be focused; generating creative answers to that question.)
. - Foster curiosity and wonder
. - Provide cross-disciplinary assignments/opportunities
. - Let students work on/try to resolve real issues in their communities
. - Build up students’ appreciation of faith, hope, love, empathy, and a desire to make the world a better place. Provide ways that they can contribute.
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- Let students experiment more — encourage failure.
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3 demos available now from socraticarts.com — per Roger Schank (@rogerschank)
Excerpt from SEO module:
How is this course different than most university courses?
This course differs from a typical university course in many ways. It is based on a story-centered, learn-by-doing approach, rather than lectures and exams. The context in which you work is not a classroom but a job, with task assignments similar to those done by professionals in the real world. Unlike the real world, we are here to help you as you move through the scenario.
- Our support resources, which include books and links, have been carefully selected to be directly relevant to the tasks you need to accomplish. They are appropriate for beginners, and aligned with the current professional standards of best practice.
- Our mentors will give you detailed, informative critiques of your solutions, pointing out how your solutions can be dramatically improved.
The net result of the above is that if you successfully complete this course, you will achieve not just basic understanding of key concepts, but actual mastery of the skills needed in the real world.
On 02/14/2013,
in corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, learning ecosystem, learning theories, real-world assignments, training / L&D,
by Daniel Christian
50 suggestions for implementing 70-20-10 (2) — from Jay Cross
Excerpt:
The 70 percent: learning from experience
People learn by doing. We learn from experience and achieve mastery through practice.
On 01/14/2013,
in Asia, Canada, education reform, Europe, future, global / globalization, K-12 related, real-world assignments, staying relevant, student-related, UK, United States,
by Daniel Christian
Description:
Amanda Ripley is an investigative journalist who writes about human behavior and public policy. For Time Magazine and the Atlantic, she has chronicled the stories of American kids and teachers alongside groundbreaking new research into education reform. “Kids have strong opinions about school. We forget as adults how much time they sit there contemplating their situation.”
From DSC:
I post this now, because I just saw this via a post that Patrick Larkin made over the weekend — Amanda Ripley’s intriguing talk on education reform — that contains the following excerpt (bolding/emphasis DSC):
The video concludes with the following takeaways from these conversations:
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- In the top performing countries in the world school is harder.
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- No country is like the US with its obsession of playing sports.
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- Kids (in schools in these other countries) believe there’s something in it for them.
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- Kids believe that what they are doing in school impacts their futures.
On 01/07/2013,
in emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, K-12 related, platforms, project-based learning, real-world assignments, robotics, staying relevant,
by Daniel Christian
From DSC: I originally saw this at
Mindstorms EV3: LEGO Education unveils its next generation robotics platform
from HackEducation.com by Audrey Watters
On 12/13/2012,
in 21st century, A/V -- audio/visual, blogs / blogging / vlogging, career development, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, digital learning, digital video, education technology, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, game-changing environment, global / globalization, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, learning ecosystem, machine-to-machine communications, metacognition / metacognitive skills, mirroring and/or multiple devices, mobile learning, mobile technologies, more voice more choice more control, multimedia, online learning, participation, passions, personalized/customized learning, professional development, real-world assignments, robotics, student-related, videoconferencing, web-based collaboration,
by Daniel Christian
“Mom! Check out what I did at school today!”
If you’re a parent, don’t you love to hear the excitement in your son’s or daughter’s voice when they bring home something from school that really peaked their interest? Their passions?
I woke up last night with several ideas and thoughts on how technology could help students become — and stay — engaged, while passing over more control and choice to the students in order for them to pursue their own interests and passions. The idea would enable students to efficiently gain some exposure to a variety of things to see if those things were interesting to them — perhaps opening a way for a future internship or, eventually, a career.
The device I pictured in my mind was the sort of device that I saw a while back out at Double Robotics and/or at Suitable Technologies:
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The thoughts centered on implementing a growing network of such remote-controlled, mobile, videoconferencing-based sorts of devices, that were hooked up to voice translation engines. Students could control such devices to pursue things that they wanted to know more about, such as:
- Touring the Louvre in Paris
- Being backstage at a Broadway musical or checking out a live performance of Macbeth
- Watching a filming of a National Geographic Special in the Fiji Islands
- Attending an IEEE International Conference in Taiwan
- Attending an Educause Conference or a Sloan C event to get further knowledge about how to maximize your time studying online or within a hybrid environment
- Touring The Exploratorium in San Francisco
- Touring the Museum of Science & Industry in Chicago
- Being a fly on the wall during a Senate hearing/debate
- Seeing how changes are made in the assembly lines at a Ford plant
- Or perhaps, when a student wheels their device to a particular area — such as the front row of a conference, the signal automatically switches to the main speaker/event (keynote speakers, panel, etc. via machine-to-machine communications)
- Inviting guest speakers into a class: pastors, authors, poets, composers, etc.
- Work with local/virtual teams on how to heighten public awareness re: a project that deals with sustainability
- Virtually head to another country to immerse themselves in another country’s language — and, vice versa, help them learn the students’ native languages
For accountability — as well as for setting aside intentional time to process the information — students would update their own blogs about what they experienced, heard, and saw. They would need to include at least one image, along with the text they write about their experience. Or perhaps a brief/edited piece of digital video or audio of some of the statements that they heard that really resonated with them, or that they had further questions on. The default setting on such postings would be to be kept private, but if the teacher and the student felt that a posting could/should be made public, a quick setting could be checked to publish it out there for others to see/experience.
Real world. Engaging. Passing over more choice and control to the students so that they can pursue what they are passionate about.
On 12/07/2012,
in engagement / engaging students, K-12 related, mathematics, real-world assignments, staying relevant,
by Daniel Christian
1) Learning Ideas: Making Classroom Equipment — from makerspace.com by Joel Rosenberg (8/6/12)
This is the first post in a series about ideas for learning in a Makerspace.
2) Learning Ideas: Math in action — from makerspace.com by Joel Rosenberg (8/28/12)
This is the second post in a series about ideas for learning in a Makerspace.
3) Learning Ideas: Cheap circuits and subsystems Learning Ideas: Math in action
This is the third post in a series about ideas for learning in a Makerspace.
4) Learning Ideas: Design options, cross-referencing, cohesion — from makerspace.com by Joel Rosenberg (11/7/12)
This is the fourth and final post in a series about ideas for learning in a Makerspace.
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Also see:
- Enabling end-users to program new robot skills — from willowgarage.com/blog
On 11/16/2012,
in dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, elearning, experimentation, future of higher education, game-changing environment, global / globalization, ideas, innovation, languages and translation, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, new business models, real-world assignments, reinvent, staying relevant, web-based collaboration,
by Daniel Christian
From DSC:
I wonder how MOOCs focused on language will go…? It could be great to practice a language from folks all around the world — or will it be chaotic? Different accents. Real-world speaking and listening. Real world conflict, perhaps, as well. But it seems like there could be some effective learning going on — at least “on paper”. I wonder, too, if 1/2 of the time folks could speak one language — and would be the students during that part of the class — while the other 1/2 of the time they speak another language — and would be the “teachers.”
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And for yet another item on innovation within higher ed! Whew!
- Excelsior College and three California Community Colleges offer credit for professor-less MOOC — from online colleges.com by Alex Wukman
Excerpt:
Excelsior College has partnered with San Diego City College, San Diego Miramar College, and Santa Rosa Junior College to offer credit for a professor-less, or mechanical, massive open online course (MOOC). The course, an introduction to statistics class, is being developed by the 20 Million Minds Foundation and the online learning community OpenStudy.