I was observing some students making a presentation and I observed that they seemed very excited; a tad focused on themselves to be sure, but still the energy was palatable, a far cry from what we generally observe in the classroom when we, the instructors, are talking. Not that this is the most surprising observation, but it did beg the question of how we might build the same excitement for when students are listening about others as when they are talking about themselves.
It does seem almost an oxymoron to ask students to be engaged while not being engaged. We are wired to care about ourselves (our survival, our well being, etc.) yet we expect students to conquer those feelings as we talk about subjects that should be of interest, but generally are not. Sure, tying the learning into future career/academic success does touch on the academics of egotism, but perhaps we could develop strategies for learning through egotism (or variants thereof). Rather then having students park their egos at the door -- there is no I in learning-- let's celebrate that students do have biological forces that open them up to learning.
In "Tuning Out: Listening Becomes a Rare Skill," (Wall Street Journal 7/23/14), there is mention of a 1987 study in which people remember only 10% of what was said in a f2f conversation after a brief distraction. According to the study, people are prone to tune out those that they might disagree with; those who are less powerful than themselves, etc. The increase in online materials can also be a factor in people getting distracted.
One way we can address the issue of listening deficiencies is to work harder at it. For example, the article above mentions strategies like writing down issues that might distract you from listening before a conversation to free up the mind somewhat. Also, one can focus more closely on the speaker, by noticing facial features and using pauses in speech to clarify things.
We can also build on the fact that people are better at talking than at listening by integrating this reality into the classroom. Some of our most popular adult education environments, such as a local book club, have figured out how to combine content with self-based conversation, so perhaps our classrooms could do this as well.
Good teachers bring their lives into the classroom. Although we may teach in exile, in places far from home, we are most successful when we bring part of that home into the classroom and encourage our students to do the same.
A couple strategies did cross my mind as I observed the students.
1) The students got really animated through the use of pictures, especially those with themselves or their friends. Let's build on the egotism inherent in most of us, especially the young, and rather than using it against them, let's use it for learning.
2) Building lesson plans around actual events, such as holidays and other cultural events that students celebrate with friends and family seems like another way to celebrate the self in the classroom.
3) People's pasts and traditional imagery also might figure strongly in the ego-centered classroom.
4) One of the strengths of online learning is that participants can listen to material over and over and also because there is more text-based learning in an online classroom, thereby lessening the necessity of listening.
In terms of using egotism, I think that students should sometimes value their time and direction in terms of evaluating learning situations. The lack of inspiration might also be a clue. We should not be afraid to find supportive teachers and learning environments. In fact, you might say that the ability to recognize bad or ineffectual teachers and negative environments is also a key to be an engaged learner. Avoiding bad teachers gives us more time to find or create good ones.
Monday, March 31, 2014
Wednesday, March 26, 2014
Learn for Today and Tomorrow --- Towards a Curriculum of Engagement
We might view life as a resume, of building a set of experiences and response and accomplishments, but perhaps it would be more appropriate to view it as a lesson plan. The learning/teaching model can be applied to many out of classroom experiences. You might break down objectives into curriculum development, lesson plans, etc. For example, if you are looking for collaboration, you might develop lesson plans and activities to support this goal, as well as engage others as mentors and teachers and students in this process. You might have a goal of going to an event the finding/evaluating of collaborators.
When you are trying to communicate with people, essentially you are trying to teach them and/or yourself. For example, we told a relative about a bus that would take her near our house and would simplify our getting together. We were told her about it repeatedly and apparently the advice did not stick, as there was never any interest shown in the activity. Then, during one discussion the same idea came up only I supplied a scenario that when she took the bus to our community she would be more easily see our son, a goal she and we shared. It seemed like she responded to the idea a lot more positively; in fact, it seemed like she was hearing the suggestion for the first time. This points out how we might use scenarios in our day to day communications, which are all teachable moments.
We might expand this scenario example to a point that merges the goal of the two parties in an exchange: “A good day is when you learn/teach twice – once for today and once for tomorrow” or “once for yourself and once for someone else.”
This can become an example of turning events into curricula activities, not in the sense that these activities have to be evaluated or graded, as we can't evaluate the validity of our actions on an indifferent or unresponsive audience, but in the sense that we have a curricula of engagement/love or other objective. This allows us to integrate and merge events into a holistic medium and view our out of school/work time within the context of learning and improvement.
We can adopt a number of other learning strategies to enhance our interactions with ourselves and our environments. We might be reading on an event before we attend it; we might use simulation as a way of evaluating our learning, as in creating a video/audio/text of our skills/expectations/motivations for an event before doing it and then referring to it later, as evidence of learning and/or growth.
This model also allows us to go to an event or read/experience something not just for the inherent/expected content but as a way to relate to people; expand contacts; related knowledge to other spheres. It is a more sophisticated way of experiencing an environment that may or may not be comfortable -- of moving from an "uninvited guest" to an engaged guest or some other metaphor. Moving to inclusion with a curriculum of engagement.
John Maynard Keynes said his fear was that, at some point, much of humankind would have to cope with the problems of abundant leisure and little work and they would not be prepared for it.
When you are trying to communicate with people, essentially you are trying to teach them and/or yourself. For example, we told a relative about a bus that would take her near our house and would simplify our getting together. We were told her about it repeatedly and apparently the advice did not stick, as there was never any interest shown in the activity. Then, during one discussion the same idea came up only I supplied a scenario that when she took the bus to our community she would be more easily see our son, a goal she and we shared. It seemed like she responded to the idea a lot more positively; in fact, it seemed like she was hearing the suggestion for the first time. This points out how we might use scenarios in our day to day communications, which are all teachable moments.
We might expand this scenario example to a point that merges the goal of the two parties in an exchange: “A good day is when you learn/teach twice – once for today and once for tomorrow” or “once for yourself and once for someone else.”
This can become an example of turning events into curricula activities, not in the sense that these activities have to be evaluated or graded, as we can't evaluate the validity of our actions on an indifferent or unresponsive audience, but in the sense that we have a curricula of engagement/love or other objective. This allows us to integrate and merge events into a holistic medium and view our out of school/work time within the context of learning and improvement.
We can adopt a number of other learning strategies to enhance our interactions with ourselves and our environments. We might be reading on an event before we attend it; we might use simulation as a way of evaluating our learning, as in creating a video/audio/text of our skills/expectations/motivations for an event before doing it and then referring to it later, as evidence of learning and/or growth.
This model also allows us to go to an event or read/experience something not just for the inherent/expected content but as a way to relate to people; expand contacts; related knowledge to other spheres. It is a more sophisticated way of experiencing an environment that may or may not be comfortable -- of moving from an "uninvited guest" to an engaged guest or some other metaphor. Moving to inclusion with a curriculum of engagement.
John Maynard Keynes said his fear was that, at some point, much of humankind would have to cope with the problems of abundant leisure and little work and they would not be prepared for it.
Mortimer Adler spoke to Studs Terkel about the importance of our using free time as one of society's greatest challenges in the 1960s. This should accelerate at one point and obviously should include people that can not work or are retired.
As technology continues to grow, it might turn out that the highest and best use of our time will be spending our free time in productive work of a different kind -- consuming and thinking. The ability to use our time productively outside of traditional work will be possible as automation reduces the need for many different professions and activities.
One way of integrating continual learning into activities is to analyze situations/physical locations in terms of what problems they are designed to solve and how effectively they resolve tensions inherent in solving those problems. Can take this same logic towards analyzing curriculum -- what problems/challenges is it trying to solve and how effective is it in doing so.
We can also understand how individuals respond to different demands on their time as they age and get closer to retirement with life changes along the way. There will often be the move towards redefining wealth in terms of time available for choice activities as well as the ability to create and nurture ideas, both your own and others. This will reflect a movement away from the need to use time and abilities to create income/salary and professional growth in terms of title advancement.
Monday, March 24, 2014
Intellectuals of all Stripes Contribute to our Learning
Kurt Vonnegut had numerous opinions on the institutions that govern our lives. He was iconoclastic, of course. He did a rift on museums and the absurdity of calling out certain pieces of art as being more important than others. As an institution, I think sometimes schools mirror museums in terms of their self-importance. Or this feeling that things are important because we decide they are. Feel free to substitute the concept of education for museums in the quote from Vonnegut below:
The power of the museums is to say, “This is important.” The whole idea of picture framing, which is a big industry, is, “This you must look at.” You’ve taken a piece of the world and you’ve isolated it in a frame and it must be looked at, which is nice. But here we’ve got a big Dada show going on in the Museum of Modern Art and you must look at this. I’m wandering around all of New York and looking at this, looking at that. Maybe not looking at anything, but when you get into a museum, you gotta look at this. The arts are a practical joke. Artists are practical jokers. They’re making people respond emotionally when nothing is really going on. Which is fine. That is safe sex.
