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David Hilton

YouTube - No More "Learners" - 1 views

www.youtube.com/watch

Learning Learner Education Pedagogy Teaching Technology Web2.0 Lecture Speaking Presentation Presenter Teacher 21st Century Mentor Coach Guide Lecturer

shared by David Hilton on 04 Mar 09 - Cached
  • The instructor/learner relationship needs re-thinking. We've got to be learning from one another, not shoveling learning at "learners." We are all learners, all the time, and we can get better at it.
  • The instructor/learner relationship needs re-thinking. We've got to be learning from one another, not shoveling learning at "learners." We are all learners, all the time, and we can get better at it.
    • David Hilton
      David Hilton on 14 Mar 09
       
      Rubbish. Teachers need to teach. These vacuous ideas that students know as much as teachers and we all teach each other have led to a dangerous decline in educational standards in the West. People do not process in a vacuum; they need to know the content before they can engage in that 'higher-order thinking' Blooms gunk. These theories are an excuse for teachers who don't know their subjects to feel less shamed at their ignorance.
  • The instructor/learner relationship needs re-thinking. We've got to be learning from one another, not shoveling learning at "learners." We are all learners, all the time, and we can get better at it. The instructor/learner relationship needs re-thinking. We've got to be learning from one another, not shoveling learning at "learners." We are all learners, all the time, and we can get b... Category:  Education Tags:  informl 
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • The instructor/learner relationship needs re-thinking. We've got to be learning from one another, not shoveling learning at "learners." We are all learners, all the time, and we can get better at it. The instructor/learner relationship needs re-thinking. We've got to be learning from one another, not shoveling learning at "learners." We are all learners, all the time, and we can get b... Category:  Education Tags:  informl 
  • The instructor/learner relationship needs re-thinking. We've got to be learning from one another, not shoveling learning at "learners." We are all learners, all the time, and we can get b...
  • The instructor/learner relationship needs re-thinking. We've got to be learning from one another, not shoveling learning at "learners." We are all learners, all the time, and we can get b...
  • Bill Graziadei, Ph.D. (aka Dr. G) on 04 Mar 09
     
    The instructor/learner relationship needs re-thinking. We've got to be learning from one another, not shoveling learning at "learners." We are all learners, all the time, and we can get b...
  • Bill Graziadei, Ph.D. (aka Dr. G) on 04 Mar 09
     
    Do you speak/teach from a pulpit? Take a look at "No More Learners" What was your first thought(s) when viewing this? Does 'talking down' to learners go on? Perhaps it goes on some; but, I don't think a great deal today. Who out there thinks they are or were ever in the pulpit? I was in the 70's and changed in 80's. There are too many smarter learners out there. Please consider leaving your IMHO comment as a note.
  • David Hilton on 14 Mar 09
     
    The instructor/learner relationship needs re-thinking. We've got to be learning from one another, not shoveling learning at "learners." We are all learners, all the time, and we can get b...
Christopher Lee

Why I Like Prezi - 0 views

blog.pamelafox.org/...why-i-like-prezi.html

prezi powerpoint ppt presentation edtech tools

shared by Christopher Lee on 25 Jul 12 - No Cached
  • Christopher Lee on 25 Jul 12
     
    Why I Like Prezi In my life, I have given a *lot* of presentations. In high school, they were presentations on group projects. In university, they were presentations on research projects. At Google, they're presentations on how to use our APIs. When I first started giving presentations, I used Powerpoint, like everyone else. But I kept thinking there must be a better way, and I experimented with other options - flash interfaces, interactive Javascript apps. Then I discovered Prezi, and it has become my presentation tool of choice. Prezi is an online tool for creating presentations - but it's not just a Powerpoint clone, like the Zoho or Google offering. When you first create a Prezi, you're greeted with a blank canvas and a small toolbox. You can write text, insert images, and draw arrows. You can draw frames (visible or hidden) around bits of content, and then you can define a path from one frame to the next frame. That path is your presentation. It's like being able to draw your thoughts on a whiteboard, and then instructing a camera where to go and what to zoom into. It's a simple idea, but I love it. Here's why: It forces me to "shape" my presentation. A slide deck is always linear in form, with no obvious structure of ideas inside of it. Each of my Prezis has a structure, and each structure is different. The structure is visual, but it supports a conceptual structure. One structure might be 3 main ideas, with rows of ideas for each one. Another might be 1 main idea, with a circular branching of subideas. Having a structure helps me to have more of a point to my presentations, and to realize the core ideas of them. It makes it easy to go from brainstorming stage to presentation stage, all in the same tool. I can write a bunch of thoughts, insert some images, and easily move them around, cluster them, re-order them, etc. I can figure out the structure of my presentation by looking at what I have laid out, and seeing how they fit together. Some people do this
Mark Swartz

