Category: Hot Topics – Prior Weeks

Gaming the System

Laptops in the classroom are clearly a divisive issue as demonstrated by the NPR article on the different approaches to technology in the classroom. The conversation does seem to be very polarizing, but often times the different sides seem to be talking past each other. Of course laptops, much like other tools available in the classroom, have helpful applications in the classroom under the right circumstances, but I think when people discuss banning laptops they aren’t teaching a class that uses laptops as a tool or teaching aid. It seems strange then to take extremists positions when the use of technology in the classroom is self-evidently situational.

This gets at a larger issue that I’ve found intriguing during my professional development: Is it the job of the student to pay attention or the job of the professor to keep the attention of students? Should professors aim to reach only those that demonstrate interest and engage with the material, or is it necessary to make sure that every last student is engaged in the class?

I struggled academically during my undergraduate career, often times because I was on my laptop not paying attention. I eventually had to come to my own realization that doing such things wasn’t in my best interests and take responsibility for what was going on. Isn’t putting the onus on professors to be entertaining or to strive to keep the attention of all students merely absolving the responsibility of the student to take control of their own education? Students have always gazed off into the distance or daydreamed since time immemorial, why put the pressure or responsibility entirely on the professors?

Additionally, the exploration of the different methods of learning developed from video games or other types of problem-solving is an intriguing idea. As a “gamer” I recognize that there is an inherent drive to learn to master the mechanics of a game, to be able to adapt to different challenges to reach an ultimate goal. This can also be accomplished in board games or interactive/physical games, not just video games (if conferences in my particular academic concentration are anything to go by “simulations” and other game-like teaching methods are clearly becoming more popular and publishers/academic-focused companies are creating more and more products to meet that demand).

Ultimately, I do think that laptops could create better learning environments if used correctly, For instance, the introduction of games (both video and traditional) in the classrooms could create better outcomes than the traditional lectures. As a teenager, I developed an interest in history and politics through the video games I was exposed to and has led in many ways to a deeper understanding of certain historical events than I might otherwise have had if I had only learned about history through books or academic lectures. There would be some cool ways to incorporate games into courses to promote that type of active learning, but there will still always be students who aren’t interested in whatever form of teaching is being offered.

In the final analysis, some students like lectures and others hate it, the same goes for video games or other methods of learning. It’s unclear how this tension could be resolved or how any clear cut distinction about what teaching method is “better” could be made given these issues.

Please let me know your thoughts on this issue, I’m legitimately curious to hear what other people think about the different approaches to learning and class management.

Am I in the Right Room?

I’ve spent the better part of two hours typing a blog that will sit in draft mode until further notice. The gist of the conversation I was hoping to stir concerns our responsibilities as teachers and parents in the avenues our children and students make. Not all engineering students will become engineers. Not all designers become designers. And we should all understand that that is okay.

I switched halfway through my undergraduate from mechanical engineering to industrial design. Don’t get me wrong, I could grasp the concepts, I just couldn’t produce the math. In my professional career as a designer, my area of expertise has always been more function than form, but I’m still not producing the numbers. That’s what engineers are for. And I don’t expect engineers to always get the form right. That’s what designers are for.

Does this mean my math professors didn’t teach me correctly, or did my engineering colleagues have terrible art teachers? No. Most students will be better at one thing over another; it’s how we become specialists in our respective disciplines. But let me pose this, if an art teacher had taught more like an engineer, or the math teacher had thought more like the artist, would things have turned out differently?

I had parents that backed me up when I decided to turn around. I had tears in my eyes when I told them I was quitting one thing to do another. But it was worth it. For all of us. I ended up in a career I didn’t hate with the best teachers I could have asked for. I grew stronger in my relationship with my parents through honesty and open conversations like that one. It changed my life for the better.

Now, I am fortunate to be in an immersive field of study. Industrial designers learn concepts of form and function, conceptualize through drawings, receive feedback from students and teachers both, and iterate through physical models until the final form is delivered, usually a full-scale working prototype. It is extremely satisfying. It requires the input of the student. It requires the student’s peers to make comments and provide feedback. It’s a shame other fields of study do not have this same opportunity.

Or do they? Does this translate to other disciplines? How does a history major build? Is it only though their writing, or does it require physical travel to places of historic significance? Or both? What if you can’t get there from here? What if it’s too cost-prohibitive? What if you’re too ill to go? What if you have obligations outside of academia that we all find ourselves in? What if’s can kill dreams.

