Comment on There is Nothing Permanent Except Change by Nicole Arnold

Haha – I like your idea of calling it a “warm-up routine.” That is exactly what it is in my mind. Sometimes I think it is helpful to do something similar every class period so that students can kind of expect what the start of the class will be like as they get situated. Personally, I like to get to my classes a few minutes early, if possible, as it really makes that much of a difference for me mentally when I’m rushed versus when I’ve had a chance to get myself in order.

Comment on Defending the old schools by Qichao Wang

Thanks for the comments. Before answering your questions, I want to kindly point out that there is no “u” after “Q” in my name. ?

Now first, whether education needs competition, based on my understanding, depends on the approaches the educators are using. Including competition could be a way of engaging students (like the score and competing systems in gaming). If you are talking about competing for the education resources, I don’t think it’s appropriate to use the term “winner” or “loser” to represent the competing results. Competition in education resources is not something I want. It’s something that is already here and we need to think about the way to deal with it rather than ignore its existence. A further thought on competition in education resources will be talked in my last response.

For your second question, I don’t think that human’s learning capacity is determined at birth. I believe in hard work and that most skills and knowledge can be learned. Actually, I believe that is what can make our human society evolve to today’s civilization and the reason why I’m doing research and want to teach. And because human’s knowledge body can accumulate by the contribution from all the talented minds, I think when we promoting new ideas, we should have the idea in mind that the old fashions have their usage at certain conditions. It’s easy to propose something new without thinking about all the constraints the reality have. Ignoring the value of old-school methods would trash the exploration of the past generations.

Lastly, I do not believe I would be in the same place if anything changed. Actually, I do not even think I would be me if anything changed. Back to your first question about competition in education. I understand that the education resources are limited and my success, if there is any, strongly depends on the resources that I got. Also, I can see many people, including me, are still on their way to a better life because they could not get enough education resources earlier. Since education is so valuable, I must defend the standardized tests because they offer a relative fair approach for the under-represented groups. There were ten years when the college entrance exams were abandoned in China. During these years, only the ones who know someone could get the chance to go to colleges. When the elites are talking about how to widen their kids’ minds, someone far away is still struggling to get to figure out what are the colleges in this country and how to get the chance to get in.

With the limit of time (the class is coming), I can only mention these thoughts. Hope you like it.

Comment on Mindful Learning and the Role of Higher Education by Yang Liu

Most of the class in art and design is like the class you describe. We have the short lecture every two or three weeks. But we have a tutorial in every class with professor to show the process of the works. During the first semester, the professor will show the study plan and highlight the projects we need to follow. Then the task for us is focused on our projects. We will teach the basic skills of the program and discuss with the professor. The professor will highlight the comments on the direction section. It is the typical learning model in the art and design studio class.

Comment on Mindless vs Mindful Learning – My experience in Australia by Yang Liu

Great experience to explain the importance to combine the mindfulness and mindless learning together. Mindless learning relies on the academic environment, which is important during the primary step of learning the step. But the mindfulness learning is more essential for the student in the high educational level. Even for the researcher, scheduling the lists to explore and understand the unfamiliar section is more easy to archive.

Comment on Tomorrow is Here Now by kgculbertson

I thought I had addressed this in my post. I guess I just thought it.
I am most interested in looking for innovative (meaning: new not improved) ways for education opportunities to be present in a learning ecology. The clips/notations from the Digital Media – New Learners of the 21st Century video are more about support and connections for my ideas for the future (post-PhD) work I intend to do than changing my thinking.
I believe that if we want to educate everyone to their highest potential (that would be my goal) then we are going to need to think about what learning is, looks like and results in. The work being done by John Seely Brown, James Gee and Mimi Ito will most definitely inform my advocacy and work in the future.

Comment on Instilling better learning in children by Nicole Arnold

Dina – I actually wrote a statement similar to that of [sometimes it is a challenge for students to even just make it to class] haha! I truly believe this. Some students have such a packed day and/or academic schedule in general that there just is not room to sit back, enjoy, and learn. Everything is a hustle because there just is not enough hours in the day. If you have face-to-face courses, plus homework, assignments, and readings in each one, it can be difficult to get the bare minimum done to begin with. Through my personal experience, I reach a point of mindfulness the easiest when I’m in a comfortable and relaxed state. Therefore, when I’m running around trying to get so many things done, it can be difficult to get to this place mentally.

Comment on Thoughts on Why Lecture is Obsolete: and why gamification may turn education on its head by kgculbertson

Somewhat agree Jyotsana.
I, personally, would rather use/engage with any other pedagogy than lecture. I’m a fairly good listener, but I still find there is so much baggage for me in listening, attending, assimilating and organizing information from a lecture that I’m exhausted after attending one. However, when given an option to watch a video or visual presentation with a ‘lecture’ I’m able to stop it, think, go back and re-watch so that I am able to digest and assimilate the information provided. I think that the GEDI program/class has great potential to provide opportunities for students to consider what their options are, but I wonder if some people will just not engage with the concepts, or worse: try them and get discouraged/jaded into using the more standard methods.
With everything in education philosophy/peddagogy, I think we need to radically shift our thinking about what is possible and how do we measure success both from the teachers perspective and the students in order to ensure that we are doing more good than harm.