Role and Function of Theory in Online Education Development and Delivery - 3 views

cde.athabascau.ca/...ch1.html

learning theory elearning teaching onlinelearning

shared by Mark Swartz on 01 May 11 - Cached
  • According to Bonk and Reynolds (1997), to promote higher-order thinking on the Web, online learning must create challenging activities that enable learners to link new information to old, acquire meaningful knowledge, and use their metacognitive abilities; hence, it is the instructional strategy and not the technology tha
  • According to Bonk and Reynolds (1997), to promote higher-order thinking on the Web, online learning must create challenging activities that enable learners to link new information to old, acquire meaningful knowledge, and use their metacognitive abilities; hence, it is the instructional strategy and not the technology that influences the quality of learning.
  • However, it is not the computer per se that makes students learn, but the design of the real-life models and simulations, and the students' interaction with those models and simulations. The computer is merely the vehicle that provides the processing capability and delivers the instruction to learners (Clark, 2001).
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  • Online learning allows for flexibility of access, from anywhere and usually at anytime—essentially, it allows participants to collapse time and space (Cole, 2000)—however, the learning materials must be designed properly to engage the learner and promote learning.
  • Cognitive psychology claims that learning involves the use of memory, motivation, and thinking, and that reflection plays an important part in learning.
  • The development of effective online learning materials should be based on proven and sound learning theories.
  • Early computer learning systems were designed based on a behaviorist approach to learning. The behaviorist school of thought, influenced by Thorndike (1913), Pavlov (1927), and Skinner (1974), postulates that learning is a change in observable behavior caused by external stimuli in the environment (Skinner, 1974).
  • Therefore, before any learning materials are developed, educators must, tacitly or explicitly, know the principles of learning and how students learn.
  • Constructivist theorists claim that learners interpret information and the world according to their personal reality, and that they learn by observation, processing, and interpretation, and then personalize the information into personal knowledge (Cooper, 1993; Wilson, 1997).
  • The design of online learning materials can include principles from all three. According to Ertmer and Newby (1993), the three schools of thought can in fact be used as a taxonomy for learning. Behaviorists' strategies can be used to teach the “what” (facts), cognitive strategies can be used to teach the “how” (processes and principles), and constructivist strategies can be used to teach the “why” (higher level thinking that promotes personal meaning and situated and contextual learning).
  • The behaviorist school sees the mind as a “black box,” in the sense that a response to a stimulus can be observed quantitatively, totally ignoring the effect of thought processes occurring in the mind.
  • Learners should be told the explicit outcomes of the learning so that they can set expectations and can judge for themselves whether or not they have achieved the outcome of the online lesson. 2.  Learners must be tested to determine whether or not they have achieved the learning outcome. Online testing or other forms of testing and assessment should be integrated into the learning sequence to check the learner's achievement level and to provide appropriate feedback. 3.  Learning materials must be sequenced appropriately to promote learning. The sequencing could take the form of simple to complex, known to unknown, and knowledge to application. 4.  Learners must be provided with feedback so that they can monitor how they are doing and take corrective action if required.
  • Cognitivists see learning as an internal process that involves memory, thinking, reflection, abstraction, motivation, and meta-cognition.
  • Online instruction must use strategies to allow learners to attend to the learning materials so that they can be transferred from the senses to the sensory store and then to working memory.
  • Online learning strategies must present the materials and use strategies to enable students to process the materials efficiently.
  • information should be organized or chunked in pieces of appropriate size to facilitate processing.
  • Use advance organizers to activate an existing cognitive structure or to provide the information to incorporate the details of the lesson (Ausubel, 1960).
  • Use pre-instructional questions to set expectations and to activate the learners' existing knowledge structure.
  • Use prerequisite test questions to activate the prerequisite knowledge structure required for learning the new materials.
  • To facilitate deep processing, learners should be asked to generate the information maps during the learning process or as a summary activity after the lesson (Bonk & Reynolds, 1997).