I think this a world preparing itself for VR. Advances in the technology are going to shift what we can do, and make accessible the inaccessible. Adbhut wrote a good blog with plenty of questions we still need to examine and answer. Using VR?AR, can we experiment with how we teach engineers through the lens of the artist? Can we create a virtual art class that designs sculpture through the algorithms of human bone growth? What new information will be passed, exchanged, and shared by those students, as was pointed out in our latest GEDI readings?

I am hopeful. It is my opinion we are already providing more avenues for students to learn than ever before. We are beginning to provide the most current of tools and are creating more. The students are also already changing how they learn if given the space. Hopefully we are able to guide them toward meaningful lives, able to help them correct themselves when that path gets rough, and even have the strength to say it’s okay to turn around and find a different path. And hopefully, it is because we’ve already exhausted all other options, and not because we told them they weren’t good enough.

What happened to the overhead projector?

800px-OHP-sch

I am old.  I am a dinosaur.   I learned and started teaching with an overhead projector and mimeograph sheets.   As I write this blog post, I am trying to guess when they disappear from the land of higher learning?  Do I need to include a wikepedia link for to help my classmates that read this post that has no idea what an overhead projector is?   Am I that old that I miss the days that the TV rolled in on a high cart which means we had a substitute teacher?

I read ‘s article about laptops and phones in the classroom and I thought about the overhead projector.   When I was taking classes while watching the pterodactyl flying out the window, this was all the technology in the room.  My goal through high school and four years of engineering school was to get as much information from that pre-made transparency into a notebook.   I got really good and trying to synthesis the notes and taking clues from the teacher/professor for a particular portion of the notes that will be on that mid-term or final test.   I would then take my notes back to my little dorm room and recopy them with particular definitions or equations from the textbook to supplement the notes.  My fellow class mates would come and buy portions or all of a set of notes for a class.  That money went along way in buying cheap beer and a dinner somewhere.  Somewhere in the process, that grainy 20 years old transparency sunk into my head that I could put back onto that test.

Now, I sit twenty plus years later in the state of the art classroom with projectors and webcasting of someone who is attending the class from a bar in the airport in Dubai.  Everyone has a laptop or tablet sitting in front of them.   If the professor flashes something up on the fancy screen, a person can whip out their camera on their smart phone to make sure they didn’t miss it.  If I don’t understand a definition, I can google it and it is at my fingertips.  I don’t need the textbook or go the library because it is at my fingertips.

The etiquette is now different.   If you have a cell phone, you hide it under the table so the professor doesn’t see you texting your significant other or check that Facegram or Instabook account.   I always try to sneak a peek at the open computer next to me.  The vast majority of the people are surfing the net, social media, looking at job sites, or trying to do the homework for the next class.

I read Anya Kamenetz’s arguments for the pros and cons of this technology.  She missed the point.  It isn’t about trying to engage students better so they are too busy to be distracted or a teacher has to ban technology outright.  She missed the responsibility of the student.  It is up to the student to learn the material.  It was no different copying notes from the overhead projector or today off the fancy touch screen.  If the student wants to do something else, the student has missed out the opportunity to learn the material that someone thought he or she should know.   Leave it up to the student to sink or swim.  That is how it is in the real world.

My guess it was 2001 when the overhead projector went the way of the dodo.

 

 

 

VR learning for Generation Z

Let me start with a small story. Three years ago, I went to Walmart and accidentally stumbled upon a huge stack of these Virtual Reality (VR) headsets. I had heard about VR from a friend who recently bought a fancy VR headset for $1000 and here I was looking at a super cheap smartphone version, costing just $15. I bought it just out of curiosity, went home downloaded some VR apps on my phone and I was amazed at the extent of things I could do with it. I could play some super cool games, experience myself sitting in a roller coster and not only that, there was an app where I could watch the inside of a human body. Of course in this toned-down cheap version I could really not do as much as in the $1000 one, but still it was good enough to get a feel of it. What I actually learnt from this experience was that VR was no longer some distant future and it was no longer limited to games or entertainment, but can be used as a great learning tool in this digital age.

