Are universities teaching the skills needed in a knowledge-based economy? - 14 views
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Philip Sidaway, Ad Huikeshoven, aleksandraxhamo, victorialam, hreodbeorht, siyuwang, and hardikjjoshi liked it
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Kevin Stranack on 29 Jun 14Provides a list of important skills and how those skills are embedded within the curriculum.
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Raúl Marcó del Pont on 09 Sep 14Encontré un post relacionado con las Alfabetizaciones digitales y competencias fundamentales en http://futurosdellibro.com/alfabetizaciones-digitales-y-competencias-fundamentales/ Tal vez interese: El pasado 5 de marzo los expertos de UNESCO dedicados a la alfabetización mediática y digital, en reunión preparatoria de la siguiente World Summit of Information Societies, rubricaron lo que es una evidencia ya incontrovertible: que la alfabetización mediática e informacional (MIL. Media and information literacy) ocupa un lugar central en el mapa escolar de competencias del siglo XXI. Esto no es nada esencialmente nuevo: Viviane Reding, la hoy Vicepresidenta de la Comisión Europea y ex-comisaria de Información entre los años 2004-2009, declaraba en el año 2006: "Hoy, la alfabetización mediática es tan central para el desarrollo de una ciudadanía plena y activa como la alfabetización tradicional lo fue al inicio del siglo XIX". Y añadía: "también es fundamental para entrar en el nuevo mundo de la banda ancha de contenidos, disponibles en todas partes y en cualquier momento". De acuerdo con el European Charter for Media Literacy podríamos distinguir siete áreas de competencias que, de una u otra forma, deberían pasar a formar parte de todo currículum orientado a su adquisición: Usar adecuadamente las tecnologías mediáticas para acceder, conservar, recuperar y compartir contenidos que satisfagan las necesidades e intereses individuales y colectivos. Tener competencias de acceso e información de la gran diversidad de alternativas respecto a los tipos de medios que existen, así como a los contenidos provenientes de distintas fuentes culturales e institucionales. Comprender cómo y porqué se producen los contenidos mediáticos. Analizar de forma crítica las técnicas, lenguajes y códigos empleados por los medios y los mensajes que transmiten. Usar los medios creativamente para expresar y comunicar ideas, información
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Ad Huikeshoven on 09 Sep 14Thank you Kevin Stranack for sharing. Tony Bates ends with five questions: 1. Have I covered the main skills needed in a knowledge-based society? What have I missed? 2. Do you agree that these are important skills? If so, should universities explicitly try to develop them? 3. What are you or your university doing (if anything) to ensure such skills are taught, and taught well? 4. What roles if any do you think technology, and in particular online learning, can play in helping to develop such skills? 5. Any other comments on this topic - My answers: 1. Frustration tolerance and keeping a balance between work and private life is a necessary skill 2, The skill set mentioned is important, but more likely trained in college than in university 3. I do have a personal coach and a counseler, and I'm enrolled in #OKMOOC 4. The activities required in every module of #OKMOOC ask to reach out, connect, build relationships, Have you answered the feedback questions?
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hreodbeorht on 13 Oct 14This question is really the elephant in the room in a lot of university programs, especially in the humanities. I myself was a doctoral student in the humanities before leaving because, as I eventually learned, there were essentially no employment opportunities and my skillset in today's economy was sorely lacking. But the old mantra that "we teach critical thinking" is become a worn excuse. Do we really need four years to teach people the skills to survive "out there"? How much of our specialized knowledge will really be useful outside of the academy? These are questions we just don't have the answer to, and I'm not sure there are many people willing to ask them. But more to the point, I didn't see anything in this link about the changing ways that millennials (I promise that I hate the term as much as anyone, but it's a useful one) are engaging with information, and how that is changing how they actually think. There have been arguments made that digital natives (again, a pretty terrible term) think about and process information in very different ways that have serious implications for contextualization and long-term research. I'm not saying that universities don't teach these things in their own ways, but it's an important issue that needs addressing. I know that the link talks about the important of knowledge management, but there's a huge difference between simply knowing how and when to access information and quite another to properly contextualize its place in a larger hierarchy (or web) of knowledge. I would argue *that* skill is the one that universities are best poised to provide, and maybe why we keep hearing talk about how undergraduate degrees are the new highschool diplomas.