  • The cognitive school recognizes the importance of individual differences, and of including a variety of learning strategies in online instruction to accommodate those differences
  • The Kolb Learning Style Inventory (LSI) (Kolb, 1984) looks at how learners perceive and process information, whereas the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (Myers, 1978) uses dichotomous scales to measure extroversion versus introversion, sensing versus intuition, thinking versus feeling, and judging versus perception. In the following discussion, we consider the Kolb Learning Style Inventory.
  • Attention: Capture the learners' attention at the start of the lesson and maintain it throughout the lesson. The online learning materials must include an activity at the start of the learning session to connect with the learners. Relevance: Inform learners of the importance of the lesson and how taking the lesson could benefit them. Strategies could include describing how learners will benefit from taking the lesson, and how they can use what they learn in real-life situations. This strategy helps to contextualize the learning and make it more meaningful, thereby maintaining interest throughout the learning session. Confidence: Use strategies such as designing for success and informing learners of the lesson expectations. Design for success by sequencing from simple to complex, or known to unknown, and use a competency-based approach where learners are given the opportunity to use different strategies to complete the lesson. Inform learners of the lesson outcome and provide ongoing encouragement to complete the lesson. Satisfaction: Provide feedback on performance and allow learners to apply what they learn in real-life situations. Learners like to know how they are doing, and they like to contextualize what they are learning by applying the information in real life.
  • Online strategies that facilitate the transfer of learning should be used to encourage application in different and real-life situations.
  • Constructivists see learners as being active rather than passive.
  • it is the individual learner's interpretation and processing of what is received through the senses that creates knowledge.
  • “the process of using a prior interpretation to construe a new or revised interpretation of the meaning of one's experience in order to guide future action” (p. 12).
  • Learning should be an active process. Keeping learners active doing meaningful activities results in high-level processing, which facilitates the creation of personalized meaning. Asking learners to apply the information in a practical situation is an active process, and facilitates personal interpretation and relevance.
  • Learners should construct their own knowledge rather than accepting that given by the instructor.
  • Collaborative and cooperative learning should be encouraged to facilitate constructivist learning (H
  • When assigning learners for group work, membership should be based on the expertise level and learning style of individual group members, so that individual team members can benefit from one another's strengths.
  •   Learners should be given control of the learning process
  • Learners should be given time and opportunity to reflect.
  • Learning should be made meaningful for learners. The learning materials should include examples that relate to students, so that they can make sense of the information.
  • Learning should be interactive to promote higher-level learning and social presence, and to help develop personal meaning. According to Heinich et al. (2002), learning is the development of new knowledge, skills, and attitudes as the learner interacts with information and the environment. Interaction is also critical to creating a sense of presence and a sense of community for online learners, and to promoting transformational learning (Murphy & Cifuentes, 2001). Learners receive the learning materials through the technology, process the information, and then personalize and contextualize the information.
  • Figure 1-6. Components of effective online learning.
  • Behaviorist strategies can be used to teach the facts (what); cognitivist strategies to teach the principles and processes (how); and constructivist strategies to teach the real-life and personal applications and contextual learning. There is a shift toward constructive learning, in which learners are given the opportunity to construct their own meaning from the information presented during the online sessions. The use of learning objects to promote flexibility and reuse of online materials to meet the needs of individual learners will become more common in the future. Online learning materials will be designed in small coherent segments, so that they can be redesigned for different learners and different contexts. Finally, online learning will be increasingly diverse to respond to different learning cultures, styles, and motivations.
  • Online instruction occurs when learners use the Web to go through the sequence of instruction, to complete the learning activities, and to achieve learning outcomes and objectives (Ally, 2002; Ritchie & Hoffman, 1997).
  • Mark Swartz on 01 May 11
     