Then, of course, he talked about the absurdity of teachers trying to do too much with too little.
The classes are too big. My definition of a utopia is very simple: classes of 15 or smaller – out of this, a great nation can be built. Classes have 35 students, for Christ’s sake. The class ideally should be a family. Let’s take care of each other. There’s a person who can’t get the hang of calculus? Someone should say,“Here, let me show you.” A class of 35? Poor teacher.
There are many inherent contradictions in education, as noted above. For example, the prices of textbooks continue to soar even as prices on tuition come under increasing scrutiny. I am tempted to write a required textbook entitled: "Why Textbooks are Unnecessary."!
Of course, there is the danger of becoming too relativistic -- we do need teachers to help us understand and contribute to our culture/education. There is Kenneth Clark, the former director of the Tate Gallery in London and cataloger and supporter of many great artist. Clark also wrote books and produced BBC productions on the history of art. Some see him as very European-centric and perhaps multiculturalism has made his view less representative, but Clark certainly played a seminal role in arts education.
Another example are cultural critics in the media. Terry Teachout, arts critic for the Wall Street Journal, had an article "Educating America," which listed books and videos that he felt were vital to understanding the American ethos. This list could be used to supplement curriculum or as a guide for independent study.
This is to say that intellectuals of all stripes contribute to our learning. Keep a lookout for those with a message.
The power of the museums is to say, “This is important.” The whole idea of picture framing, which is a big industry, is, “This you must look at.” You’ve taken a piece of the world and you’ve isolated it in a frame and it must be looked at, which is nice. But here we’ve got a big Dada show going on in the Museum of Modern Art and you must look at this. I’m wandering around all of New York and looking at this, looking at that. Maybe not looking at anything, but when you get into a museum, you gotta look at this. The arts are a practical joke. Artists are practical jokers. They’re making people respond emotionally when nothing is really going on. Which is fine. That is safe sex.
Then, of course, he talked about the absurdity of teachers trying to do too much with too little.
The classes are too big. My definition of a utopia is very simple: classes of 15 or smaller – out of this, a great nation can be built. Classes have 35 students, for Christ’s sake. The class ideally should be a family. Let’s take care of each other. There’s a person who can’t get the hang of calculus? Someone should say,“Here, let me show you.” A class of 35? Poor teacher.
There are many inherent contradictions in education, as noted above. For example, the prices of textbooks continue to soar even as prices on tuition come under increasing scrutiny. I am tempted to write a required textbook entitled: "Why Textbooks are Unnecessary."!
Of course, there is the danger of becoming too relativistic -- we do need teachers to help us understand and contribute to our culture/education. There is Kenneth Clark, the former director of the Tate Gallery in London and cataloger and supporter of many great artist. Clark also wrote books and produced BBC productions on the history of art. Some see him as very European-centric and perhaps multiculturalism has made his view less representative, but Clark certainly played a seminal role in arts education.
Another example are cultural critics in the media. Terry Teachout, arts critic for the Wall Street Journal, had an article "Educating America," which listed books and videos that he felt were vital to understanding the American ethos. This list could be used to supplement curriculum or as a guide for independent study.
This is to say that intellectuals of all stripes contribute to our learning. Keep a lookout for those with a message.
Sunday, March 23, 2014
Public Learning Communities (PLCs) and Communities of Inquiries (CoI) (Team Learning)
I know we call it public education because it is publicly funded and because students all go to school together, based on age generally. But, in many ways public education is a very private affair, because each student is responsible for their own learning through papers, tests, class participation, reading, etc. How about if we adopted a more public view of public education? Using public spaces, creating public spaces through public lectures and science experiments, expressing our learning through interactive media like wikis and blogs. The Public Learning Communities movement is based on the realization that content is not in one particular space (the classroom) but everywhere, with collaboration and building on content the key, most often using technology.
Perhaps by making public education more public, we could open it up to different skills like leadership, creating cohorts and other learning communities that could exist outside the traditional classroom. An example of public learning would be the public animal dissections they are doing in Denmark, as noted in "These Museums Take Visitors Inside the Animal Kingdom -- With a Scalpel"
in the Wall Street Journal.
Public learning is different than learning about the public, as with surveys, polls, etc. Learning about the public is essentially a very private affair. Beware of this and other types of pseudo learning and teaching. When people and content appear to be engaged but are not. A lot of pseudo events.
Public learning has a strong chance (maybe a stronger chance) of capturing the zeitgeist of "Community of Inquiry," (CoI) the environment spurred on by interaction and collaboration between students in an environment created by an instructor with the foundation that knowledge is created within a social context. The example of CoI given in Wikipedia is the fable of the blind people and the elephant, each person convinced that the elephant is something different based on their limited awareness of the elephant because of what they touched. If the blind people had communicated, chances are they would have come to a more holistic and accurate view of the elephant.
In a CoI, the teacher's role is: cognitive presence; social presence; and teaching presence. Teachers are facilitators/experts but recognize that they are part of the process, not a part from it. Classroom is not so much about knowledge transmission but creating the intellectual and social structure to let ideas and relationships become apparent.
In some ways, CoI posits that learning is more a byproduct of the situation created by the teacher rather than a product of his/her knowledge transmission. More than anything I think motivated students look to instructors to create meaningful learning opportunities, through assignments, assessments, discussions, readings, or any other vehicle. There are both formal and informal ways to do this, either in the classroom, outside the classroom, or engaged in everyday life experiences. Build and be Built in the way the early pioneers in Israel (and probably other places as well). We learn as we do, as long as the doing is explained and/or there is a consciousness attached to it. Of course, this learning can change over time, as well.
This collaboration can also take place within a formal classroom setting, with blended/technology tools playing an enhanced role. As instructors we can combine projects across disciplines to create interdisciplinary learning opportunities. For example, a possible blended project for information literacy and database building might include a computer science class building a database of open educational resources for use of students that might then search for specific articles. This would give computer students a chance to develop a database and student researchers a chance to build database searching skills within a fixed environment and in that way scaffold research skills. This might be helpful for ESL students.
Private corporations obviously produce or create things, but those that are most effective are problem solving organizations. As something comes up that encourages or discourages production, the company should evolve as it faces those challenges. Educational institutions are also social organizations and as such we can view them as problem solving units. How do our bureaucracies function to solve problems? Do we encourage meritocracies, creativity, etc.?
Perhaps by making public education more public, we could open it up to different skills like leadership, creating cohorts and other learning communities that could exist outside the traditional classroom. An example of public learning would be the public animal dissections they are doing in Denmark, as noted in "These Museums Take Visitors Inside the Animal Kingdom -- With a Scalpel"
in the Wall Street Journal.
Public learning is different than learning about the public, as with surveys, polls, etc. Learning about the public is essentially a very private affair. Beware of this and other types of pseudo learning and teaching. When people and content appear to be engaged but are not. A lot of pseudo events.
Public learning has a strong chance (maybe a stronger chance) of capturing the zeitgeist of "Community of Inquiry," (CoI) the environment spurred on by interaction and collaboration between students in an environment created by an instructor with the foundation that knowledge is created within a social context. The example of CoI given in Wikipedia is the fable of the blind people and the elephant, each person convinced that the elephant is something different based on their limited awareness of the elephant because of what they touched. If the blind people had communicated, chances are they would have come to a more holistic and accurate view of the elephant.
In a CoI, the teacher's role is: cognitive presence; social presence; and teaching presence. Teachers are facilitators/experts but recognize that they are part of the process, not a part from it. Classroom is not so much about knowledge transmission but creating the intellectual and social structure to let ideas and relationships become apparent.
In some ways, CoI posits that learning is more a byproduct of the situation created by the teacher rather than a product of his/her knowledge transmission. More than anything I think motivated students look to instructors to create meaningful learning opportunities, through assignments, assessments, discussions, readings, or any other vehicle. There are both formal and informal ways to do this, either in the classroom, outside the classroom, or engaged in everyday life experiences. Build and be Built in the way the early pioneers in Israel (and probably other places as well). We learn as we do, as long as the doing is explained and/or there is a consciousness attached to it. Of course, this learning can change over time, as well.