According to a a popular model developed by educational theorist Fleming, there are usually four types of learning styles- Visual , Auditory, Reading/Writing and Kinesthetic. But, is this model really applicable for the generation of digital learners? A recent Barnes and Noble College study, conducted on 1300 middle and high school students, shows that today’s students are not big fans of passive learning. They are not interested in showing up to lectures, make notes and then memorize for exams. Instead they want an educational experience that is immersive and engaging. For example, 51% of the surveyed students said that they learn best through active participation while only 12% said that they learn by listening. They also said that with technology and hands on experience, learning is much more fun for them. This survey definitely gives us a hint what future learners expect from their classroom experience and VR can play a big role in making this experience more immersive.

The biggest advantage of VR could be in visualizing and understanding difficult and abstract scientific concepts like magnetism, relativity, human anatomy etc. Students can easily perform the complex chemistry and biological experiments in virtual labs without having to worry about the dangers of using chemicals etc. This TED talk by Michael Bodekaer, the co-founder of Labster shows how virtual labs can revolutionize education. Another technology that is gaining popularity is Augmented Reality (AR). AR adds another dimension to the learning process and teachers can combine traditional approach with innovative practical illustrations of the complex concepts .

While the costs of these high-tech fancy VR sets are undeniably high for now, they will inevitable drop. But for the starters, why not experiment with the super cheap ones like the one I got from Walmart. There are numerous apps available which work with these low-cost ones, for almost every subject including chemistry, physics, zoology, history, grammar and list goes on and on. In the end, it’s upon the educators to understand the need of this Generation Z and make the learning experience for them not only more engaging, but also make them a part of this experience.

Video Games as Learning Tools

I met her when we were 18 years old. Freshman computer science students full of dreams, questions and of course energy. But she was different.; when we were all working hard on our course projects and lacking sleep, shes was playing video games. When we were  all studying hard and getting prepared for the final exams, she was playing video games. When we were celebrating the end of semester, guess what, she was still playing video games!  Kamelia has been a close friend of mine for more than a decade. We spent undergraduate and Masters programs together. I remember from the first day of our friendship, she clarified for all the classmates that ”I chose computer science because I want to become a game developer!”. This motivation might be common for many students in the U.S., but at my home country, IRAN, gaming is more like a hobby than an inspiration for choosing a major.  Kamelia, though, was brave and persistent. She worked as a game developer in a company for couple of years after graduation in computer science with a minor in psychology. Later, she started her PhD at the University of Luxembourg working on “Computer Games to Treat Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder”.

Following are what I learned from Kamelia completed with the crux of resources on this topic:

  • Video games != waste of time. From educational point of view, you can potentially learn what you struggle to listen during a class or among the impractical homework assignments, in an entertaining game experience.
  • Video games == problem solving. All video games are sets of problems which the player should solve. Does not this sound like another form of learning?
  • Video games contain “Embedded Assessment”. A good game, in general,  is designed so that its players cannot go to the next level unless they qualify. This certainly removes the conventional test-and-grade system and replaces it with more encouraging play-and-win system.
  • Gaming based therapy programs help cognitive scientists to address learning issues  and ultimately improve mental health. This is particularly beneficial when it comes to children who are less willing to spend time in hospitals and clinics. You may find the related following TEDx talk interesting.

From struggling undergraduate to PhD student

I was suspended for a semester as an undergraduate. I came to Virginia Tech in 2011 as a freshman. I was thrown into an incoming freshman class of around 5,000 students. My high school graduating class had 23 people in it. We were a small, close-knit group and I had had the same teachers since 10th grade. I came in as a University Studies student with the dream of getting into engineering. In high school I had always been better than average at math and science and I thought that engineering seemed like an obvious fit. After a semester of terrible performance, I was put on probation. After another semester of more of the same, I was suspended. At the time, it was devastating. But looking back on the experience now, I am able to appreciate the positive changes it helped me to realize in my academic career.

There were several reasons for this turn of events – some in my control, and some under the control of the University environment:

  1. I didn’t go to class as much as I should have.
  2. I was not prepared for the anonymity that massive class sizes provided.
  3. I was convinced of my own multitasking skills (i.e. using laptops in class to ‘take notes’).
  4. I was taught entirely in lecture format classes.
  5. I had a lot of growing up to do.

The themes of this week revolve around teaching styles and obstacles to student learning. I’d like to take this time to address lecture-style classes and use of technology in class.

