Learning

Learning

More Higher Ed Myths

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Daniel Lemire, researcher and someone who knows more math than I can imagine, debunks the common knowledge view that you need to go to a quality  university to get a quality education:

More generally, if you want to know how to get really smart, go watch what really smart people do. How does the famous professor learn? Does he spend days in lecture halls listening to some colleague? Nah! I bet you will find him interacting with some of the smartest people in the world every day, and spending a lot of time working in his office, crouched over his desk. My point is that you do not get smart by sitting in lecture halls. You get smarter by working at it. Smartness is not contagious, at least not by physical contact.

I am in the process of writing a proposal for consulting services to help develop an online learning strategy for a university. Daniel’s point  confirms our premise in the proposal that it’s getting easier to connect with knowledge and knowledgeable people, without jumping through what are becoming arbitrary academic hoops.

The Web is making everyone (at least the one billion who are currently connected) only a few clicks away from each other. Add in free Voice over IP, video conferencing, lectures online and YouTube presentations and voilà  – a new platform for learning. It’s time for universities to think about a new role as learning enablers and no longer gatekeepers because the horse (knowledge) has escaped the barn.

Professors criticize French immersion report

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Diana Hamilton, and Matthew Litvak, both who have taught statistics at the university level, have several criticisms of the recent Croll and Lee Review of French Second Language Programs and Services New Brunswick’s schools. They have set up a blog, as well as a detailed analysis of the flaws:

To summarize, EFI [early French immersion] produces better French speakers, costs less on a per-student basis, and has essentially the same attrition rate as LFI [late French immersion]. The logical choice is to retain EFI. Core French certainly needs to be fixed, but we have found no justification in this document for eliminating EFI in the process. We strongly suggest that the central recommendation of this report not be adopted; it will lead to a reduction in French competence of hundreds of graduates per year, and result in a general lowering of standards. Numerous education experts have stated that EFI is the best program, and based on our analysis, we fully agree.

We feel that many of the legitimate shortcomings in New Brunswick FSL [French as a Second Language] programs that the Commissioners have identified can be addressed more effectively as follows:

  • by providing adequate resources to support a wider range of French-language course options and flexibility in Grades 10-12 in order to reduce early drop-out;
  • by providing adequate support for exceptional children in EFI and LFI classes so that FSL training becomes available to these children;
  • by actively promoting the benefits of learning French and encouraging all students equally.

More platforms

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Photo: Platform alteration by harryharris

Continuing the platform theme from my last post, I’ve come across two relatively new Web content sharing platforms – Scribd and LearnHub. Both allow for easy uploading and sharing of content that you own. Scribd has unlimited space available while LearnHub is free but will be charging a transaction fee in the future for testing and tutoring. Where LearnHub differs is that it is based on an information presentaion/testing/tutoring model, while Scribd just lets you put stuff online. Both have a rating system built in and Scribd so far is a much larger community, with 350,000 registered users.

Check out The History of Tim Horton’s [had to get some Canadian content, didn’t I?] on Scribd or the Cooperative Learning community on LearnHub.

Is this the future of online learning?

Platforms versus Programs

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Jay Cross discusses an interview with John Hagel at FastForward and sees that a move from programs to platforms is necessary in a web-centric world:

The way out of the squeeze is to move from programs to platforms. He’s not talking about media. Rather, programs are push, content, and structured (as with software). Platforms are frameworks, networks, flexible, and loosely coupled. It won’t be an easy transition; many companies will die along the way. (The lifespan of an S+P company is already down to 15 years, an 80% drop from historical levels.)

Meanwhile, on the FastForward Blog, Rob Paterson shows how Wikipedia and YouTube have greatly surpassed both NPR and PBS in number of viewers. What is interesting is that both Wikipedia and YouTube are platforms, while NPR and PBS have been pushing programs.

I can see the same change happening in education. The successful institutions [if we use that term] in the near future will provide the best collaborative platforms. Those with only programs to offer will be sidelined.

Evaluating the evaluators

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The standard university value proposition is that it’s not just a degree but an opportunity for learning and developing critical thinking. At Ryerson University:

The special mission of Ryerson University is the advancement of applied knowledge and research to address societal need, and the provision of programs of study that provide a balance between theory and application and that prepare students for careers in professional and quasi-professional fields.

However, as noted yesterday, Ryerson has charged a student with academic misconduct for creating a Facebook virtual study hall. Even if the students were passing around “answers” [which it appears they were not], the problem is not with the students.

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Any institution that claims to support “the advancement of applied research and knowledge“, should not be in the business of asking for “the right answer”. Learning, especially in higher education, should not be about getting the right answer and this case shows the weakness of the university value proposition for our society. Too many universities have taken the easy route and they are as much diploma mills as anything you might find on the back of a pack of matches. The gaping hole in the university teaching model is quite obvious. If the “answer” can be found and passed around, your evaluation system is completely flawed.

