by spk7 - Aug. 19, 2011
"Some time ago, Head of the School of Engineering, Professor John Fothergill, with the help of son Henry, produced a very engaging and funny video focusing on his experiences of moving some of his teaching online.
In order that his course could still run while he was on sabbatical, John worked closely with Beyond Distance in order to achieve the best online experience for his students.
The video draws upon a number of comic influences, most notably Monty Python. We hope you enjoy it!"
You can not only take advantage of the great resources open source has, but also become a part of a movement that shares more freedom of ideas. In these lectures, you'll learn more about the open source philosophy and what it can be used for.
Much of what is called virtual education is really just bad teaching done on the cheap. Most of what I have seen offered as online courses for students doesn’t rise to the level of a mail-order correspondence course. There may be no lectures, but there is no deep learning to be found either. Teachers don’t know their students and the pedagogical emphasis is on product over process.
Don’t tell me that online education delivers individualization. The concept of delivery is itself the enemy of learning. Individualization is not customizing the pace of the multiple choice tests, but knowing the
strive to create learner-centered, project-based, collaborative, non-coercive environments in which students learn through a community of practice
Our network policies treat teachers and children as either imbeciles or felons. How many of you are unable to use your classroom computers in educationally sound ways because of a network policy created without your input?
We install iPod labs so that children can be marched down the hall once a week for iPod lessons. We chain laptop computers to desks and don’t allow children to take them home. That’s the point of a laptop. You cannot blame such stupidity on four walls of brick and mortar. The blame lies within the bankruptcy of our imaginations.
Much of what is called virtual education is really just bad teaching done on the cheap. Most of what I have seen offered as online courses for students doesn't rise to the level of a mail-order correspondence course. There may be no lectures, but there is no deep learning to be found either. Teachers don't know their students and the pedagogical emphasis is on product over process.
Pulitzer-prize winning professor Jonathan Weiner, author of "Beak of the Finch", among other books will deliver the second lecture in our 150th anniversary "Origin of Species" series. Attendees should read chapters 1 and 2 on variation in Darwin's great book.
A flipped classroom is one where the lectures become the homework and the traditional homework tasks take place in the lesson time. This enables students to attend sessions with an understanding of the subject and to conceptualise and build upon it through doing exercises in class, with you, as the tutor, on hand to answer questions and explore the topic in more detail. This moves the tutor from the "sage on the stage, to the guide on the side" (King, 1993).
Scott McLeod has pulled out a set of five slides about education from the Flickr pool about "Great Quotes about Learning and Change" that are worth reading. They would make great fodder for discussions. My favorite is the first one. "The danger of lectures is that they create the illusion of teaching for teachers, and the illusion of learning for learners." Albert Camus
It is important to read things even if you know from the title that you'll disagree. This article is sure to spark controversy and be embraced by those who want to keep a traditional classroom in rows where kids listen to lecture. While I'm not in an ivory tower, my experience in the power of the face to face classroom has convinced me that when I teach and integrate all different senses that students learn better. I've also seen (and quoted in Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds in the Choice chapter that discusses differentiation) that dual encoding (listening to words while reading them) improves the ability to learn to read. (I'll have to look in the book for the sources of research.) I do think, however, there are some good points here, although I firmly believe their conclusion that students are going to learn no matter how they relate to content -- is inaccurate. The lines are being drawn between those who want to change and use technology and those who want the status quo. Nonetheless, if you lose your ability to read things you do not agree with, and engage in thoughtful conversation, then you miss the point of being well educated. Look forward to hearing your thoughts on this study.
I'm speaking Monday at 4 pm as part of Blackboard Collaborate's distinguished lecture series. It is a free webinar and this is the link to go to to register. This is what and how I teach my students online and prepare them to present online. Every student is required to present online twice a year in my computer science class and once a year in my 9th grade computer fundamentals. IT is just as important as face to face presenting and in some ways could be more important as it could potentially have more reach for my students.
Google Digital Literacy Tour along with videos. Here are some great lessons and videos and a full curriculum. Just realize that you should involve students in discussions and activities, this is a pretty poor candidate for lecture-based delivery because it is changing so quickly. I use Digiteen but these are great resources. (Hat tip to Theresa Allen for sending this through the Digiteen google group.)
We are a social entrepreneurship company that partners with the top universities in the world to offer courses online for anyone to take, for free. We envision a future where the top universities are educating not only thousands of students, but millions. Our technology enables the best professors to teach tens or hundreds of thousands of students.
Through this, we hope to give everyone access to the world-class education that has so far been available only to a select few. We want to empower people with education that will improve their lives, the lives of their families, and the communities they live in.
Our Courses
Classes offered on Coursera are designed to help you master the material. When you take one of our classes, you will watch lectures taught by world-class professors, learn at your own pace, test your knowledge, and reinforce concepts through interactive exercises. When you join one of our classes, you'll also join a global community of thousands of students learning alongside you.
Tinkering works. Read Sylvia Martinez and Gary Stager's book "Invent to Learn" which talks about tinkering and how to use Maker Spaces to promote it to learn more.
Great points from Lifehacker:
"Research in the science of learning shows that hands-on building projects help young people conceptualize ideas and understand issues in greater depth. In an experiment described in the International Journal of Engineering Education in 2009, for example, one group of eighth-graders was taught about water resources in the traditional way: classroom lectures, handouts and worksheets. Meanwhile, a group of their classmates explored the same subject by designing and constructing a water purification device. The students in the second group learned the material better: they knew more about the importance of clean drinking water and how it is produced, and they engaged in deeper and more complex thinking in response to open-ended questions on water resources and water quality... it involves a loose process of trying things out, seeing what happens, reflecting and evaluating, and trying again."
Lecturing individual students is a common classroom management practice-just another tool in a teacher's tool belt.
But it's a colossal mistake, born of frustration, that does nothing to curb unwanted behavior beyond several minutes.
The reason?