Regarding lectures, as the readings have shown, there are some positives and negatives. For the student, it is useful to be lectured to in a well-balanced education. However, it cannot be the only method that instructors use. In many of the classes that freshmen are expected to take, lecture is the primary teaching tool. It seems as if that norm may be changing in recent years, but students could really benefit from less lecture and more active forms of learning. In the classes that I teach now, I try to mix it up as much as I can. I like assigning in-class group exercises, discussions, and presentations. Yes, lecture is still necessary. And yes, there are still some students who do not engage in class and despite my best efforts, resist my efforts to pull them in. But, overall, when students are given the opportunity to share their thought processes and grapple with tough issues, rather than just listening to someone else talk about them, it seems (in general) that the material sinks in a little more.

Now on to the issue of laptops – a much debated issue. Honestly, after reading about whether they should be allowed in class and engaging in countless discussions with peers and professors, I still don’t know where I stand on this. I truly don’t think that people can multitask. But I also don’t know whether it’s the instructor’s responsibility to ‘force’ students to pay attention, or if that’s even possible. Although smartphones and laptops are recent technological advances, daydreaming has been around for a long time. If you take away one distraction, it’s very possible that students could find another. I will say, that in my own experience, I missed a lot of opportunities to learn as an undergrad due to my laptop use. It wasn’t until I took a class in my first semester back from suspension, when a professor had the whole class complete an exercise designed to show our futile attempts at multitasking that I put away the laptop in class for good. Sure, I got it out now and again when needed. But from that point, I knew that if I had it out, I probably wouldn’t be paying attention to what was going on around me. The point of that story is to say that maybe it’s not the instructor’s job to force students to put away the laptops and pay attention. But, maybe it’s a teachable moment. Instructors can demonstrate the harm that laptops are having on their student’s focus and attention and maybe convince a few of them of the benefits of giving the class that they’re in a little more of their attention.

I started out this post with the story of my failures during undergrad. I learned a lot of lessons as I plummeted downwards and I also learned a lot as I struggled to improve. I came out the other side as a pretty decent graduate student. So, while I might have been an undergraduate with some of the worst habits and zero interest in my classes, I learned for myself what it took to succeed and (probably more importantly) learn.

Week 2: Networked Learning, Open Working, and Tension

Hi y’all!

I cannot speak for others, but throughout my development as an engineer (2.5 decades) and now as an instructor (4 semesters), I’ve experienced significant tension between the externally-imposed expectations and goals I’m supposed to work toward, versus the underlying reasons I am an engineer or instructor at all.

Tension

I’m lucky to have done plenty of reflection & exploration, on my own, into my “why”s. I’ve an essay from kindergarten explaining that I want to become an “inventor-doctor” and “give people new arms or legs or stomachs”, pieces from my first undergrad about facilitating “the direct transmission of abstractions and experience” in order to “cultivate empathy”, from my second about “engineering as a liberatory endeavor”, and from grad school about “design for community autonomy”. I openly discuss the content I teach, and have accumulated a double-digit waiting list of friends, acquaintances, or friends-of-friends who I want to provide access to my lecture recordings.

But when I engineer, the focus imposed on me prioritizes markets, profit, hunting ‘whales’, intellectual property and preventing others from being able to use the fruits of my labor unless they can pay. These are not and never were *my* goals; I engineer because I want people’s lives to suck less, want to expand our capacity for interaction or self-expression, or to cultivate wonderment and empathy.

When I teach, I am told between the lines that the course is to function as a rigidly pre-prescribed, standardized content delivery vehicle of a specific list of mathematical abstractions and analyses, with an ultimate output of future laborers, labeled neatly like grades of ground beef, for their future employers’ benefit at the salary negotiation table. For engineering-education-as-a-buisness reasons, I am specifically to only teach these individuals who are able to pay (not those on the waiting list), only teach them the content of my course (not others; that’s another 3 credit hours of tuition), only discuss content deemed ‘nonpolitical’ (not the frameworks and practices they need in order for them to feel good about the role they play in the world at the end of the day). In reality, I put myself in a classroom because I want to cultivate a sense of agency and responsibility in my students as agents of change. I want to empower my students with the requisite skills, knowledge, and practices to let them look at the ways the world sucks for those around them and dive in to help. My teaching strives to be a rapturous, awe-filled celebration of the absurd complexity of the world we sentient great apes live in, and hopes to cultivate a similar sense of wonder and curiosity. Where is the SPOT question, GPA scaling factor, or undergrad resume entry for that?

