June 20th, 2010

[eel_grass]

University 2.0
This entry expands and elucidates on the preceding entry, which you should read first.

University undergraduate programs are expensive and, therefore, exclusive. Their mandatory courses of prescribed readings, tightly structured assignments, and firm due dates do nothing to nurture independent lifelong learners. They will be supplanted

Comments

Re: I'm for opening up education, but I want a blackboard

[eel_grass]

In your correspondence course, do you use Elluminate? It is an emeeting program that offers the closest thing to a blackboard that a student in Chile and one in Siberia can work on together. In addition to a voice conversation and an msn-style conversation, Elluminate meeters share a digital whiteboard that all of them can be drawing on at the same time. I think a math-specific opensource take-off of Elluminate could do much to address your concern. Alternately, Math Bars! There could be public places where University 2.0 students come to participate.

In other news, I think you would be very pleased walking into a grade three math class today. A lot has changed since we were in school and there now is an on emphasis walk-up-to-the-board participatory problem solving. I watched this TEDtalk the other day: http://www.youtube.com/user/TEDtalksDirector#p/search/0/NWUFjb8w9Ps and was bored silly because all of the "revolutionary" changes he suggests are already in place in good classrooms across the country.

Re: I'm for opening up education, but I want a blackboard

[ext_226448]

We use webct. I would be pleased to see walk-up-to-the-board participatory problem solving. It sounds fun and like a good experience.

I'm a Luddite. So, why do students in Chile need to work with students in Siberia? Are there not people they can work with in their own towns? Are they doing such specialized research?