    From:  FOUNDATIONS OF EDUCATIONAL THEORY FOR ONLINE LEARNING
eileen tobin

Bloom's Taxonomy Blooms Digitally, Andrew Churches - 33 views

techlearning.com/8670

bloom's taxonomy sme digital pedagogy

shared by eileen tobin on 12 Jun 09 - Cached
  • In the 1950's Benjamin Bloom developed his taxonomy of cognitive objectives, Bloom's Taxonomy. This categorized and ordered thinking skills and objectives. His taxonomy follows the thinking process. You can not understand a concept if you do not first remember it, similarly you can not apply knowledge and concepts if you do not understand them. It is a continuum from Lower Order Thinking Skills (LOTS) to Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS). Bloom labels each category with a gerund.
  • In the 1990's, a former student of Bloom, Lorin Anderson, revised Bloom's Taxonomy and published this- Bloom's Revised Taxonomy in 2001.Key to this is the use of verbs rather than nouns for each of the categories and a rearrangement of the sequence within the taxonomy. They are arranged below in increasing order, from low to high.
    • eileen tobin
      eileen tobin on 15 Oct 10
       
      I like that the revised version is ongoing. Eileen Tobin
  • Each of the categories or taxonomic elements has a number of key verbs associated with it Lower Order Thinking Skills (LOTS) Remembering - Recognising, listing, describing, identifying, retrieving, naming, locating, finding Understanding - Interpreting, Summarising, inferring, paraphrasing, classifying, comparing, explaining, exemplifying Applying - Implementing, carrying out, using, executing Analysing - Comparing, organising, deconstructing, Attributing, outlining, finding, structuring, integrating Evaluating - Checking, hypothesising, critiquing, Experimenting, judging, testing, Detecting, Monitoring Creating - designing, constructing, planning, producing, inventing, devising, making
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  • Bloom's digital taxonomy map
    • Eileen Tobin
      Eileen Tobin on 08 Jun 10
       
      This is a great tool for Level Questions
  • Bloom's Revised Taxonomy
  • Michelle Lynn on 05 Dec 09
     
    Bloom's taxonomy as it relates to 21st century technology skills
  • Florence Dujardin on 11 Jan 10
     
    Bloom's Taxonomy Blooms Digitally - By Andrew Churches, April 1, 2008
Randolph Hollingsworth

Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning - School Improvement Reform Report on... - 15 views

www.mcrel.org/...0887RR_Stupski_ped.pdf

professional development differentiated instruction role fluidity Stupski Foundation Education reform technology leadership

shared by Randolph Hollingsworth on 24 Oct 10 - No Cached
  • Randolph Hollingsworth on 24 Oct 10
     
    Stupski Fndtn staff + McREL researchers ask 2 questions: (1) How can teachers adapt the principles of effective pedagogy to differentiate instruction and meet the needs of all learners in order to help Our Kids be challened, motivated, and successful? (2) How can teachers create structured, challenging, yet nurturing classroom environments to ensure that Our Kids are engaged and successful learners? KEY FINDINGS: adaptive and differentiated instruction (theory and methodologies) in culturally relevant classroom that allows for student "role fluidity" + teacher skill in finding gaps in knowledge/skills + motivating students through engaging projects and targeted instruction (academically rigorous and nurturing) PLUS fac devt must be supported by and inclusive of school leadership. a Design Collaborative might act on 5 options: (1) Support teachers to better utilize methods and theories of culturally relevant pedagogy and differentiated instruction, (2) Implement a pedagogical program based on the notion of "role fluidity" to give students a central voice in the classroom, (3) Use technology to engage students and enhance pedagogy, (4) Guide teachers in creating academically rigorous and positive classroom learning environments, (5) Implement pedagogical programs based on developing higher order thinking and subject-specific skills. Report by Kerry Englert, Helen Apthorp, Matthew Seebaum. Dated Oct 2009
Glenn Hervieux

7 Apps for Student Creators | Edutopia - 111 views

www.edutopia.org/...-student-creators-monica-burns

ipad creation pbl tools

shared by Glenn Hervieux on 10 Jul 15 - No Cached
Brenda Major liked it
  • Glenn Hervieux on 10 Jul 15
     
    "Creation-based tasks promote higher-order thinking, encourage collaboration, and connect students to real-world learning. Whether you're teaching in a project-based learning classroom, engaging students with authentic assessments, or committed to pushing students to analyze and synthesize, providing opportunities for creation is a must."
Gregory Louie

Candidate Educational Software Titles - 0 views

www.diigo.com/...te-educational-software-titles

software education3.0

shared by Gregory Louie on 29 Jul 09 - Cached
  • Gregory Louie on 29 Jul 09
     
    I'm collecting a running list of promising educational software titles to support higher-order thinking in middle school science classes.
carmelladoty