This collaboration can also take place within a formal classroom setting, with blended/technology tools playing an enhanced role. As instructors we can combine projects across disciplines to create interdisciplinary learning opportunities. For example, a possible blended project for information literacy and database building might include a computer science class building a database of open educational resources for use of students that might then search for specific articles. This would give computer students a chance to develop a database and student researchers a chance to build database searching skills within a fixed environment and in that way scaffold research skills. This might be helpful for ESL students.
Maybe if we looked at blended learning as a team sport, we could embrace it more because team sports are a successful American export, as according to Frank Deford it has invented Americans invented all their team sports, but imported the individual games--golf, tennis.
One reason that we might be so good in terms of COI's is because the general level of education is very high, not only in terms of literacy but in terms of history, geology, and other topics. A program at a public library is likely to attract numerous people with sophisticated backgrounds in relevant topics and the social openness for everyone to share their ideas in a relatively open way. Although this is public, if we can capture it through video or other processes, it can become part of COIs.
One reason that we might be so good in terms of COI's is because the general level of education is very high, not only in terms of literacy but in terms of history, geology, and other topics. A program at a public library is likely to attract numerous people with sophisticated backgrounds in relevant topics and the social openness for everyone to share their ideas in a relatively open way. Although this is public, if we can capture it through video or other processes, it can become part of COIs.
And, let's not forget the role of historical events themselves are excellent blended learning activities. I was at an Israeli Independence ceremony where participants read from the Israeli Declaration of Independence and then reflected on what those words meant to them. It was a very powerful juxtaposition of historical text and reflection. "Lakeview synagogue to host reading of Israeli declaration of independence."
Private corporations obviously produce or create things, but those that are most effective are problem solving organizations. As something comes up that encourages or discourages production, the company should evolve as it faces those challenges. Educational institutions are also social organizations and as such we can view them as problem solving units. How do our bureaucracies function to solve problems? Do we encourage meritocracies, creativity, etc.?
Friday, March 21, 2014
2 x 2 =5 and Other Learning Transgressions
Self absorption and cognitive surplus lead to learning opportunities
Cognitive surplus and necessity are at the core of learning. We have developed the capacity to do what we need to do to survive in less time than we have and our bodies have adapted to this excess capacities with startling ingenuity sometimes.
Business writer Joseph McCormack told a group of Northwestern students that brevity was the key to catching the reader's attention because our attention spans are so short. One reason that brevity works is because the human mind supplies additional information to that provided by the speaker. McCormack noted a statistic that the human brain can process 750 words per minute, but that the average speaker only talks at 150 words per minute. This means that listener is supplying additional content to what he/she is hearing. This, to me, is very powerful. It highlights how scaffolding really works. Stories and other devices allows the listener to reflect and integrate what a teacher or other is saying.
This story from Yaakov Kirshon, creator of Dry Bones brings up balance. “An immigrant was asked for one word that would best describe his experience in Israel. After thinking awhile, he replied “tov/good.” And, if you could pick two words? “Loh/not.” In other words, his overall impression of his situation was "good" but his next analysis was "could be better."
We can take advantage of this innate self absorption by designing content that gets people inside themselves but also allows them to see outside themselves at the same time.
I went to a lecture discussing the alternative realities described by words and numbers. Words can be seen as expressions of chaos, as an attempt to describe the subjective and illogical world of perception, feeling, and actions of the physical world. Numbers, on the other hand, can be seen as expressions of order, the timeless qualities of the world that exist outside of human perception. Eternal truths, as it were.
The speaker, a lecturer from Yale University, used Dostroevsky's Notes from the Underground as part of its premise that numbers could be used to express literary qualities, as shown by 2x2=5, as opposed to just logical and irrefutable qualitites, as 2x2=4. Numbers are as important to Russians as snow is to Eskimos. The protagonist in the novel used these mathematical formulas to comment on the various forces at work on our psyches and society. In literature, 2 x2 = 4 can be a bore and 2x2=5 represents a challenge to the order, can be used to describe a wide variety of situations.
Numbers are primary qualities, they exist outside of human perception. Words have secondary qualities, they exist only because of human perception. Russian literature thorugh Dostroevsky thought that numbers and words could be used against politics and against polemics, as these equations of 2x2=4 and 2x2=5 can create a certain harmony of thought when combined/blended.
Where is the blend between the rational world as expressed through numbers and the irrational world as expressed through language? Maybe a combination is needed. Metaphor as a blend. Music as a blend. Learning as a natural bridge between the known and the unknown. Timeless order of numbers as opposed to chaos of letters.
The blending of these worlds, the finite and infinite could also be encapsulated in the phrase "We are all alone, together." Furthermore, the blending of these worlds, of bringing more order to the disorder of words might be accomplished through information science. Words getting their power/meaning independent of their content but through the patterns. Information science, makes literature or writing more like math in that it can be anticipated made logical made more universal through its structure. Cryptology is path of this transformation, of understanding language not through semantics, but patterns.
The Indian writer Amitav Gosh uses multiple dialects in his novels and in a small group presentation talks about language being used as a metaphor for belonging to a certain community or not. He says that novels unlike myth or romantic writing is usually expressed mono lingually unlike authentic life in India for example where a person might speak his village's language at home, Hindu in school, and English in business.
Gosh focuses his writing on the voices of subaltern identity; the cooks, the sailors, and others that usually don't have a true voice in fiction. But it is not only the personal that is often forgotten, but their archives. If their writings are not saved, not consulted, not imagined, than those published voices will melt away. This cuts off valuable voices from the educational process and even with the Internet many voices are not heard.
Professor Gosh mentioned that while he writes in English he sometimes thinks in Bengali as a way of unblocking his creative juices. I think many times we might appeal to our "other" side of the brain-- be it another language or music or math as a way of expressing ourselves in a learning situation and in this way express ourselves differently than we might in our traditional approach, be it writing or in a speech.
I myself have found it encouraging as a way of changing the way I view a situation -- when I think in Hebrew or German or imagine a situation as a musical interlude. This can be a way of changing a pattern and opening up learning avenues that might otherwise skim by unnoticed. This reminds me of when I was in Israel working on an archeological dig and a person noted that "I sounded better in Hebrew." I took this to mean that in Hebrew I had to think more carefully before speaking because I needed more time to imagine and come to the words I needed. We can expand our educational register by expanding our modes of thinking and expressing.
Cognitive surplus and necessity are at the core of learning. We have developed the capacity to do what we need to do to survive in less time than we have and our bodies have adapted to this excess capacities with startling ingenuity sometimes.
Business writer Joseph McCormack told a group of Northwestern students that brevity was the key to catching the reader's attention because our attention spans are so short. One reason that brevity works is because the human mind supplies additional information to that provided by the speaker. McCormack noted a statistic that the human brain can process 750 words per minute, but that the average speaker only talks at 150 words per minute. This means that listener is supplying additional content to what he/she is hearing. This, to me, is very powerful. It highlights how scaffolding really works. Stories and other devices allows the listener to reflect and integrate what a teacher or other is saying.
This story from Yaakov Kirshon, creator of Dry Bones brings up balance. “An immigrant was asked for one word that would best describe his experience in Israel. After thinking awhile, he replied “tov/good.” And, if you could pick two words? “Loh/not.” In other words, his overall impression of his situation was "good" but his next analysis was "could be better."
We can take advantage of this innate self absorption by designing content that gets people inside themselves but also allows them to see outside themselves at the same time.
I went to a lecture discussing the alternative realities described by words and numbers. Words can be seen as expressions of chaos, as an attempt to describe the subjective and illogical world of perception, feeling, and actions of the physical world. Numbers, on the other hand, can be seen as expressions of order, the timeless qualities of the world that exist outside of human perception. Eternal truths, as it were.
The speaker, a lecturer from Yale University, used Dostroevsky's Notes from the Underground as part of its premise that numbers could be used to express literary qualities, as shown by 2x2=5, as opposed to just logical and irrefutable qualitites, as 2x2=4. Numbers are as important to Russians as snow is to Eskimos. The protagonist in the novel used these mathematical formulas to comment on the various forces at work on our psyches and society. In literature, 2 x2 = 4 can be a bore and 2x2=5 represents a challenge to the order, can be used to describe a wide variety of situations.
Numbers are primary qualities, they exist outside of human perception. Words have secondary qualities, they exist only because of human perception. Russian literature thorugh Dostroevsky thought that numbers and words could be used against politics and against polemics, as these equations of 2x2=4 and 2x2=5 can create a certain harmony of thought when combined/blended.
