Group items tagged

The insanely irresponsible advertising for BlackBoard 8 suggests that Academic Suite release 8.0 will “enhance critical thinking skills” and “improve classroom performance.” What LMS can do this? What Web 2.0 tool can do this? This is total bullshit, how can they make such an irresponsible claim? These things are not done by technology, but rather people thinking and working together. Our technology may afford a unique possibility in this endeavor by bringing disparate individuals together in an otherwise untenable community, yet it doesn’t enhance critical thinking or improve classroom performance, we do that, together.

The learning happens not as a by-product of the technology, it is, or rather should be, the Raison d’être of the technology. The teaching and thinking happen within the medium of texts, videos, film, images, art, conversation, game playing, computers, etc. Technology may provide new ways of delivering and accessing this information, and mark the basis of many a medium, but the idea of a community and its culture is what makes any technology meaningful and relevant.

BlackBoard makes an inferior product and charges a ton for it, but if we reduce the conversation to technology, and not really think hard about technology as an instantiation of capital’s will to power, than anything resembling an EdTech movement towards a vision of liberation and relevance is lost. For within those ideas is not a technology, but a group of people, who argue, disagree, and bicker, but also believe that education is fundamentally about the exchange of ideas and possibilities of thinking the world anew again and again, it is not about a corporate mandate to compete—however inanely or nefariously—for market share and/or power. I don’t believe in technology, I believe in people.

Ante la necesidad de seguir explorando integraciones virtuosas entre tecnología y educación, el uso de los dispositivos móviles o de bolsillo se vislumbra como una segunda gran oportunidad para esta combinación tecno-educativa. Lo anterior, bajo la lógica de apoyar la educación tradicional a través de estos nuevos dispositivos y nuevas metodologías de enseñanza. La idea no es reemplazar lo ya existente, sino sumar.

Aunque e-learning ha demostrado ser tremendamente beneficioso en cuanto a la posibilidad de ofrecer contenidos educativos a una gran cantidad de educandos, este modelo no ha demostrado ser lo suficientemente contundente como para ofrecer una metodología de aprendizaje significativamente mejor a la educación tradicional, que podríamos etiquetar como cara-a-cara (profesor-alumno y alumno-alumno).

Sin embargo, la adopción de este modelo demanda una serie de transformaciones y de alta flexibilidad ya que se requiere de un cambio en las herramientas, las pedagogías y las prácticas, todo ello con miras a formar estudiantes nómades (que mañana serán expertos adaptables).

The most profound technologies are those that disappear.

school teachers are no longer the primary means to knowledge, but should act as a coaches or curators, rather than broadcasters.

Now in the age of digital media, the best content and the best people to teach, co-learn and share with are accessible on the network, making centralized models less efficient.

A know­mad is what I term a no­madic knowl­edge worker –that is, a cre­ative, imag­i­na­tive, and in­no­v­a­tive per­son who can work with al­most any­body, any­time, and any­where

Know­mads can in­stantly re­con­fig­ure and re­con­tex­tu­al­ize their work en­vi­ron­ments, and greater mo­bil­ity is cre­at­ing new op­por­tu­ni­ties.

What hap­pens when the in­vest­ment banker sit­ting next to the ar­chi­tect have a con­ver­sa­tion? What new ideas, prod­ucts, and ser­vices might be cre­ated?