PCN Strategies: Careers | LinkedIn - 21 views

www.linkedin.com/...careers

common core careers teach to the future

shared by carmelladoty on 08 Jan 14 - No Cached
  • carmelladoty on 08 Jan 14
     
    This video demonstrates how products are being developed using open source and open funding. I am going to show this to teachers in a PD session to discuss how the workplace is changing and why students need to learn how to work in collaborative groups. This is important because workplaces are going in this direction. In our classrooms, teachers need to have students involved in collaborative work where they are using higher order thinking skills to create. This methodology supports Common Core curriculum and teach to the future.
anonymous

Shift to the Future: Why BYOT? - 6 views

www.shift2future.com/...why-byot.html

BYOD

shared by anonymous on 17 Jan 13 - No Cached
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 17 Jan 13
       
      When learning moves to higher order and more critical thinking levels, students tend to internalize information and knowledge more and it "sticks" with them for longer - so it is more likely to become something that is applicable to other situations or to be generalized and applied.
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 17 Jan 13
       
      Isn't it interesting how we put limits on the learning of students and we don't even realize we are doing so?
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 17 Jan 13
       
      Right now, too many teachers are using technology in this more simplified, lower level way.  Instead, we need to be pushing students more to make predictions and take their thinking a step further.  I wonder if we, teachers, are pushing ourselves when it comes to thinking or are we simply teaching the same old, same old in the ways we learned eons ago...
  • ...4 more annotations...
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 17 Jan 13
       
      Why is it so hard to raise our expectations that students WILL have this technology?  If we consistently expect it, they will - we expect them to have a pencil...
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 17 Jan 13
       
      key words:  integrated extension
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 17 Jan 13
       
      Change has to happen.  If we keep doing the same thing, we will continually have the same results.  Do we want different results?  YES!
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 17 Jan 13
       
      I was meeting with a teacher this week who had a wonderful lesson using a few websites to ID European countries and find information about each country.  There was a wee bit of critical thinking added into the mix of the assignment but I was still 'hungry for more' and feeling the need to nudge him and his students to the next level.  The green highlighted information is sort of what I was looking for to nudge him onward with in his lesson.  
Elizabeth Bowden

Developing Questions for Critical Thinking - 206 views

farr-integratingit.net/...revisedcog.htm

criticalthinking Bloom's Taxonomy blooms_taxonomy

shared by Elizabeth Bowden on 29 Jun 11 - Cached
Marsha Ratzel liked it
  • Elizabeth Bowden on 29 Jun 11
     
    Awesome tool for generating Bloom's verbs and questions. Gives teacher roles and student roles for each level of Bloom's.
  • Gini Crisanti on 29 Jun 11
     
    Elizabeth: Thanks for sharing this. As an Art teacher, I am thrilled to see so many graphic, design, and creative thinking skills being applied. It is a great feeling for us to see others finally understanding what the Arts can do for creative thinking and higher order thinking. It's what Artist's already know. Again great job of sharing.
Matt Renwick

Why Is Innovation So Hard? - 47 views

www.forbes.com/...why-is-innovation-so-hard

innovation

shared by Matt Renwick on 09 Aug 14 - No Cached
  • How does innovation occur?  Through an inefficient process of ideation, exploration, and experimentation.
  • we create new value by combining seemingly unrelated things or ideas in new ways, transferring something from one environment to another, or finding new insights in patterns or aberrations. Innovative ideas rarely emerge from an “aha!” moment. Instead, they usually arise from thinking differently than we normally think and from learning.
  • we are highly efficient, fast, reflexive thinkers who seek to confirm what we already know.
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  • we are cognitively blind to disconfirming data and challenging ideas.
  • To innovate, people have to take their normal thinking to a much higher level. Most of us have to be taught how to do that.
  • Fear of failure, fear of looking bad, and fear of losing our job if we make mistakes all can lead to what Chris Argyris called “defensive reasoning”: the tendency to defend what we believe. This makes it hard to get outside of ourselves in order to “think out of the box.”
  • most organizations exist to produce predictable, reliable, standardized results. In those environments, mistakes and failures are bad.
  • To innovate, you must simultaneously tolerate mistakes and insist on operational excellence.
  • Humility, empathy, and the devaluation of hierarchical rank were critical to making this new culture work.
maureen greenbaum