Where is the blend between the rational world as expressed through numbers and the irrational world as expressed through language? Maybe a combination is needed. Metaphor as a blend. Music as a blend. Learning as a natural bridge between the known and the unknown. Timeless order of numbers as opposed to chaos of letters.
The Indian writer Amitav Gosh uses multiple dialects in his novels and in a small group presentation talks about language being used as a metaphor for belonging to a certain community or not. He says that novels unlike myth or romantic writing is usually expressed mono lingually unlike authentic life in India for example where a person might speak his village's language at home, Hindu in school, and English in business.
Gosh focuses his writing on the voices of subaltern identity; the cooks, the sailors, and others that usually don't have a true voice in fiction. But it is not only the personal that is often forgotten, but their archives. If their writings are not saved, not consulted, not imagined, than those published voices will melt away. This cuts off valuable voices from the educational process and even with the Internet many voices are not heard.
Professor Gosh mentioned that while he writes in English he sometimes thinks in Bengali as a way of unblocking his creative juices. I think many times we might appeal to our "other" side of the brain-- be it another language or music or math as a way of expressing ourselves in a learning situation and in this way express ourselves differently than we might in our traditional approach, be it writing or in a speech.
I myself have found it encouraging as a way of changing the way I view a situation -- when I think in Hebrew or German or imagine a situation as a musical interlude. This can be a way of changing a pattern and opening up learning avenues that might otherwise skim by unnoticed. This reminds me of when I was in Israel working on an archeological dig and a person noted that "I sounded better in Hebrew." I took this to mean that in Hebrew I had to think more carefully before speaking because I needed more time to imagine and come to the words I needed. We can expand our educational register by expanding our modes of thinking and expressing.
Online Learning Can Bring People Together During Times of Emergency, Although There is Still a Place for F2f
As a multicultural and international society we are discussing many subjects that see education as part of the process. For example, I heard a Palestinian speaker on the Israeli-Palestinian subject discussing how negotiations are an important conflict resolution but that so too is education. Many polarized issues lend themselves to education as a way of explaining sides to the other and in that way opening up other strategies. Learning is the bridge by which we bring people and ideas together. When a situation can not be completely resolve through negotiation, then education becomes an important tool of reconciliation.
Since almost by definition, polarized issues involve polarized (and geographically separate) people, blended and online learning suggest ways of bringing people together and sharing ideas in a non-confrontational atmosphere. There are no borders to cross and hierarchies to confront with online learning. Ideas that are controversial can be shared in a more diplomatic and democratic way in the more egalitarian atmosphere of cyberspace.
It could be that education is outgrowing the physical classroom. When traditional learning started at the beginning of the 20th century, schools of higher education were necessary to bring people together from different parts of the countries -- essentially a meeting place for subject experts and people that wanted to learn from them. Resources largely consisted of physical books in a library.
Of course, so much has changed now. We think differently about what constitutes learning, what constitutes thinking, and what constitutes an education. I wonder why we get surprised at this move towards online/blended learning, as it really makes sense. As we think differently we need different ways to think about thinking.
By having links and created more interactive tools, one might hope that blended learning might increase the ability to think non-linearly and come up with non traditional solutions.To think holistically rather than in a strictly reductionist method.
We are use to the argument that online/blended learning increases access and allows for much greater flexibility for learners, but there is also the reality that many websites present information in such a way that would be impossible in a textbook or f2f lecture (although you could link to a website in the classroom, that is still what I consider blended learning). A Thursday, March 20 New York Times article notes how the White House added a variety of apps to support its open source data website has to encourage people to view interactive maps and other documents on topics such as climate change. This type of material is kept up to date in a way that printed material can not be and presented in a 3D visual fashion that is only possible on the Internet.
In February, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof wrote about the importance of academics taking more of a role in the public debate (Professors, We Need You). Part of the reason academics don't get involved in public policy debates, according to Kristof, is that there jobs are tied to publishing in academic journal and thus they don't have the time to write for the general public. Of course, faculty at community colleges don't have the same publishing requirements. In general, I agree that faculty and other public intellectuals have an important role in sharing their views on issues of public concern, such as climate change, military policy, and the like. We as a society have invested a lot in creating the ability for people to study and master the facts in many fields, so we should benefit from their views, including their reasoned opinions. Online and blended ways of sharing may help professors share their views outside their own environments.
Although online offers many options for time-strapped, economically less well off, people, it also presents options to travel to areas that might be off limits either temporarily or permanently. For example, during the protracted bombing/invasion situation between Palestinians and Israelis in the Gaza Strip in July 2014, there was an article in the July 23 Wall Street Journal "Tel Aviv's Tech Hub Presses Ahead" about how many high-tech meetings were not held or postponed because flights were not landing or people were involved in the military exchanges. I wonder how many other meetings were conducted via Skype or other sources and will this number continue to grow?
Chicago and other areas have experienced dangerously cold weather temperatures and snow and this has understandably impacted attendance at area schools (elementary, high school, colleges and universities) as these schools have closed as a safety precaution for commuting students/staff/faculty.
While I applaud these safety measures, I do not necessarily understand why learning has to stop when campuses have to close. I believe online access should be used as an essential service to increase access to learning when physical campuses are closed. Just as we have a physical campus, so we have a virtual/electronic/Internet campus. These resources work in a blended way. The mission of a school (elementary, high school, college) is to engage and educate its students -- all resources should be mobilized for that mission, classrooms, faculty, staff, etc. When a physical campus is rendered unusable because of a weather emergency, the online campus should be mobilized. Learning Management Systems, which are the online equivalent of the physical classroom in terms of content delivery has resources for posting videos (aka flipped classroom), holding real time conversations and also for providing for live lecture with interactive questions. Again, I ask, when a physical classroom is closed, why should learning stop?
I might add that cold weather is only one possible weather related scenario. Last summer, our local community college was closed for one week because of flooding from a river that abuts the campus. The campus was unaffected by the flooding but roads leading to the campus were impassable.
As the note below explains, these types of issues should be part of any emergency preparedness. Just as we prepare for disasters like a tornado, and active shooter on campus, we should be making these weather situations, which seem to be increasing due to climate change, a regular part of our administrative/instructional planning.
I believe online/blended lectures should be part of any discussion. After all, in a rhetorical sense we might ask "how many online classes were cancelled because of the subzero temperatures?"
The Cincinnati Enquirer outlined strategies for handling these "calamity" days in this article. and the Chicago Tribune had an article about a high school that had online assignments during the closure.
I know there are issues of training, complete student access, etc. But, issues have never stopped successful adaptation before. We can come together as administrators, faculty, staff, and students to fully utilize all of our campuses in the pursuit of engaged learning.
There is research to suggest that unscheduled school closings do have a negative impact on student learning. In Unscheduled School Closings and Student Performance, the authors show that test results go down when there are numerous school closings for storms, etc. The work missed is not completely made up and days added on to the end of the year do not help prepare students for tests scheduled earlier. There is research to suggest the opposite is also true, that there are advantages to closing school in bad weather, but this does not detract from the central point that online resources should be more fully integrated into the learning equation.
The New York Times noted the move towards more online learning in times of weather emergencies with "Snow Day? That's Great Now Log In, Get to Class."
Wednesday, March 19, 2014
The Self & Self Agency in Research
Self agency seems like a dichotomy --- in a city like Boston where you seen evidence of collective and individual self agency through action, thought, you also sense very keenly the limits, as there are so many distractions and competing agendas. How does cognition work in unison with other socio-economic forces. Industrial psychologists tell us that there is no learning/performance without motivation and ability.
There is a collective agency (not collection agency) that gives us all a shared purpose. Too much emphasis on the self in self agency blinds us to what we might accomplish together and do indeed accomplish not always by working on a shared project consciously but also by contributing our individual thoughts and efforts in collaboration with others but also when we work independently or in conscious opposition. Collective agency is a factor all the way around.
We see this dichotomy in the psychology of the thought process. In Freudian psychology, thoughts are necessary to reduce trauma. If we can't think something through, then the trauma is unrecognized and fosters inaction and depression. Thoughts are necessary in this scenario to mitigate an individual (and perhaps an organization) being overwhelmed.
On the other hand, perhaps sometimes thoughts can increase trauma. Can't we often increase tension and frustration with negative thoughts and our reactions to them? Other Freudian ideas such as theory of neurosis, dreams, creativity all predicated on the will to procreate being successfully channeled.