Photo of Bas Relief by Elizabeth Lyn Wood at Ryerson (1962) by colros

Students in the driver’s seat

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Is this the future of education?

For real writers and creators: Love to write, to speak, and/or to make films? Wish there was a class where you could work on your own ideas, your own projects, and learn advanced podcasting, film-making, writing/blogging, social networking? This class is for you. You design your project(s). You develop them however you want them to go. And you get feedback from your teacher on the quality of your writing and other multimedia (radio/podcasting, movie-making, blogging, social networking strategies). If you choose, you can learn to market your project for world attention. It will be yours to continue in coming years, when class is over.

Clay Burell is going to have fun next year and so are a bunch of his students. Some day [soon?] this might not even be an item of interest as it will be the norm. I can also see this model as a better model for online learning for many disciplines than what most courses offer. With less “teaching” and more guidance and feedback, it may even scale up better.

This just in:

Meanwhile, in an alternate universe, Mark Federman reports that Ryerson Polytechnic has charged a student with academic misconduct for creating a Chemistry study group on Facebook [AKA, that evil place where them youngsters hang out]:

In their minds, Ryerson administrators must maintain their control over students and the mode of learning, true to their 17th century pedagogical heritage. Metaphorically, this is Ryerson U’s president, Sheldon Levy, wearing a long, schoolmarm-ish dress, thwacking Avenir over the head with a yardstick in the one-room schoolhouse that is still, lamentably, Ry High.

… and then our structures shape us

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Clay Burell has guest blogger Bill Farren discussing the hidden curriculum of school architectural design. He asks what hidden messages are our schools themselves asking by their inherent design:

  • Did the building’s designers take into consideration its location?
  • Who decided how (if) it should be built?
  • Does the building make an attempt to connect students with their outside world?
  • What does the formal, intentional curriculum teach?
  • How is this formal, intentional curriculum taught?
  • How is the school run?
  • How is security portrayed?
  • What is sold or advertised on campus?

I was reminded of the critical nature of school design this week when I received an invitation to the School Building Expo in Chicago (April 1-3), which I passed on to the Department of Education, considering that they’re hiring a future school infrastructure analyst.

There was an article I read many years ago, but don’t see cited very often, about designing learning environments. It’s Rodney Fulton’s SPATIAL model (1991) [my emphasis added]:

While a body of knowledge does exist that documents the relationships between learning and physical environment, there are problems that need to be resolved before the present level of understanding can be systematically advanced. One problem is that common vocabulary does not exist. Thus, in the literature, concepts are often described with similar but not identical terminology. Conversely, the same terms are used for similar but not exactly the same concepts. But this confusion in vocabulary is only a symptom of the fundamental problem: the lack of a conceptual model that explores relationships of physical environment to learning rather than to behavior in general. Architectural models address built environments, emphasizing both interior and exterior features of building design that allow, encourage, prohibit, or inhibit various behaviors. Psychological models discuss environmental attributes that set conditions for or even control human behavior. Sociological models emphasize the importance of environment in terms of how it facilitates human interactions. By emphasizing individual appreciation of the environment, aesthetic models address the relationship of values to human behavior. Workplace training models, including human factors engineering, emphasize the fit between environment and person and seek out optimal conditions for performance.

Each of these perspectives can add to a global understanding of the learning environment; however, a model that addresses learners in learning environments is a needed first step in refining educational research. The model described here–satisfaction-participation-achievement-transcendent/immanent attributes-authority-layout (SPATIAL)–can serve as a fundamental basis for organizing research designed to identify relationships between and among components of the learning environment and attributes of the learner. Further, this model has potential for weaving together findings from architectural, psychological, sociological, aesthetic, and human factors engineering studies.

In A Schoolman’s Guide to Marshall McLuhan (1967), John Culkin said that, “We become what we behold. We shape our tools and then our tools shape us.”

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Photo by Atelier Teee

Remixing Cities

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Another excellent paper from CEO’s for Cities is Remixing Cities (PDF), which has lessons pertinent to many large organizations as well as smaller towns. The report has a strong focus on learning:

The current offer is that education is schooling—a special activity that takes place in special places at special times, in a system where most of the goals and curriculum are set for the student, not by the student. Attainment against those standards leads to a system of grading that has a huge bearing on life chances.

The new learning platform would offer learning all over, all the time, in a wide variety of settings, from a wide range of people. Pupils would have more say and more choice over what they could learn, how, where and when, from teachers, other adults and their peers. Learning would be collaborative and experiential, encouraging self-evaluation and self-motivation as the norms.