Digital Learning Leads to Deeper Learning - Getting Smart by Tom Vander Ark - deeper le... - 3 views

gettingsmart.com/...learning-leads-deeper-learning

shared by maureen greenbaum on 28 Jun 12 - No Cached
  • Engagement: media that grabs attention Motivation: encouragement to go deeper Persistence: capturing more learning hours per day Production: ability to publish high quality work product Presentation: professional quality presentations Personalization: customized learning experiences Access: 24/7 access to great teachers and content Collaboration: instant interest and subject groups Acceleration: more and faster performance feedback Options: many new pathways to mastery We could add convenience—the ability to vary rate, time, and location
  • More writing More thinking More motivation More automaticity More time on higher order teaching More higher order practice (using games & sims) More publishing to wider audiences More investigating More collaborating More making, inventing, & creating
Wayne Holly

Should You Flip Your Classroom? | Edutopia - 207 views

www.edutopia.org/...pped-classroom-ramsey-musallam

Flipped flipped classroom flipclass edutopia strategy

shared by Wayne Holly on 27 Oct 11 - No Cached
  • different forms of instructional video published online for students
  • primarily by Salman Khan's TED talk
  • obtaining core content prior to coming to class
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • classroom space was then used for critical thinking and group problem solving.
  • spend more time in the classroom focused on collaboration and higher-order thinking
  • lecture is still a poor mode of information transfer
  • Eric Mazur's talk Confessions of a Converted Lecturer
  • hype
  • Good teaching, regardless of discipline, should always limit passive transfer of knowledge in class, and promote learning environments built on the tenants of inquiry, collaboration and critical thinking
  • pedagogical skills
  • The science teacher in me is deeply committed to the process of inquiry, and arming my students with the skills needed to construct and test their own ideas. The AP teacher in me fears sending my students off to their examination in May having covered only a portion of all the content required
  • inquiry learning cycle.
  • Kirstie Truluck on 28 Oct 11
     
    I like this concept - read more. Works against teacher as delivery system to be ignored.
  • Wayne Holly on 19 Mar 12
     
    At its core, "flipped instruction" refers to moving aspects of teaching out of the classroom and into the homework space. With the advent of new technologies, specifically the ability to record digitally annotated and narrated screencasts, instructional videos have become a common medium in the flipped classroom. Although not limited to videos, a flipped classroom most often harnesses different forms of instructional video published online for students.
Martin Burrett

Developing higher order thinking skills in your learners - 134 views

issuu.com/...3

thinking skills thinking

shared by Martin Burrett on 01 Feb 14 - No Cached
  • Martin Burrett on 01 Feb 14
     
