Daily Diigo Snips and Comments 03/27/2007

A field headquarters in the War on Schooliness.

Daily Diigo Snips and Comments 03/27/2007

How-to RSS: Macromedia Flash (SWF) Movie

Nice, but too long?

Eide Neurolearning Blog: Better Writing from Text Messaging and Blogging Teens Annotated:

From the Times, “Fears that text messaging may have ruined the ability of teenagers to write properly have been shown to be unfounded after a two-year study revealed that youngsters are more literate than ever before.” Despite the frequent use of IM abbreviations, improvements were noted in the use of more complex sentence structures, wider vocabulary, and more accurate use of punctuation and spelling.

We’ve also found it easier to improve keyboarding skills in middle and high school students with email, IM, or text-based gaming, vs. standard software programs.

University of Glamorgan, Learning Zone Annotated

Note the implied demotion of the academic essay as the scholarship of the future.
- post by cburell

The debate is about who should determine the design and choice issues in the way students learn - Siemans says:

Open standards (or software) and APIs enable mashups and re-creations beyond what initial designers had planned. The end-user, not the designer alone, determines what can be done.

and goes on to argue that:

Too much of our learning is being designed as if the choices of the learners didn’t matter. We design LMS’ to lock learners into our format, our model. When the learners leave our institution, we eliminate their choice of further access to learning materials. When a learner would like to demonstrate competence in a certain way (for assessment purposes), we instead require a 2000 word essay. With education, the design of learning should follow a similar model as with any other design process: namely to balance the needs and intent of the designer with the end user. In terms of educational design, the choice has traditionally rested with the institution. [emphasis added--Clay]

He suggests that this is the attraction of social software:

The draw of blogs, wikis, podcasting, video logging, social bookmarking, and other social tools for educators arises from direct observation of what happens when learners are given choice. It’s enormously motivating to watch learners learn through dialogue - forming connections with learners and experts beyond the walls of a classroom (or LMS)…seeing passion replace routine, engagement replace passivity.

Universities: The learning mould is smashed - Independent Online Edition > Higher Annotated

The entire article is fascinating. Here’s a snippet:
- post by cburell

The undergraduate curriculum has been criticised for being too superficial a way of learning, relying as it does on the student essay and examination. Warwick wants to change that and bring some coherence to what is known as research-based learning, an issue that is moving fast up the higher-education agenda. Until now, research and teaching have been separated. “The two activities will be brought together,” says Dr Neary, who is a sociologist. “What we’re developing are programmes and practices where students are working in collaboration with academics on their own research, on the academic’s research or on a piece of extra-curricular research.”

But why the futuristic play space? “If you are redesigning teaching, you have to redesign the places where students work,” says Dr Neary. “This is a room that is designed for movement and play, maybe for lectures, maybe for group work. It’s not technologically determined.”

Not all the students have taken to it. They seem to have mixed feelings about their new modernist play space, which is costing £2.5m over five years. “Some of the students are very interested,” says Dr Cath Lambert, a lecturer in sociology and academic co-ordinator of the Reinvention Centre. “Some regard it in a playful way; others were quite threatened when they first came in. They didn’t know where to sit. In a conventional classroom, you put your books on the desk and sit at the front whereas when you walk in here you say, ‘Whoa, where do I go?’”

The centre, which is part of a collaborative project with Oxford Brookes University, is doing its own research via a questionnaire into what the students think of the space. Some of them think that it has made the interaction between students and lecturers less hierarchical, according to Dr Lambert. The academics who use the centre are very positive, mainly because those who choose to use it for their classes have to want to do so - and to develop what Dr Neary calls “a progressive pedagogy”.

Those involved in designing the new room are determinedly idealistic. The designers took a deliberate decision not to have any tables in the room because tables force students to sit in one place and not move about. Tables create a barrier, according to Neary. Having no tables means that people can feel closer to one another. “This room is driven by the dynamics of the relationship of collaboration,” says Dr Neary. “There’s no place for the teacher. It’s open and democratic and dynamic.”

If you like this post, please spread it: (But don't tag it "education." That will bury it.)