My goals, as an engineer and an instructor, are best served by openness– of designs, processes, concepts, plans, abstractions, and aspirations. I’ve done enough by now that the incentive systems and expectations around me will simply have to adapt. I’ve plenty yet to learn on practices I can adopt which match and richly enact my theoretical inclinations and intent.

Open, Networked Academia

I found the readings this week on open working and networked learning, along with the in-class discussion last week around open-access education, grading, and surreptitious data gathering by for-profit web services in academic contexts all exceedingly resonant. In the class discussion, I even found myself missing established relatively non-obtrusive “that’s a good point” group discussion signals the way snapping or golf clapping are used in certain contexts.

The LSE piece, “Twitter and Blogs Are Not Just Add-Ons to Research” strongly echoes the tension I expressed, which is quite curious to me as it very much speaks from a humanities scholar’s perspective. I can easily see how the work of engineering academics would be rapidly steered by the incentives of military or industry funding sources toward closed, insular, and obfuscated endeavors; and I can see how the role of the engineering instructor would be re-oriented away from content like ethics, human-centered design, and social justice and toward producing easily-categorized replaceable-part engineers for companies. I am still early in my growing understanding that similar processes have been co-opting potentially revolutionary or hegemony-challenging work and terms and de-fanging them; I absolutely had not considered how such incentive systems can be steering education & research within humanities departments.

One particular example of a novel form of public academic via open, networked writing and engagement is Rachel Garner, whose blog “Why Animals Do The Thing” is home to both short-form explanations of animal behavior and caretaking guidelines on social media, and long-form, cited, traditional academic articles such as her recent work on the estimated big cat populations in the wild and captivity, “Fact or Fiction: Big Cat Crisis” . In a similar vein, several ‘public media creators’ routinely do work that, while in the form of a Youtube video and definitely not in the wonderfully-incoherent Formal Academic Voice of an academic publication, engage with the relevant concepts at the depth of their corresponding academic work. For some examples, feel free to look into Veritasium (physics), Smarter Every Day (physics), PBS Spacetime (astronomy and physics), Styropyro (Optics), The Brain Scoop (taxidermy and animal museum preparation), Contrapoints (anarchist and feminist thought), HBomberguy (media criticism), Healthcare Triage (public health and medical practice), Kat Blaque (feminist thought), One Yard Revolution (gardening), or former creators like ViHart (math), and PBS Idea Channel (?cultural anthropology?).

A notable upside to approaches like this is that their funding sources are often wholly divorced from existing institutions, permitting much greater freedom in research & outreach efforts as compared to the extremely limited availability of grants. To me, these individuals are living out a very new form of academic, that takes the roles of researcher and educator out of the sole domain of the university and back into direct engagement with the public.

Reinventing the Open Web

The piece Working Openly: A Manifesto, struck upon a particular struggle I’ve felt in my engineering work more recently: the very software systems and tools in which we conduct our work are structured to facilitate the locking-down of knowledge and content. A CRM platform like Canvas structures everything from their data storage to their web interface around the assumption that for each user, most courses will be inaccessible. I have that double-digit waiting list of people who want to learn my course content exclusively because for me to share the lecture videos and notes, they need access to VT’s Canvas instance, then need access to my course within that. The primary advertising point of Github for Education, for example, is that they offer unlimited private git repositories. My engineering courses were pushed to use Matlab and Mathematica by the companies selling them, who have then successfully set themselves up for market dominance outcompeting literally free, equivalent tools despite ludicrous cost and abhorrent business models. Changing our practices and what tools we use is the first part of escaping that.

Unfortunately, in its pursuit of brevity, Working Openly left undone the task of finding practical specific tools to use instead. I’d like to list a bunch of technologies that I’m aware of and building on for personal control of your data and systems; this particular piece is already PLENTY long, so that can come later.

For now, I’ll simply share that I was extremely pleasantly surprised at Reclaim Hosting’s approachability and their library of existing, integrated applications available, and especially enthused at the unparalleled value for a $2.5/month cost load. For comparison, my vanity domain costs approximately $13/yr on Namecheap on a discount, and a webserver capable of running WordPress (you’re on your own for management/support of it) on DigitalOcean’s cloud server space will run you $10/mo. I even emailed Reclaim Hosting’s support at 2am asking about self-hosting Red5 (a live-streaming service like Twitch.tv), a personal Mastodon.social instance (a twitter-like federated social network), and an IPFS node (a decentralized, content-addressed file storage system),

and I received a detailed, technical reply from the co-founder within an hour:

Finally:

I very much look forward to continuing this course. I strongly suspect it will finally address the questions I’ve been struggling with around “How do I do, in practice, the sort of open, accessible, agency-cultivating teaching I have been struggling to even conceptualize?”