We can see the personality and its needs work out in information gathering. In a March 18, 2014 Wall Street Journal opinion piece "Nukes and 'Snowden-Proof' Intelligence," Samantha Ravich and Carol Haave argue that countries such as the United States can find out the nuclear intent and capacities of other countries without resorting to illegal espionage/spying or high-level intelligence gathering, such as that committed by Edward Snowden or the National Security Agency's surveillance methods.
Ravich and Haave say that the NSA-type activities are now going to get harder because of countries being more aware of their records being monitored but also because these high-tech involve so many academics, who will leave a publishing footprint on their strategies and capabilities. "Fortunately, building a nuclear program takes a lot of resources and a significant talent base. Mobilizing those leaves "open-source footprints." Iranian, Pakistani, Chinese and other scientists publish their work in global journals. Strange as it may sound, even North Korean scientists publish in international journals in order to promote their work to a broader audience and secure invitations to international conferences and scientific exchanges."
Ravich and Haave also posit that the intellectual exchange over the merits of nuclear technology should also be available via academic/scholarly interaction, such as when some academics question the feasibility or desirability of a specific technological advance, such as developing nuclear capabilities. Open-source collection and analysis also provides insight into one of the most coveted areas of intelligence—leadership intent. The U.S. has a stated policy to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons. To have the greatest chance of accomplishing this, we need to be able to dissuade and deter proto-nuclear states in their earliest stages of development. Open-source information can often give us better insight into foreign leaders' motivation and intent.
The authors write that these articles, published in international journals, are available as open source documents, meaning they are on the Internet and freely accessible: Political and scientific leaders, even in countries like Iran, are by no means unanimously in favor of weaponizing their nuclear programs. Their attempts to build coalitions for their positions (and against others') can seep into the public domain.
As a faculty member that teaches the importance of information literacy, I am glad to see that freedom of the press and good research/searching techniques can have a variety of security applications, in addition to the important educational functions they already possess. And, while I agree that the Internet is a unparalleled place to find academic journal articles, many of these articles are not open source in the practical sense of the word. Most academic journals are published by private publishers that charge hefty access fees in the form of subscription costs. These private publishers, such as Sage Publications and EBSCO Information Services, dramatically restrict access to important academic topics to those (wealthy) institutions, such as colleges and universities that can pay their subscription prices. These subscription prices block access to not only possibly important national security information, such as that described by Ravich and Haave, but also important medical and legal information, etc. that could have life-saving implications as well. I look forward to the time (hopefully not too distant) when research, much of it funded by taxpayers, will truly be open source and available to all. Then, Aaron Schwatz, of blessed memory, will not have died in vain.
This process of self agency in developing a supply chain of academic information will become increasingly important as the price and availability of proprietary databases is changing. What was once an almost monopoly on academic information by databases such as EBSCO is now being challenges by alternative databases, which have different challenges. How to find reliable information on Google for example and develop personalized information networks.
The upsurge in open source material corresponds somewhat to problematic issues with traditional academic publishing. There are been studies that have questioned the peer review process and other staples of academic publishing. I have read numerous popular articles that cite social media sites with great impact. Popular culture media strikes me as more dynamic and inclusive than academic publishing and so I wonder that even if some popular culture is misleading, can't we say the same about academic press only more so?
Just as global food chains need to have numerous nodes to be effective so too do searches for information. Self agency, the ability to find, understand, and use various types of information is more powerful and important than ever.
There is a collective agency (not collection agency) that gives us all a shared purpose. Too much emphasis on the self in self agency blinds us to what we might accomplish together and do indeed accomplish not always by working on a shared project consciously but also by contributing our individual thoughts and efforts in collaboration with others but also when we work independently or in conscious opposition. Collective agency is a factor all the way around.
We see this dichotomy in the psychology of the thought process. In Freudian psychology, thoughts are necessary to reduce trauma. If we can't think something through, then the trauma is unrecognized and fosters inaction and depression. Thoughts are necessary in this scenario to mitigate an individual (and perhaps an organization) being overwhelmed.
On the other hand, perhaps sometimes thoughts can increase trauma. Can't we often increase tension and frustration with negative thoughts and our reactions to them? Other Freudian ideas such as theory of neurosis, dreams, creativity all predicated on the will to procreate being successfully channeled.
We can see the personality and its needs work out in information gathering. In a March 18, 2014 Wall Street Journal opinion piece "Nukes and 'Snowden-Proof' Intelligence," Samantha Ravich and Carol Haave argue that countries such as the United States can find out the nuclear intent and capacities of other countries without resorting to illegal espionage/spying or high-level intelligence gathering, such as that committed by Edward Snowden or the National Security Agency's surveillance methods.
Ravich and Haave say that the NSA-type activities are now going to get harder because of countries being more aware of their records being monitored but also because these high-tech involve so many academics, who will leave a publishing footprint on their strategies and capabilities. "Fortunately, building a nuclear program takes a lot of resources and a significant talent base. Mobilizing those leaves "open-source footprints." Iranian, Pakistani, Chinese and other scientists publish their work in global journals. Strange as it may sound, even North Korean scientists publish in international journals in order to promote their work to a broader audience and secure invitations to international conferences and scientific exchanges."
Ravich and Haave also posit that the intellectual exchange over the merits of nuclear technology should also be available via academic/scholarly interaction, such as when some academics question the feasibility or desirability of a specific technological advance, such as developing nuclear capabilities. Open-source collection and analysis also provides insight into one of the most coveted areas of intelligence—leadership intent. The U.S. has a stated policy to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons. To have the greatest chance of accomplishing this, we need to be able to dissuade and deter proto-nuclear states in their earliest stages of development. Open-source information can often give us better insight into foreign leaders' motivation and intent.
The authors write that these articles, published in international journals, are available as open source documents, meaning they are on the Internet and freely accessible: Political and scientific leaders, even in countries like Iran, are by no means unanimously in favor of weaponizing their nuclear programs. Their attempts to build coalitions for their positions (and against others') can seep into the public domain.
As a faculty member that teaches the importance of information literacy, I am glad to see that freedom of the press and good research/searching techniques can have a variety of security applications, in addition to the important educational functions they already possess. And, while I agree that the Internet is a unparalleled place to find academic journal articles, many of these articles are not open source in the practical sense of the word. Most academic journals are published by private publishers that charge hefty access fees in the form of subscription costs. These private publishers, such as Sage Publications and EBSCO Information Services, dramatically restrict access to important academic topics to those (wealthy) institutions, such as colleges and universities that can pay their subscription prices. These subscription prices block access to not only possibly important national security information, such as that described by Ravich and Haave, but also important medical and legal information, etc. that could have life-saving implications as well. I look forward to the time (hopefully not too distant) when research, much of it funded by taxpayers, will truly be open source and available to all. Then, Aaron Schwatz, of blessed memory, will not have died in vain.
This process of self agency in developing a supply chain of academic information will become increasingly important as the price and availability of proprietary databases is changing. What was once an almost monopoly on academic information by databases such as EBSCO is now being challenges by alternative databases, which have different challenges. How to find reliable information on Google for example and develop personalized information networks.
The upsurge in open source material corresponds somewhat to problematic issues with traditional academic publishing. There are been studies that have questioned the peer review process and other staples of academic publishing. I have read numerous popular articles that cite social media sites with great impact. Popular culture media strikes me as more dynamic and inclusive than academic publishing and so I wonder that even if some popular culture is misleading, can't we say the same about academic press only more so?
Just as global food chains need to have numerous nodes to be effective so too do searches for information. Self agency, the ability to find, understand, and use various types of information is more powerful and important than ever.
Monday, March 10, 2014
Personal Learning Networks: Because We Don't Know What You Need to Know; And We Know That and Can Describe That!
Targeted Learning, such as that made more possible through personalized use of technology to build and develop content, can lead to more future oriented learning. Traditional classrooms can often be a bastion of conservative thought because schooling is generally composed of students taking a proscribed, accredited path directed by (and filled with) other people taking that same proscribed, accredited path. And, young people are the ones with one foot in the future so they have more vested in this type of learning.
Education has to continue to evolve to stay relevant. We might think of traditional f2f lectures as a Henry Longfellow poem, at one time the most popular in the world but over time not adapting to the changing meter and other schemes so that Longfellow now is seen as quaint and outdated, not the Modernist that Whitman was just a few years later.
For education to talk its more lofty goal of human development -- of teachers, content, technology, and interaction combining to help people create and actualize potential that leads to a culture of this same human development, different models and more patient strategies might be seen. Yes, we need to advance to the universal goal of sustainable human development but increasingly that can be done with individualized methods and using content rich environments both online and f2f.