    Great article from Rachel Jones
  • Martin Burrett on 01 Feb 14
     
    Great article from Rachel Jones
Maureen Greenbaum

The Future of College? - The Atlantic - 29 views

www.theatlantic.com/...375071

future college education pedagogy

shared by Maureen Greenbaum on 16 Aug 14 - No Cached
  • proprietary online platform developed to apply pedagogical practices that have been studied and vetted by one of the world’s foremost psychologists, a former Harvard dean named Stephen M. Kosslyn, who joined Minerva in 2012.
  • inductive reasoning
  • Minerva class extended no refuge for the timid, nor privilege for the garrulous. Within seconds, every student had to provide an answer, and Bonabeau displayed our choices so that we could be called upon to defend them.
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  • subjecting us to pop quizzes, cold calls, and pedagogical tactics that during an in-the-flesh seminar would have taken precious minutes of class time to arrange.
  • felt decidedly unlike a normal classroom. For one thing, it was exhausting: a continuous period of forced engagement, with no relief in the form of time when my attention could flag
  • One educational psychologist, Ludy Benjamin, likens lectures to Velveeta cheese—something lots of people consume but no one considers either delicious or nourishing.)
  • because I had to answer a quiz question or articulate a position. I was forced, in effect, to learn
  • adically remake one of the most sclerotic sectors of the U.S. economy, one so shielded from the need for improvement that its biggest innovation in the past 30 years has been to double its costs and hire more administrators at higher salaries.
  • past half millennium, the technology of learning has hardly budge
  • fellow edu-nauts
  • Lectures are banned
  • attending class on Apple laptops
  • Lectures, Kosslyn says, are cost-effective but pedagogically unsound. “A great way to teach, but a terrible way to learn.”
  • Minerva boast is that it will strip the university experience down to the aspects that are shown to contribute directly to student learning. Lectures, gone. Tenure, gone. Gothic architecture, football, ivy crawling up the walls—gone, gone, gone.
  • “Your cash cow is the lecture, and the lecture is over,” he told a gathering of deans. “The lecture model ... will be obliterated.”
  • One imagines tumbleweeds rolling through abandoned quads and wrecking balls smashing through the windows of classrooms left empty by students who have plugged into new online platforms.
  • when you have a noncurated academic experience, you effectively don’t get educated.
  • Liberal-arts education is about developing the intellectual capacity of the individual, and learning to be a productive member of society. And you cannot do that without a curriculum.”
  • “The freshman year [as taught at traditional schools] should not exist,” Nelson says, suggesting that MOOCs can teach the basics. “Do your freshman year at home.”) Instead, Minerva’s first-year classes are designed to inculcate what Nelson calls “habits of mind” and “foundational concepts,” which are the basis for all sound systematic thought. In a science class, for example, students should develop a deep understanding of the need for controlled experiments. In a humanities class, they need to learn the classical techniques of rhetoric and develop basic persuasive skills. The curriculum then builds from that foundation.
  • What, he asks, does it mean to be educated?
  • methods will be tested against scientifically determined best practices
  • Subsidies, Nelson says, encourage universities to enroll even students who aren’t likely to thrive, and to raise tuition, since federal money is pegged to costs.
  • We have numerous sound, reproducible experiments that tell us how people learn, and what teachers can do to improve learning.” Some of the studies are ancient, by the standards of scientific research—and yet their lessons are almost wholly ignored.
  • memory of material is enhanced by “deep” cognitive tasks
  • he found the man’s view of education, in a word, faith-based
  • ask a student to explain a concept she has been studying, the very act of articulating it seems to lodge it in her memory. Forcing students to guess the answer to a problem, and to discuss their answers in small groups, seems to make them understand the problem better—even if they guess wrong.
  • e traditional concept of “cognitive styles”—visual versus aural learners, those who learn by doing versus those who learn by studying—is muddled and wrong.
  • pedagogical best practices Kosslyn has identified have been programmed into the Minerva platform so that they are easy for professors to apply. They are not only easy, in fact, but also compulsory, and professors will be trained intensively in how to use the platform.
  • Professors are able to sort students instantly, and by many metrics, for small-group work—
  • a pop quiz at the beginning of a class and (if the students are warned in advance) another one at a random moment later in the class greatly increases the durability of what is learned.
  • he could have alerted colleagues to best practices, but they most likely would have ignored them. “The classroom time is theirs, and it is sacrosanct,
  • Lectures, Kosslyn says, are pedagogically unsound,
  • I couldn’t wait for Minerva’s wrecking ball to demolish the ivory tower.
  • The MOOCs will eventually make lectures obsolete.”
  • Minerva’s model, Nelson says, will flourish in part because it will exploit free online content, rather than trying to compete with it, as traditional universities do.
  • The MOOCs will eventually make lectures obsolete.”
  • certain functions of universities have simply become less relevant as information has become more ubiquitous
  • Minerva challenges the field to return to first principles.
  • MOOCs will continue to get better, until eventually no one will pay Duke or Johns Hopkins for the possibility of a good lecture, when Coursera offers a reliably great one, with hundreds of thousands of five-star ratings, for free.
  • It took deep concentration,” he said. “It’s not some lecture class where you can just click ‘record’ on your tape.”
  • part of the process of education happens not just through good pedagogy but by having students in places where they see the scholars working and plying their trades.”
  • “hydraulic metaphor” of education—the idea that the main task of education is to increase the flow of knowledge into the student—an “old fallacy.”
  • I remembered what I was like as a teenager headed off to college, so ignorant of what college was and what it could be, and so reliant on the college itself to provide what I’d need in order to get a good education.
  • it is designed to convey not just information, as most MOOCs seem to, but whole mental tool kits that help students become morethoughtful citizens.
  • for all the high-minded talk of liberal education— of lighting fires and raising thoughtful citizens—is really just a credential, or an entry point to an old-boys network that gets you your first job and your first lunch with the machers at your alumni club.
  • Its seminar platform will challenge professors to stop thinking they’re using technology just because they lecture with PowerPoint.
  • professors and students increasingly separated geographically, mediated through technology that alters the nature of the student-teacher relationship
  • The idea that college will in two decades look exactly as it does today increasingly sounds like the forlorn, fingers-crossed hope of a higher-education dinosaur that retirement comes before extinction.
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