True learning has little to do with memorization.
Benjamin Bloom explained that with enduring clarity 60-plus years ago. His six-tiered taxonomy places rote recall of facts at the bottom of a hierarchical order, with real learning taking place on higher tiers when students apply, analyze, synthesize, and create.
Most Americans still see a four-year degree as important, but it is not at the top of the list of things that will help someone achieve a successful career, a recent Heartland Monitor poll suggests.
In the poll, respondents ranked technology skills, an ability to work with diverse groups of people, keeping skills current, and having family connections above a four-year college degree.
The School of Engineering at KU will open several new active learning classrooms this fall.
I’ve been involved in planning some of the summer training sessions for the rooms, so I’ve had a chance to explore them and see how they will work.
The online training site Lynda.com announced this week that it was canceling its lyndaClassroom program.
The classroom program allowed instructors to choose up to five online tutorials for students in a designated class to use during a semester. Students then signed up through Lynda.com and paid $10 a month, or about $35 for a semester.
I’ll be blunt: Blackboard Learn has all the visual appeal of a 1950s warehouse.
In terms of usability, it’s like trying to navigate an aircraft carrier when you really need a speedboat.
Learning matters.
That may seem like a truism in the world of education – at least it should be – but it isn’t.
All too often, schools and teachers, colleges and professors worry more about covering the right material than helping students learn. They put information above application. They emphasize the what rather than the why and the how.
At workshops for graduate teaching assistants on Monday, I shared one of my favorite quotes about education.
It’s from Joi Ito, director of MIT’s Media Lab. In a TED Talk on innovation last year, he said: “Education is what people do to you. Learning is what you do to yourself.”
After a session at the KU Teaching Summit last week, I spoke with a faculty member whose question I wasn’t able to get to during a discussion.
Earlier this week, I interrupted two students in a small room at Spahr Engineering Library at KU.
Microsoft’s Office software has long been the standard in business and education.
In a webinar this week, though, Microsoft showcased an online amalgamation of its software that looks very much like a learning management system.