Category: Learning

More Evidence of the Consolidation of Higher Education

Dwayne Harapnuik Leave a comment
https://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/10-colleges-will-offer-online-courses-for-participants-in-study-abroad-programs/41070?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en

10 Highly Selective Colleges Form Consortium to Offer Online Courses – Wired Campus – The Chronicle of Higher Education via kwout

After announcements of the major Ivy League institutions forming loosely structured collaborations in EdX, Coursera and other alternative models we shouldn’t be surprised to see other respected institutions joining forces. When you see the list of the following institutions agreeing to work together to allow their students to share online credit you must finally acknowledge that online learning has begun to disrupt Higher Education:

  • Brandeis University
  • Duke University
  • Emory University
  • Northwestern University
  • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • University of Notre Dame
  • University of Rochester
  • Vanderbilt University
  • Wake Forest University
  • Washington University in St. Louis

How can small private Liberal Arts institutions compete with these types of collaborative efforts. Will this be the beginning of the end for the small Liberal Arts University?

7 Habits of Highly Effective Teachers Who Use Technology

Dwayne Harapnuik Leave a comment

A current project has me compiling the skill set of the 21st century teacher. My search has uncovered this wonderful infographic and list of 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teachers Who Use Technology. Any list that starts with the “Why” will get my approval and the other 6 habits listed do correspond with teachers who effectively use technology to enhance learning.

7 Habits Highly Effective Teachers Who Use Technology

In case you find the infographic difficult to read a summary of the habits include:

They always start with the why.
They are malleable and can easily adapt.
They embrace change.
They share, share, and then share some more.
They think win-win-win-win.
They are extremely thorough and think two steps ahead.
They actively care.

Infographic Source: Mark Bates

Leading a Learning Revolution: Sir Ken Robinson

Dwayne Harapnuik 2 Comments

Sir Ken Robinson confirms that the learning revolution has already begun and if we have any involvement with students we can make a difference:

The education system for any given student is the school or classroom they go to… If you are a teacher you are the education system for those kids. So you can change the world of education for those kids immediately if you choose to. If enough of us do that, that adds up to social movement and that is what revolutions is.

Are you doing your part?

The Courage to Try: Inquisitivism in Real Life

Dwayne Harapnuik Leave a comment

Adam Savage's First Care
Source: https://www.wired.com/2012/10/ft-savage-first-car/

Adam Savage of Mythbusters fame relays his experience in learning how to parse complex systems which is a skill that he has used professionally ever since. Savage explains:

Every repair followed the same progression: (1) I don’t know how, (2) I can’t afford to pay someone else to do it, (3) I have to do it, (4) hey, that wasn’t so hard!

One of my teenage sons’ favorite shows is Mythbusters and while they may not yet appreciate the similarities they too have been learning how to deal with complex challenges. In the post I relayed the my son’s experience in diagnosing, disassembling and repairing a broken van door. Savage reminds us of the power that comes from solving these sorts of complex problems:

there’s a huge difference between not understanding something and not understanding it yet

Unfortunately, not enough people have the courage to try even the simplest of tasks. The following anecdotal story reveals just how pervasive this may be. My wife broke a windshield wiper the other day and went to local Canadian Tire for a replacement. At the check out the clerk asked if my wife would like a bag and my wife responded that a bag would not be necessary because our youngest son, Caleb, was going to immediately install the wiper–which he left to do. The clerks response was surprise and then turned to encouragement. She told my wife that most people had the shop install wipers even though they often had to wait a long time. The clerk went onto praise my wife that we had given our son a wonderful gift in teaching him how to do these sorts of things.

While I appreciate the kind words, I am also saddened and concerned by this experience. Replacing a windshield wiper is not even a task that my boys, or I, would consider complex–it is just something we all have to do. Teaching my children how to deal with complex systems and to solve problems shouldn’t be considered a gift–it is my responsibility as a parent. If I want my boys to grow into men of character who can positively contribute to society, they must not only learn how to solve ever day complex problems, they also need the courage and confidence to be able to tackle future problems that currently do not exist.

Are we as parents, schools and society doing enough to prepare our children to solve the complex problems that face society and the world?

Given Tablets but No Teachers, Ethiopian Children Teach Themselves

Dwayne Harapnuik 2 Comments
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/506466/given-tablets-but-no-teachers-ethiopian-children-teach-themselves/

Given Tablets but No Teachers, Ethiopian Children Teach Themselves | MIT Technology Review via kwout

Earlier this year, OLPC workers dropped off closed boxes containing the tablets, taped shut, with no instruction. “I thought the kids would play with the boxes. Within four minutes, one kid not only opened the box, found the on-off switch … powered it up. Within five days, they were using 47 apps per child, per day. Within two weeks, they were singing ABC songs in the village, and within five months, they had hacked Android,” Negroponte said. “Some idiot in our organization or in the Media Lab had disabled the camera, and they figured out the camera, and had hacked Android.”

This is a classic example of discovery or inquiry based learning. Given the right resources and opportunities children will learn how to use to a computer.

This is not the first time we have seen children teach themselves. Sugata Mitra, Professor of Educational Technology at the School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences at Newcastle University, UK has learned from his Hole in the Wall project that children can learn as how to use a PC on their own and then teach other children. Mitra continues to ask what else children can learn. The following TED talk summaries the results of his Hole in the Wall project.

Mitra’s research that shows that children become computer literate without the aid of a teacher is formally presented in the academic paper Acquisition of computing literacy on shared public computers: Children and the “hole in the wall”

The OLPC experiment and Mitra’s Hole in the Wall research confirm that children can learn to become computer literate irrespective of who and where they are. What else can children learn on their own?