“What is learning?” – Michael Wesch

This is the question that I ask myself and will always ask myself. Now that I am in my 20th year of education, I still have not figured out the most optimal way for me to learn and retain information. Although, I think I am close in finding the answer for myself. But even after I manage to answer, “What is learning?” will my answer apply to anyone else? Probably not because everyone learns information differently. That is one of the reasons why I am in this class. Throughout this semester, I want to learn about new methods of teaching, as well as develop an understanding of the debates that occur in the pedagogy field.

For me, experiential learning, or “hands-on” learning is the best way for me to learn, which I why I enjoy research so much. In research, we sometimes make mistakes, which is mostly fine; except in some circumstances, the consequences of making a mistake while working on a research project is higher than making a mistake in a class. In a class, I might get docked a couple points on an assignment or a test that is worth a fraction of my grade. Therefore, I feel the need to know everything before I start a research project. I wonder if others feel this way about learning and weighing different educational priorities in their life.

Watching “What Baby George Taught me about Learning” actually made me think about my journey through the systematic education system that we have in the United States. I was a pretty lousy “learner” all throughout K-12 and undergrad. I hated studying and memorizing concepts for tests. If I was presented with the option of studying for a test or sleeping, I would sleep. I never felt the urge to study everything before a test and would often go into tests unprepared. I was better at presentations and papers; however, my science major did not have many classes like this because the classes had too many students. This also makes me wonder, how can we integrate this type of “hands-on” learning to large classes that everyone has to take? For example, this semester I am a TA for a senior level class with 200+ students. Maybe some of the students do really well with traditional lecture style classes but are they learning? or are they memorizing? And what about the students like me who do poorly in this type of education setting? Should they be docked points because they can’t conform to the traditional learning system?

I want to touch on blogging as well since we had readings related to blogging. I am one of those people who dread blogging. Sure it has many pros (mentioned in Tim Hitchcock’s article and Sam Godin and Tom Peters’ video) such as serving as platforms for debates, establishing public positions, and improving writing skills, but I just can’t get myself to do it. I am an awful debater and I avoid conflict as often as possible. I do not like seeing or being a part of online debates or “Twitter Wars” because they often get really nasty. If I were given the opportunity to debate a scientist in my field I would do it. I just do not feel comfortable taking a side in issues that I do not fully understand. There is a part of me that always believes that I probably will not fully understand everything, even topics that I research about. I feel like there is always someone who will know more about a topic than I do and that they are more qualified to speak about it than I will. Another reason is that I feel like my writing is not great; therefore, I need to practice before I publically write anything. Or else someone may call me out and say something like “this person is not credible because her grammar is awful.” These barriers prevent me from blogging or tweeting publically.

With this being said, I am excited to work with all of you this semester! I want to learn about new perspectives of teaching, which will help me shape the way I view learning. Perhaps I will learn new techniques to help me help my 200+ students in the class that I am a TA for.

Educational Outcomes and the Role of Networked Learning

Sometimes we lose the big picture as a result of focusing on the details that are part of our role in the system.  I’m not arguing that details are unimportant in light of the bigger picture.  Details are important and we should strive to address them as well as possible.  If you go out to eat at a high-end restaurant you expect the ingredients to be quality, the chef to put those ingredients together in delicious ways, the wait staff to be attentive, the restrooms to be clean, and so on.  However, if you get an amazing meal in a wonderful space, but have a less than stellar experience, I do think you can look past that slight to appreciate the overall dining experience.

Now if you’re asking yourself what I could possibly know about high-end restaurants I must conceed your point.  I’m a public school teacher and graduate student.  Chick-fil-a is a wonderful treat!  That being said, I do stand by the analogy and would argue that the big picture makes the details important pieces and a group of exceptional individuals acting independently will consistently struggle to produce a great end product without some cohesive vision.  This concept matters in higher education.

