Join us every Friday to see how connectedness shows up in “real-world” stories and scenarios. We’ll post 3 articles, blogs, or other resources that illustrate the power of connectedness. Of course, we’ll keep blogging away too. We hope you’ll stop back by on Monday, to see our newest post. And don’t forget to follow us on twitter (@Ice_Inst_Org). Happy Friday!
Learning That Sucks…in the best way possible
If you allow a robotic vacuum to work, it will get your floors cleaner than you can yourself. Likewise, if you create a student-led model for learning, and you cultivate it, your students will learn better than through the traditional, teacher-centric model. And learning won’t “suck” either.
Asking Tough Questions (aka, did I destroy my career?)
For almost 25 years I have seen colleges and universities fail when it comes to any kind of holistic approach to the student experience. It doesn’t matter if it’s on-ground or online, students feel disconnected. (Heck, staff and faculty typically feel disconnected…) When someone needs help, it often feels like there is none. When someone is poking around on a computer at 3am trying to find support, there often is none. Why? Because education is a people business. There are only so many hours in the day and only so many channels by which to communicate. Students, faculty, and staff can go hours, days, and sometimes weeks before receiving help.
Which Are You? Professor, Lecturer, Instructor or Teacher?
I don’t want my students to say that I lecture, instruct, or profess. Those are all so unidirectional, it makes me lament. This is one of the major problems with education today – the person at the front of the classroom (and it’s almost always at the front), spewing information upon students with an expectation that they will simply soak it all up and then somehow learn. They often talk instead of listening. They seem to inform far more than creating shared meaning (leading to understanding).
Professional Development – A Better Approach?
We will get our audience to do, as we show and tell, before reviewing and asking along the way. We will not only help people understand the nuances of critical (modern) learning research specific to Interleaving, Spaced Repetition, the Cognitive Science of learning, Varied Instruction, Generative learning, and Desirable Difficulties, but we will practice these methods at the same time.
Learning Is No Joke
Unfortunately, we have a lot of historical baggage to contend with, making real learning much harder than it needs to be. We have generations of practitioners doing the only thing they know how to do (that which was modeled by former instructors), despite so much research and evidence suggesting a major pivot is in order. But we’re getting there.
Taking the Critic out of Critical Thinking
“People change all the time when it comes to things that matter to them. They’ll change positions, jobs, houses, cars, or whatever matters for them, often at great cost. We’re wired to move on.”
It Isn’t Gaming The Higher Ed System…It’s Smart
From an educational perspective, I have never, in all of my years consulting, auditing, teaching, nor even admonishing, seen a 4-year institution with “better” teaching than a community college. In fact, many of the community college professors I know also teach at 4-year schools.