The principles and ideas developed for the redesign of education and learning city-wide could also apply to policing, crime and safety, health and well being, care for the elderly, carbon usage reduction and sustainability, and culture and creativity:

There is some solid advice in this report, not just generalizations, with an underlying theme of using social web approaches to address key issues. The “egg and plate” metaphor is one that I’ll probably use in the future. All in all, a good document to pass on to local municipal leaders.

Stop Bullying – Wear Pink

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Update: All of the bully poems are now available online.

Tomorrow (27 Feb) is wear pink day, and according to Christy Clark:

Bullying is a major problem in our schools, workplaces, homes, and over the Internet … on February 27th I encourage all of you to wear something pink to symbolize that we as a society will not tolerate bullying anywhere. I wish I could take credit for this idea but it comes from two incredible Nova Scotia high school students … [more on Christy’s website]

Andrea, my wife, was involved in anti-bullying program development for several years, and unfortunately not enough has been done to really address the issues. One of her sources of inspiration was Barbara Coloroso, author of The Bully, the Bullied and the Bystander. A few years back, Andrea wrote a series of thirteen poems on the theme of bullying and then developed discussion topics and suggested learning activities for each one. She never published these, [update: more of Andrea’s poems now at BullyPoems] but I have convinced her to let me post one on my blog for today:

Belinda Bates

Belinda Bates is a bully
A bossy, belligerent bully.
Though a beauty and bright,
She’s so full of spite
But adults don’t know she’s a bully.

“Oh please let me help, Miss O’Neil”
“What a lovely tie, Mister Beal”
She’s as sweet as canned spinach
A fake to the finish,
Yet, grown-ups are sure she’s for real.

But …

If they’d walk out on the playground
On any given day
They’d see Miss Bates in action,
And much to their dismay,
They’d see …

A shy girl is shunned and she’s teased,
Her brother is kicked in the knees,
Another called “Fatso”
Her clique?
They all laughed so.
Such pain she inflicts with great ease.

But …

I can see it happen.
And I know it isn’t right.
I can tell a teacher,
And refuse to watch a fight
I can help save the shy girl.
Lift her brother to his feet.
Call Fatso by his real name,
And refuse to join the clique.

I can even be nice to Belinda,
For I’m sure there is something wrong.
I think that she is really unhappy.
Let’s see if we can’t get along.

Topics for Discussion:

  • Why are adults often not aware of a bully’s behaviour and how does a bully manage to pass undetected?
  • Describe different types of bullying: physical; verbal; relational; or scoial. How do they manifest themselves.
  • What are cliques? When do cliques become a problem?
  • What roles can an onlooker play?
  • When should you intervene, and how?
  • What might be the underlying cause of bullying behaviour?

Learning Activities:

  • Using the first stanza as an example, practise using alliteration to write a stanza about bullying.
  • Using the phrase “She’s as sweet as canned spinach” as an example, write other similes to describe bullies.
  • Explore empathy by finding possible explanations (not justifications) for Belinda’s behaviour.
  • Try methods of intervening by role-playing.

The Attention Crisis in Learning

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Tony Karrer has an excellent post on the implications of the long tail on organisational learning and compares training organisations to publishers. The challenge is not having enough stuff to distribute, it’s getting attention at the receiving end. He finishes by asking these questions:

  • How do we get into the attention economy business?
  • How do we dramatically lower production and delivery costs?
  • How do we support self-service learning and user generated content?
  • How do we foster knowledge worker skills?
  • What are the new metrics?
  • What does this mean for our current learning systems?
  • How do we aggregate content?
  • What are the legal and compliance issues?
  • What are the new roles that must be created to go after this?
  • Where do our skills fit? What new skills do we need?

Some of these questions are dependent on how we respond to others.

I think that the first step in gaining attention is figuring out 1) how to support self-service learning and user generated content which in turn fosters empowerment.

With user-generated content as the norm, then we have already established 2) how to get into the attention economy business as well as 3) how to dramatically lower production and delivery costs through participatory teaching & learning.

With user-generated content as the norm we can also establish 4) the new metrics [participation] and have at the same time provided a medium for 5) how to foster knowledge worker skills [through participation].

6) What does this mean for our current learning systems? Probably that many people may need to find other employment.

7) How do we aggregate content? That’s just a technical question that is being addressed in several venues.

8 ) What are the legal and compliance issues? Probably less difficult then the lawyers would lead us to believe, especially if empowerment and participation are what we really want.

9) What are the new roles that must be created to go after this? The roles will be as different as when a dictatorship becomes a democracy, such as the abolition of the Ministry of Information.
10) Where do our skills fit? What new skills do we need? We will have to become learners ourselves.

A participatory learning ecology gets rid of the intermediaries but puts more responsibility on all members of the network. Each node must contribute or risk exclusion from the network. I can’t see any way of making this work other than through empowerment of every individual and opening the channels for communication and collaboration.