There are two kinds of academic rigor. The standard kind is measured in number of hours spent; in the amount of predetermined information memorized and regurgitated. It involves running fast to jump through the hoops put before you. It involves being handed problems and showing you can follow prescribed pathways to solve them. It involvesContinue reading “Redefining Academic Rigor”
Category Archives: The Big Questions
Pedagogy vs. Curriculum – The How is the What
The How is the What What (content) and how (pedagogy) cannot be separated. How we teach also teaches a what. Example 1: Coercion has no place in education. If we use coercion to get students to study what we want when we want, we are teaching them that how you get people to do theContinue reading “Pedagogy vs. Curriculum – The How is the What”
The Mixed Messages of School
School to students— “Here’s the problem. Here’s how you solve it. Don’t fail. Do it, or else.” And now that you are done with school— “Please identify problems, Figure out how to solve them, Learn from your failures. Oh, and BTW, use influence—not power—to get people to do things. You’re welcome.” -School
Technology Idol Worship
A tech director colleague posted to a forum recently inviting feedback on whether or how he should re-institute a tech committee at one of his schools. Teachers there had requested it, but his trepidation is understandable, and here’s why: tech committees are part of the wrong paradigm. Focusing on technology is educational idol worship—it isContinue reading “Technology Idol Worship”
Teaching: Art or Science?
I just started blogging for the Cooperative Catalyst. My first post is Teaching: Art or Science?. Check it out!
Technology and the Future of Education
Why has it been so hard to ‘get technology in the classroom” for the last 40 years? Because it’s a round peg in a square hole. Technology is of a different world, where information is free-flowing and flat and wide, liquid networks prevail; where inquiry can always find fuel and sustenance at the moment ofContinue reading “Technology and the Future of Education”
Higher Education is Changing (?)
A couple of items in the news recently have combined with a local tidbit to raise an eyebrow about what higher ed will look like in 10 or 20 years: 1) A local graduate school (I will withhold the name) has a team looking into whether tuition-driven universities will even exist in the near future,Continue reading “Higher Education is Changing (?)”
How do we innovate in education?
This is a pretty important point, given that education seems to be the slowest field to innovate. Or more accurately, schools seem to be inordinately slow at innovating their cultures and structures to adjust to what we know about teaching and learning . To help answer that question, albeit in very general terms, I offerContinue reading “How do we innovate in education?”
Schools and Change – Do We Adapt or Do We React?
A recent post by Clay Shirky – Institutions, Confidence, and the News Crisis – got me thinking about schools as institutions, and how they handle change. Here’s a quote form the post: “The ability of institutions to adapt slowly while preserving continuity of mission and process is exactly what lets them last longer than aContinue reading “Schools and Change – Do We Adapt or Do We React?”
Role of Technology in Education
As most of us know, literacy is not just about reading any more. The printed book was a giant leap forward in our ability to distribute information, but we are now in the fairly early stages of another information revolution – one that requires the definition of literacy to be expanded. In today’s world, weContinue reading “Role of Technology in Education”
Edunautics 