Category Archives: BPN Soundings

Responding to “Do Blogs Eat Brains?

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BPN Soundings

While in graduate school at Georgetown, I had one faculty member who, upon learning that I was a student of Russian and Russian Area Studies, noted rather dramatically:  “Cyrillic rots the brain!”  I guess old Cold Warriors never die.

Then this morning comes this post, found courtesy of the original Edupunk, Jim Groom.  Once you read past the zombie-related stuff (ahem), it is a fairly good explication of what blogs can do for you.  Not brain-rotting in the least, actually.  “They’re coming to get you, Barbara!”

And if you’re not already a reader of Jim’s blog or his Twitter feed, I highly recommend them both for ideas and connections related to teaching and learning in a network age, as well as A-list B-movie commentary.  Among other gems from Jim this past week:  news that the actress who played Barabara in Night of the Living Dead is now a communication consultant in Flagstaff.  How’s that for connectivism in action?!

This line of thought (connectivism and the undead) fed nicely for me into a blogpost I read this morning as well, from Gardner Campbell.  In discussing how today’s more complex learning environments require correspondingly more complex models of assessment, he notes that

Rather than proliferate crude measures of recall or reductive “normed” evaluations of various templated essays, we should think much more deeply and comprehensively about assessment. To do this, we’ll have to start with what it means not only to learn something in the sense of committing it to memory, vital as that is, but also to understand it, to be able to sense and articulate and share the structure of that knowledge as well as the conjectures and dilemmas that surround it and propel it into new areas of inquiry. We need to think about domain transfer, and ask what kind of learning fosters the analogical and metaphorical thinking that leads to conceptual breakthroughs. We need to think about the teacher’s theory of other minds, as well as the students’. We need to master strategies of indirection that empower each other to imagine…

In other words, through rich, digital means of “complexifying” learning such as blogging—at its best collaborative, reflective, and emergent authoring and creation—learners cannot and should not be zombies.  And neither should we.

psmith

If you are what you eat, then wouldn’t brain-eating Zombies be the ultimate form of constructivism? (there is a really cool idea for a viral video somewhere in all of this…)

The Web Is Changing: It’s Time to Dethrone the LMS!

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Do you know what bugs me about the Learning Management System (LMS)?

Well, a lot – but I will start with just two things. Whether you have noticed it or not, the web is constantly changing. Does anyone remember when they predicted that all colleges would have at least one class offered online through AOL?  What happened to that? LMS software updates have long production cycles – leading to out-dated “new” features appearing whenever a “new” version is released. The model is too slow to keep up with the web. Aren’t we on Web5.0 by now anyways?

Another thing that bugs me about the LMS is the name itself – one that is straight out of the business world from whence it sprung. Learning is to be managed? How about setting it free to explore and investigate?

Harriet Watkins and I (along with some covert input from Pete Smith) have been theorizing what a new LMS could look like if we turned the whole concept inside out.  What if we had Social Learning Environments instead of business-like management tools?  We have a few ideas that we are going to be presenting at the Texas Distance Learning Association’s 2010 conference in Houston – march 21-14th.

  • The Web Is Changing: It’s Time to Dethrone the LMS!Rapid changes in online learning concepts such as learning communities, personal learning environments, and complexity are driving a need to dismantle the learning management system as we know it. LMS systems and instructional design are in need of major overhauls and are in danger of becoming obsolete if they don”t evolve. Students need a place to connect and collaborate at complex levels rather than hide behind a “walled garden.” Two colleagues at UT Arlington will present a new paradigm as an innovative alternative to the existing LMS concept as we know it.

Come hear us talk about the challenges that LMS companies face, as well as where they could go in the future to address those problems. Be sure to stop by and say “Hi” if you do come.

If you haven’t been to TxDLA before, I would highly recommend checking it out. We’re going to be covering a wide range of topics from practical ideas to emerging technologies. There is going to be between 800-900 other distance learning practitioners gathered together to learn, network, and have a good time. Oh – and there will be Laser Tag this year 🙂

The Future of Education: The ABCs vs. the EFGs (BPN Soundings Version)

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I’ve been pondering an article called “Future Ed: Remote learning, 3D screens” for a few days now.  While this article covers some interesting geeky stuff (such as ocular implants and 3-D screens), there are also some great nuggets of wisdom in there about the notion that what we teach needs to change – along with our technologies:

Barker pointed out that with more tech-savvy learning, the curriculum will have to change, too. He and his wife funded a five-year experiment in Chattanooga, Tenn., to create a 21st-century curriculum founded not just on learning the ABCs, but also the “EFGs”: Eco ed (“How do we interact with the planet?”), Futures ed (“How do I shape my future?”), and Global ed (“What is my relationship with other human beings?”).

Each student had to learn a 500-word vocabulary in six languages and, in sixth grade, choose one in which to be fluent, including cultural knowledge. Physical fitness focused on lifelong sports such as tennis and golf, not team activities. Grade levels were kindergarten “through competence” — that is, when students accomplished all of the program’s lofty goals, they graduated.

Personally, I get more excited about these approaches to changing education than others.  The “death to the university” concept is too much “baby and bathwater” to me, and the open education movement is sometimes too caught up in hopeless romanticism (or unhealthy bitterness) for my taste. I don’t think people in either one of these movements have really thought about what would happen if they got their way.

Anyways, the article covers a lot of ground in 4 pages, so give the whole thing a read with an open mind. Assessment, socialization, and realistic school reform (i.e. ideas for change that involve educators keeping their jobs) are all covered.

This entry was originally posted at my other blog, where I went on a rambling tangent against the thought that universities as we know them are going away. Instead of bludgeoning anyone with that again, I thought I would connect the quote above to some of the ideas we have been exploring at UTA recently:

  • Eco ed – when most people think of ecology, they usually think of “green” efforts. That is a good place to start – considering how we can use technology to make our classes more environmentally friendly is always a good idea. But an additional way to think of ecology is how our classes interact with the greater subject environment that they are a  part of. How does your subject connect with the classes students had before? How will it prepare them for what classes are coming next semester? How do students apply what you are teaching to the house, apartment, neighborhood, or city that they live in? (Pete Smith will love that I am already bringing constructivism and connectivism in to this blog – or maybe he will comment on how I am making Dewey spin in his grave….)
  • Futures ed – To me, this matches exactly with what Dr. Mark Taylor has been teaching us about Generation NeXt for a few years. Students need to know what is in it for them. In fact, I think you could take the entire last teaching by Dr. Taylor and insert it right here. “How do I shape my future?” could also be translated in to “What is in this for me?” Students that can answer this question about your class will find greater value in what you teach.
  • Global ed – this is taking eco ed to the next step. What is going on in the world today that involves your subject matter? Chris Conway and Jose Tamez have been doing a great job with this in some of their Business Spanish courses by seeking out business experts from around the world. They interview these experts and then post the recordings of what transpires to teach students important global business concepts (the Ethablog by Henrique Oliveira is one great resource they bring in to their class). But even if you don’t teach a globally-focused subject, you can still find experts around the globe that are blogging and discussing your topic. Have your students visit those sites, maybe even have them leave some comments or interview some of the authors for class projects. The important idea is to get students to join the greater global conversation that surrounds your subject matter.

The one warning I have is that all of these ideas might be too much to fit in to every class if your department does not co-ordinate your courses. Take global ed for example – if students have to join a different site for a global conversation for every class they take every semester, it won’t take too long before they hit overload and just abandon them all. Maybe your department can come up with a way to hit the EFG’s from a department level – giving students a set of ideas and sites that they use over their entire degree program?

Note: This is modified version of mostly the same post that appeared on EduGeek Journal.