Education has long been universal for some specific reasons, including in the industrial/agricultural paradigm, most people needed the same general skills to ensure economic relevance. Also, in terms of general citizen-based learning, there were basic literacy and critical thinking skills that allowed us to fulfill our democratic responsibilities, such as participating in decision making. Of course, there was also the physical reality that we all had to learn together because the educational resources (schools, teachers, administrators) were limited to buildings to access the most possible people.
But, now our economic necessities are diverging at a very rapid rate. All of us need to know different things at different times to remain economically relevant and culturally aware. Our populations are more diverse, our needs are more diverse, and our contexts are more diverse. This is driving the need for more personalized learning and technology is allowing us to address this via Personal Learning Networks (PLNs).
PLN's work not because they are aspirational but because they are based not only on economic reality but on the way we learn-- spontaneously and through networks, both technological and human. We can build the process and then, just like the principles behind the Twitter concept, people will supply their own context. Twitter builds on the reality that keywords are the way we scaffold and construct knowledge, letting the user/reader fill in gaps with their minds. Our audience will always think faster than we can create content, so let them use that skill to fill in the gaps and construct knowledge by leading them in the direction they need to go through keywords.
Since we can never know what are audiences already knows and how they will use what we add in a particular context, we can help them by introducing a set of guiding principles and direct their learning through developing personalized learning modules.
Modular and personalized learning is one way for businesses to grow for example, as a new employee may have certain skills but need other skills. A different employee, starting at the same time, may have different skills and different educational needs.
The information age has given rise to the networked age, where we are all moving into a space where people's careers are not on resumes, but in social networking sites. This can be seen in articles touting the newest apps like "Meet Your Digital Butler: Humin, a Social OS" (Wall Street Journal 7/21/14) that mentions products like Humin and Google Now. Our ability to gather people together with relevant information will become the next sign of economic growth and economic mobility, building on the information age that preceded it and the industrial and agricultural systems before that. We are essentially moving from the information age to the contextual information age, where being able to fit information/knowledge into the right space will be where the value is.
This flexibility and willingness to change is one of the most essential ingredients to learning. A career search is an example of a series of solving a complex problems with a lot of moving parts. The economy is always changing; employer needs are always changing, etc. Is there an ideal number of times for information to circulate for it to be effective (in a job search or otherwise)?
Personally, I am applying this flexibility/adaptability to my life outside the classroom. Rather than a Shabbat "day" of rest, for example, I am trying to apply the concept of spiritual rest/peace throughout the week, resulting in minutes (seconds) and hours of Shabbat rest throughout the week rather than on one particular day.
Education has to continue to evolve to stay relevant. We might think of traditional f2f lectures as a Henry Longfellow poem, at one time the most popular in the world but over time not adapting to the changing meter and other schemes so that Longfellow now is seen as quaint and outdated, not the Modernist that Whitman was just a few years later.
For education to talk its more lofty goal of human development -- of teachers, content, technology, and interaction combining to help people create and actualize potential that leads to a culture of this same human development, different models and more patient strategies might be seen. Yes, we need to advance to the universal goal of sustainable human development but increasingly that can be done with individualized methods and using content rich environments both online and f2f.
Education has long been universal for some specific reasons, including in the industrial/agricultural paradigm, most people needed the same general skills to ensure economic relevance. Also, in terms of general citizen-based learning, there were basic literacy and critical thinking skills that allowed us to fulfill our democratic responsibilities, such as participating in decision making. Of course, there was also the physical reality that we all had to learn together because the educational resources (schools, teachers, administrators) were limited to buildings to access the most possible people.
But, now our economic necessities are diverging at a very rapid rate. All of us need to know different things at different times to remain economically relevant and culturally aware. Our populations are more diverse, our needs are more diverse, and our contexts are more diverse. This is driving the need for more personalized learning and technology is allowing us to address this via Personal Learning Networks (PLNs).
PLN's work not because they are aspirational but because they are based not only on economic reality but on the way we learn-- spontaneously and through networks, both technological and human. We can build the process and then, just like the principles behind the Twitter concept, people will supply their own context. Twitter builds on the reality that keywords are the way we scaffold and construct knowledge, letting the user/reader fill in gaps with their minds. Our audience will always think faster than we can create content, so let them use that skill to fill in the gaps and construct knowledge by leading them in the direction they need to go through keywords.
Since we can never know what are audiences already knows and how they will use what we add in a particular context, we can help them by introducing a set of guiding principles and direct their learning through developing personalized learning modules.
Modular and personalized learning is one way for businesses to grow for example, as a new employee may have certain skills but need other skills. A different employee, starting at the same time, may have different skills and different educational needs.
The information age has given rise to the networked age, where we are all moving into a space where people's careers are not on resumes, but in social networking sites. This can be seen in articles touting the newest apps like "Meet Your Digital Butler: Humin, a Social OS" (Wall Street Journal 7/21/14) that mentions products like Humin and Google Now. Our ability to gather people together with relevant information will become the next sign of economic growth and economic mobility, building on the information age that preceded it and the industrial and agricultural systems before that. We are essentially moving from the information age to the contextual information age, where being able to fit information/knowledge into the right space will be where the value is.
The increased importance of contextual information should make libraries and librarians more important. After all, one of the beauties of a library is that it is networked knowledge, designed to fill the context of the institution and its member faculty, students, etc. Librarians can help build pathways to information based on its relevance and credibility, just as other instructors do. Google and other providers can give you information and they are trying to develop the capacity to create contextual information but librarians still have the edge in this area because of the training and human factor in search.
The Wall Street Journal's "A Game Plan for Job Seekers" (March 7, 2014) talks about the flexibility and adaptability of job hunting and how the search itself is the epitome of learning--it involves flexibility through trial and error; networking; random encounters; and adjusting to changes in the economy and other variables. One of the most interesting findings, according to the article, is the fact that renters often earn more than homeowners because of their flexibility. The flexibility may be most apparent in the ability to more easily move to where the jobs are, but it struck me that perhaps the renter frame of mind is also more open to change in general. Even if a renter does not need to move for a job, they may be more open to changing their ideas about strategies, who to talk to, what experiences to try, etc.
This flexibility and willingness to change is one of the most essential ingredients to learning. A career search is an example of a series of solving a complex problems with a lot of moving parts. The economy is always changing; employer needs are always changing, etc. Is there an ideal number of times for information to circulate for it to be effective (in a job search or otherwise)?
One of the challenges of teaching is to remain flexible in our approach. Reading the crowd (the students) means changing techniques or lesson plans on the fly if something is not working or is working very well. One of the challenges of using produced material, as many power points and blended techniques are, is that we might use these tools if they are working or not, because we have already prepared them.
We need to be flexible to adapt or change materials; often out of necessity as navigational strategies might change as with a new web site requiring new ways of entering a database. There are also changes in databases themselves and of course the subject may be updated due to new research findings, etc.
Now, technology is changing possibilities and we can go from the universal to the personal much more efficiently. This builds on the reality that different people need different skills at different times. There is also the reality that we have international learning needs and other variables that were never as relevant or as possible as today. For example, in my trips to China and most recently Turkey, I met professionals with similar training needs as their American counterparts and yet there were areas that were very unique to a particular time and place.
Rather than presenting content, we might refocus our strategy on presenting questions and then suggesting pathways to those questions (content and activities to bring those pathways together).
We need to be flexible to adapt or change materials; often out of necessity as navigational strategies might change as with a new web site requiring new ways of entering a database. There are also changes in databases themselves and of course the subject may be updated due to new research findings, etc.
Now, technology is changing possibilities and we can go from the universal to the personal much more efficiently. This builds on the reality that different people need different skills at different times. There is also the reality that we have international learning needs and other variables that were never as relevant or as possible as today. For example, in my trips to China and most recently Turkey, I met professionals with similar training needs as their American counterparts and yet there were areas that were very unique to a particular time and place.
Rather than presenting content, we might refocus our strategy on presenting questions and then suggesting pathways to those questions (content and activities to bring those pathways together).
Personally, I am applying this flexibility/adaptability to my life outside the classroom. Rather than a Shabbat "day" of rest, for example, I am trying to apply the concept of spiritual rest/peace throughout the week, resulting in minutes (seconds) and hours of Shabbat rest throughout the week rather than on one particular day.