Gardner Campbell introduces his article Networked Learning as Experiential Learning by generally asking the question about the purpose of higher education.  While I’m not sure he arrives at an actual point, he does seem to imply there needs to be some balance between preparing students for vocational work and increasing the “humane capacities” of students.  This question has a much larger social context that I’d like to briefly explore as a pathway to understanding the role of networked learning within the structure of higher education.

First, if the goal of higher education was ever to solely increase the intellectual and social attributes of individuals, that time has passed.  Higher education is widely seen as the “yellow brick road” towards economic stability and personal fulfillment in U.S. society.  I believe that is to the detriment of both students and the institution of higher education, however, that is the direction society has adopted.  With 60% of college students graduating with some form of debt, and with an average debt of over $37,000, it would be neglectful of colleges to provide an education that does not prepare students for vocational work.  On the other hand, higher education does hold a certain level of responsibility in developing leaders who can rise above the current trend of political vilification at any cost to both hear and debate differing viewpoints on a topic.  So why not both?  Why can’t we expect institutions of higher education to prepare students for jobs and help them become better versions of themselves?

If that’s the big picture, then how do we get there?  I believe the answers lie in creating varied experiences for undergraduate and graduate students.  As we learned from baby George, learning doesn’t have to be the regurgitation of information gleaned from a lecture.  It can come through “real-world” interactions and experiences.  Creating those interactions and experiences can be a real trick for those working in higher education.  How do you make your class look like that?

One idea, amongst many it must be said, is to create authentic interaction that pushes us to improve as individuals by making us accountable to an authentic audience.  This idea is supported by academics like Tim Hitchcock, as well as authors Seth Godin and Tom Peters, in the form of blogging.  I think this idea has real merit.  The practice of self-reflection coupled with the accountability delivering to an audience demands will push students to do something meaningful.  This practice isn’t without risk.  The Internet never forgets and that could lead job search difficulty, but maybe that needs to be part of the learning process?

The more I think about this the more my conclusion is simply that higher education can do better.  We can better prepare students for vocation and to be decent people.  Is blogging the answer to that?  Certainly not in whole, but maybe in part.  Is there a single answer that will do this?  Probably not, but if there’s one that’s close it’s this.  More than likely the answer will be creative instructors developing learning opportunities that engage students in meaningful ways who understand that there is a bigger picture they are a part of and that their individual efforts are a vital piece of the design.

The Scientific Community and Networked Learning

In the world of science, there are few instances where a breakthrough or novel discovery are accomplished solely by individuals; some could argue that there aren’t any in history! The identification of DNA, though credited primarily to Francis Crick and James Watson, was an accumulation of the ideas, theories and experiments of many accomplished researchers. Jean Brachet, Rosalyn Franklin, and Martha Chase all held a hand in our understanding of DNA today. Researchers in science and technology fields have always understood the value of collaborative learning; by using information already gathered from others, new ideas are generated, allowing bigger and better advances in the scientific community. Today, more research-intensive institutions of higher earning are adopting a similar approach. Guided by principles of “networked learning”, nations are adapting a global collaborative approach to research. An article by Yojana Sharma(posted here on the University World News)  discusses the rise of global science system. The story states that the number of manuscripts with international coauthors have risen from “16% to 22%” between 2003 and 2016. The number of citations from international sources have also risen. The expansion of science beyond national borders is extremely important for its growth. By adapting others’ viewpoints and motivations, we can solve problems using means far from the standard used in one’s own country. We can tap into resources never once thought of to advance our own understanding of the world around us. The networked learning approach in the scientific community also generates a sort of healthy competition. In order to access the breadth of knowledge provided by the global science system, nations must bring some of their own research to the table. Doing so encourages researchers to provide quality information in exchange for access to global innovations, creating a feedback loop.

As with most movements, there are some obstacles in the world of globalization of education. Political leaders have begun incorporating nativism and nationalism into their ideologies. While there is absolutely nothing wrong with believing in and supporting your country, when you begin to shut out any and all ideas that aren’t generated within your borders, you miss out on new ideas and techniques previously unknown. Restricting free exchange of information in today’s interconnected society is a grave mistake and can potentially lead to more oppressive regulations in a nation.

Collaborative learning is an absolute must for growth and development, particularly in the sciences. If we are to truly to improve the human condition, make advances in technology, and evolve beyond our current selves, we cannot isolate ourselves behind imaginary borders, but reach out to each other and progress as the human race. As always, these are my thoughts and I’d love to hear yours. Give the article a read and drop some comments and let me know what you think.

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