Thursday, March 6, 2014
Progressive Education and the Development of Civic Engagement Culture
One of the tenets of Progressive education, which is now over 100 years old and had many pioneers in the Chicago area such as Francis Parker and John Dewey, is the tie between education and democracy rests on the reality that educated citizens are necessary to partake in a representative government. "We the people" implies we have the collective decision-making capacity to run our own affairs without the oversight of a gilded class. This is representative democracy 101, but what impact should this have on the classroom? Obviously we need to teach civics and related subjects, including those necessary for us to complete the technological and other demanding tasks of a complicated economy. I wonder if we might also take some republican ideas and infuse the curriculum with them. What is wrong with students taking part in group classroom decisions? Helping set up assignments, as appropriate. I know that many of these activities have been tried; sometimes with mixed results. But, if we want to talk about authentic learning, I think there are a number of participatory activities that could increase student success in the classroom and as citizens.
For example, as technology has become a bigger part of the learning process, it has opened up many options for educators and students. Instructors and students can now create content and in this way become more active in their own learning. This interplay between technology and civic learning is illustrated through the application of Resource Mobilization Theory (RMT). RMT posits that students can have a positive impact on civic society and their own learning through the development of academic-related content. When applied to the classroom, RMT empowers students to create learning objects such as videos/audios, wikis, and blogs. These learning objects, when produced under the guidance of faculty, can provide unique content to supplement more traditional academic research, such as scholarly journals, books, and governmental sources. Those with access to resources have more control over their learning.
When we discuss classrooms we do not always (or in fact often) mean those in a school. I like to think of classrooms as being content-rich environments (traveling, for example) combine with opportunities for prompts and reflection. Prompts are important to ensure awareness is part of the experience but perhaps the importance of feedback, including that which is evaluated, may be overrated. Sometimes we may exaggerate what responding in an academic way does. We sometimes force participants to choose a correct answer when none exists or put themselves into conflict with others by creating evaluative situations. Perhaps there is greater benefit for non confessional situations. Where people do not have to respond. Do not have to be right or wrong or even anything. They can just process and scaffold.
For example, as technology has become a bigger part of the learning process, it has opened up many options for educators and students. Instructors and students can now create content and in this way become more active in their own learning. This interplay between technology and civic learning is illustrated through the application of Resource Mobilization Theory (RMT). RMT posits that students can have a positive impact on civic society and their own learning through the development of academic-related content. When applied to the classroom, RMT empowers students to create learning objects such as videos/audios, wikis, and blogs. These learning objects, when produced under the guidance of faculty, can provide unique content to supplement more traditional academic research, such as scholarly journals, books, and governmental sources. Those with access to resources have more control over their learning.
When we discuss classrooms we do not always (or in fact often) mean those in a school. I like to think of classrooms as being content-rich environments (traveling, for example) combine with opportunities for prompts and reflection. Prompts are important to ensure awareness is part of the experience but perhaps the importance of feedback, including that which is evaluated, may be overrated. Sometimes we may exaggerate what responding in an academic way does. We sometimes force participants to choose a correct answer when none exists or put themselves into conflict with others by creating evaluative situations. Perhaps there is greater benefit for non confessional situations. Where people do not have to respond. Do not have to be right or wrong or even anything. They can just process and scaffold.
RMT encourages students to add their own voices and research to the academic process and thereby provides opportunities for authentic learning. Students become part of the research process and not only learn about a particular topic but also learn how academic information is created. In this way, students get a more meaningful learning experience as learning is both specific to a topic and also generalized in touching on how information is created. For example, a student studying Turkish history might create a video on Kemal Ataturk and put that video into a larger paper on the topic. This larger paper would also include more traditional sources, such as books on the history of Turkey.
Classroom environment can be seen as a metaphor for society, where the idea is to develop citizens--those with an active role in making connections, scaffolding, and creating/interacting with content rich situations. We might evaluate people in terms of their capabilities and appreciation of learning environments and potentials. On the lookout for fellow learners.
Classroom environment can be seen as a metaphor for society, where the idea is to develop citizens--those with an active role in making connections, scaffolding, and creating/interacting with content rich situations. We might evaluate people in terms of their capabilities and appreciation of learning environments and potentials. On the lookout for fellow learners.
I currently teach traditional information literacy classes. We review the four main elements of academic research and writing: books, academic journals/magazines; Google and other open Internet sites; and Experts, such as historians, journalists, and others.
Civic Intervention as part of the Academic Process
Classroom teaching is obviously a major part of any academic's responsibilities. However, the role of public intellectual and other forms of civic engagement are also a consideration. Civic engagement is a malleable term involving the exchange of knowledge between academics to non academic or in non academic setting. Public lectures in a library, for example. Civic engagement might also include interdisciplinary academic exchange beyond the walls of the academy. There is the Odyssey project in Chicago that features faculty teaching humanities to those at poverty level.
Motti Bunzl who is an executive with the Chicago Humanities Council says that a heavily academic lecture will fail as a public intellectual event. Public at large does not care about an academic's CV. To be successful, a public intellectual should explain why they are passionate about a discipline and why it is important. Originality is not the issue, passion and analysis is.
A big part of the civic engagement contract is reciprocity. What does public bring to the discussion, not just what does the discussion bring to the public.
A major question is how do we invite people to be participants rather than just passive recipients-- reciprocity -- creating spaces to hear from everyone.
Using civic engagement and other everyday events as educational tools is a way to transform everyday objects and events into works of education. This is a way to become a folk educator; of changing the perspective of day-to-day from what might be seen as the ordinary (the landfill of architecture) and using it to fill in the blanks of content.
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
Mobile Technology Belongs in the Classroom Because it is the Classroom!
As noted in this article, mobile technology offers a lot of interactive and creative ways to increase engagement in the learning process. A key, it seems to me, is to reverse engineer mobile tools. Let's teach "students" how to use mobile technology for better education results -- enhanced engagement via posing questions and reflection. Rather than teach how to use technology to increase access to content in a blended classroom, let's show how to use the tools people are already using (Facebook and other social media tools) to increase the teaching/educational content and value. From there it will be just a logical step into the classroom. When students are handing in learning projects with their mobile technology, it will become obvious that these tools not only belong in the classroom, the tools are essentially the classroom.
We are already using these tools for advocacy and as we realize that advocacy is one of the most potent forms of learning (engagement, passion, message, purpose), then the more advocacy assignments, the more mobile tools will be used.
Recent upsurge in violence around the world also reminds us of the importance of safety in the classroom includes getting to and from class. With mobile technology, participants do not have to congregate in one classroom (with added possibilities for those wanting to disrupt class) and also they do not have to travel to and from a central place. Mobile learning is decentralized.
An article in the New Republic "How Silence Became a Luxury Product" reminds me of some of the subtler reasons that online learning can be a benefit. There is just so much less hassle associated with the online experience, at least most of the time. I understand that sometimes the Internet is down and sometimes a person's technological skills are not what they should be, but to me at least, learning in the relative quiet of my home or other location can be quite relaxing when we spend so much of our time engaged in life. This ability to focus can help us turn some of that engagement onto ourselves and our learning.
Improved access to quality education should be a real advantage for social mobility -- it is an answer to a number of struggles that those that have been economically marginalized because it provides access. So much has been made about the fact that you need a computer and internet access to fully participate in online learning. What is forgotten is that to participate in f2f learning you need access to car, car insurance, gas, etc.
Obviously, blended and online classes have to be academically rigorous and challenging. I wonder though if we are giving the same analysis to our f2f classes. I think there should be oversight for all classes, while retaining academic independence.
Let's not forget also that it is not only what we learn in terms of content but where we learn. "Inside the Executive Brain," by Andrew Blackman, published in the Wall Street Journal notes that "39% of people do their best thinking at home." Some people may not perform at their best cognitively in the classroom setting, especially at night. Online/Blended learning will give people the opportunity to tackle academic topics when they feel most able to be creative and do the work necessary.
Online learning has the potential to open up access to a large number of underserved populations -- including those with disabilities that limit access to f2f classrooms. These include those with mobility disabilities, of course, but also includes those with disabilities that might limit success in any traditional classroom, such as those with issues talking in class, interacting with authority, etc. This is not to say that online does not have to make any accommodations to those with special needs, just to say that online learning offers solutions to many learning barriers.
One solution to accommodations within the online environment is the notion of universal access, which is the instructional design mechanism to make sure that online learning situations are navigable to all.
In terms of instructional design, some schools are moving away from the essay/paper as the best way to measure learning because students have become so adept at giving instructors what they want to hear in papers. The Wall Street Journal's July 3, 2014 "Want to Get Into Business School? Write Less, Talk More" focuses on the move away from evaluating people on the written word and using alternative methods like interviews and quick response writing that measures people's ability to think quickly and express themselves well and authentically. Perhaps other academic assessments should also be moving towards a more blended approach to measuring effectiveness.
We are already using these tools for advocacy and as we realize that advocacy is one of the most potent forms of learning (engagement, passion, message, purpose), then the more advocacy assignments, the more mobile tools will be used.
Recent upsurge in violence around the world also reminds us of the importance of safety in the classroom includes getting to and from class. With mobile technology, participants do not have to congregate in one classroom (with added possibilities for those wanting to disrupt class) and also they do not have to travel to and from a central place. Mobile learning is decentralized.
An article in the New Republic "How Silence Became a Luxury Product" reminds me of some of the subtler reasons that online learning can be a benefit. There is just so much less hassle associated with the online experience, at least most of the time. I understand that sometimes the Internet is down and sometimes a person's technological skills are not what they should be, but to me at least, learning in the relative quiet of my home or other location can be quite relaxing when we spend so much of our time engaged in life. This ability to focus can help us turn some of that engagement onto ourselves and our learning.
Improved access to quality education should be a real advantage for social mobility -- it is an answer to a number of struggles that those that have been economically marginalized because it provides access. So much has been made about the fact that you need a computer and internet access to fully participate in online learning. What is forgotten is that to participate in f2f learning you need access to car, car insurance, gas, etc.
Obviously, blended and online classes have to be academically rigorous and challenging. I wonder though if we are giving the same analysis to our f2f classes. I think there should be oversight for all classes, while retaining academic independence.
Let's not forget also that it is not only what we learn in terms of content but where we learn. "Inside the Executive Brain," by Andrew Blackman, published in the Wall Street Journal notes that "39% of people do their best thinking at home." Some people may not perform at their best cognitively in the classroom setting, especially at night. Online/Blended learning will give people the opportunity to tackle academic topics when they feel most able to be creative and do the work necessary.
Online learning has the potential to open up access to a large number of underserved populations -- including those with disabilities that limit access to f2f classrooms. These include those with mobility disabilities, of course, but also includes those with disabilities that might limit success in any traditional classroom, such as those with issues talking in class, interacting with authority, etc. This is not to say that online does not have to make any accommodations to those with special needs, just to say that online learning offers solutions to many learning barriers.
One solution to accommodations within the online environment is the notion of universal access, which is the instructional design mechanism to make sure that online learning situations are navigable to all.
In terms of instructional design, some schools are moving away from the essay/paper as the best way to measure learning because students have become so adept at giving instructors what they want to hear in papers. The Wall Street Journal's July 3, 2014 "Want to Get Into Business School? Write Less, Talk More" focuses on the move away from evaluating people on the written word and using alternative methods like interviews and quick response writing that measures people's ability to think quickly and express themselves well and authentically. Perhaps other academic assessments should also be moving towards a more blended approach to measuring effectiveness.
Saturday, March 1, 2014
Teaching in the First Person Plural -- The Importance of Community Support/Input
Does our education system focus too much on the individual? Do we prize self expression (I) over group awareness (we)? What is the role of the collective in the education process? Can we substitute group student success for the more narrow individual student success? Do we glorify (petty) self expression in the guise of autobiographical writings over the group learning as expressed through group exercises or group identity? And, at what cost do we train one when society really relies more on the success of multitude of voices working together?
Mark Nowak, labor poet and writing teacher, helps activate the personal voice through group writing workshops that help workers with little formal education create powerful tapestries of their experience. He runs writers workshops that have people write down individual experiences and weave them into a communal poem, with a recitation of individual insights combine with a group chorus. This is video-taped and this can be shared between groups as a form of building solidarity. I think this is great example of teaching the first person plural helping people move from individual learning, which is by necessity vulnerable and often resists the headlines, into a collective expression, which supplies the power and societal relevance. I saw Mark in action and he is a master teacher, helping give people a voice.
In many ways, the segmented way that learning is approached might lead to the increase in the personal over the group or universal learning. Universities/colleges and their faculty, although often unionized, might be thought of a group of individual contractors, as each is responsible for their own classes, although they do collaborate with governance issues and selection of textbook and curriculum, etc.
We are, in theory, brought together for the common purpose of education, but our roles are stratified because of different subject matter and skill sets are unique and not generally transferable. We do, as individual teachers want to retain our individual strengths and do not want to be viewed as interchangeable. This works against the cooperative spirit that might increase student success.
Faculty and others have their individual agendas (both literal--curriculum and theoretical-- political) as with other business organizations and the collectivist mentality meant to increase student success is marginalized.
Of course, academia is not just made up the individual actors that are faculty brought together under a union, but also include administrators and staff, who each have their own roles and agendas, which also must be harmonized.
It is difficult for small groups of shared interests to come together, including students organizing, and when these occur/emerge, this might be driven by personal persuasion rather than true shared interests.
So these market influences become systematic (uniqueness, individuality) and in that way work against the cooperative framework that would ensure greatest success for our students.
Perhaps this is the reason that unions do not want to be replaced by charter schools? But, still there are some inherent conditions of production of knowledge that mitigate student success.
This is a way for blended learning to create a bridge between the solidarity and thereby help grow the circle. People can build something together and can help turn academics from the search of lonely citations to a more collective activity of sharing knowledge and learning. This community learning and learning community can be more effective in turning authentic learning into not only personal expression by a pressure vehicle for communal change.
Blended learning is truly a community endeavor, especially as it struggles for respectability and understanding among the general public. For example, many times we might view use of the computer away from work as time spend on entertainment (netflixs, gaming, etc.). My wife might ask me why I am spending so much time on the computer, although she knows that I teach online. This points out the reality that we must often educate our family and friends about what we are doing on the computer while engaged in online learning. Because if people are questioning why we are on the computer, they probably don't understand that we are developing intellectual capital. I doubt my wife would ask me why I was spending so much time attending f2f classes, so I must remind her that what I am doing is learning/working.
Mark Nowak, labor poet and writing teacher, helps activate the personal voice through group writing workshops that help workers with little formal education create powerful tapestries of their experience. He runs writers workshops that have people write down individual experiences and weave them into a communal poem, with a recitation of individual insights combine with a group chorus. This is video-taped and this can be shared between groups as a form of building solidarity. I think this is great example of teaching the first person plural helping people move from individual learning, which is by necessity vulnerable and often resists the headlines, into a collective expression, which supplies the power and societal relevance. I saw Mark in action and he is a master teacher, helping give people a voice.
In many ways, the segmented way that learning is approached might lead to the increase in the personal over the group or universal learning. Universities/colleges and their faculty, although often unionized, might be thought of a group of individual contractors, as each is responsible for their own classes, although they do collaborate with governance issues and selection of textbook and curriculum, etc.
We are, in theory, brought together for the common purpose of education, but our roles are stratified because of different subject matter and skill sets are unique and not generally transferable. We do, as individual teachers want to retain our individual strengths and do not want to be viewed as interchangeable. This works against the cooperative spirit that might increase student success.
Faculty and others have their individual agendas (both literal--curriculum and theoretical-- political) as with other business organizations and the collectivist mentality meant to increase student success is marginalized.
Of course, academia is not just made up the individual actors that are faculty brought together under a union, but also include administrators and staff, who each have their own roles and agendas, which also must be harmonized.
It is difficult for small groups of shared interests to come together, including students organizing, and when these occur/emerge, this might be driven by personal persuasion rather than true shared interests.
So these market influences become systematic (uniqueness, individuality) and in that way work against the cooperative framework that would ensure greatest success for our students.
Perhaps this is the reason that unions do not want to be replaced by charter schools? But, still there are some inherent conditions of production of knowledge that mitigate student success.
This is a way for blended learning to create a bridge between the solidarity and thereby help grow the circle. People can build something together and can help turn academics from the search of lonely citations to a more collective activity of sharing knowledge and learning. This community learning and learning community can be more effective in turning authentic learning into not only personal expression by a pressure vehicle for communal change.
Blended learning is truly a community endeavor, especially as it struggles for respectability and understanding among the general public. For example, many times we might view use of the computer away from work as time spend on entertainment (netflixs, gaming, etc.). My wife might ask me why I am spending so much time on the computer, although she knows that I teach online. This points out the reality that we must often educate our family and friends about what we are doing on the computer while engaged in online learning. Because if people are questioning why we are on the computer, they probably don't understand that we are developing intellectual capital. I doubt my wife would ask me why I was spending so much time attending f2f classes, so I must remind her that what I am doing is learning/working.
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