A new form of learning, remix is slowly gaining popularity as students learn by creating new forms of online content using existing content. Remix is the reworking or adaption of an existing work where the existing work is superimposed on other work creating active learning by the participators.
But rearing its problematic head in discussing remix are those twin imposters copyright and plagiarism. Dr Dale Spender argues that so called plagiarism is just part of the way student learn. For her remix is a new and fast way synthesising information. In remix students download text and music they take bits and pieces mix and match them and make something new out of something borrowed. But academics are out of touch if they clamp down on this, according to Dr Spender.
As education staggers to a new order of learning based on the often cited low attention span of its generation Y learners remix offers gamers and web users the ability to combine and to remix learning on their terms. Online communities learn through interaction sharing of information and creating alternative version of the original work while at the same time engaged in positive learning.
For educators, remix complicate the learning picture while offering some promise. What exactly constitutes a valid original work? What are the implications for how we assess and reward creativity? Attitudes about authorship are undergoing a radical change. Audience and author are sometimes indistinguishable for example, Wikipedia. For the young there ability to cut and paste a well phrased thought makes them claim it as their own.
Bright young things who remix content on the web consider themselves participating and borrowing content. Copyright begin to lose its meaning. IT merely provides tools for self expression. It doesn’t create genius. If we dismantle copyright the result could be the likely dismantling of the Mozart’s of the future.
For copyright there are creative commons sites that allow users to use material that is free of copyright permission. It attempts to circumvent the copyright conundrum by providing a middle ground between restrictive copyright and material in the public domain. The Singapore creative commons website is at http://creativecommonssingapore.wordpress.com/
Monday, December 8, 2008
Thursday, December 4, 2008
My Opus
Traditional teaching makes use of instructional learning. Teachers are active, students are passive and parents are happy.
Instructional learning, however, has become out of favour in recent times. In the UK more than one in six young people leave school unable to read, write and add up properly. Somehow this is seen as the fault of the teaching pedagogy. The new vocabulary is ‘student centric learning.’ Students construct. The teacher becomes the guide on the side heaping praise and supposedly everyone ends up happy, apart from the parents.
Two Australians, Shelly Gare and Kevin Donnelly have been critical about this direction of education in their country. They highlight the lack of instructional learning and that school measurement is more about outcomes that follow a prescribed syllabus. Bring back rote-learning, discipline, exams, grammar, spelling, phonic reading and the realty of objective truth, is their message. Teachers must be supported as teachers, not just facilitators.
After all rote-learning is still important. There is a core knowledge mass that needs to be learned, e.g. basic arithmetic and key facts which place other things in context. The problem is defining this core. We learn facts because the facts point to events in history and we seek to understand their significance to us. If we cannot remember them, we cannot make any arguments or draw any conclusions from the relationships between them.
John Seely Brown, an American visionary, has suggested a hybrid learning approach ie instructional and constructional where schools can teach essential knowledge and crucial thinking through traditional means, but this should be complemented with learning that focuses on getting students more engaged with topic experts.
The existence of Google, Wikipedia and online libraries means that there is no useful place in school for old-fashioned rote learning, according to Don Tapscott, because such information is readily available a mere mouse click away. A far better approach would be to teach children to think creatively so that they could learn to interpret and apply the knowledge available online. In other words, knowledge is useless as here is always an external source which makes information available quickly. But if you remove that external source you can get a bunch of people with short attention spans with an inability to retain facts. Surely, the desire for knowledge is part of what makes us human.
In the educational mantra student centric learning is the rage. It has developed as Gen Y students find they are faced with a complex chaotic world that is ever changing and unpredictable, where the things that have brought them here are not the things that will bring them there! The expectations of Gen Y youth include immediate results, preference for short term commitments, reluctance to do repetitive work, an aversion to reading books and a need for constant stimulation. Educationalists have answered this with student centric learning. Some go one step further to satisfy the whims of this generation by ensuring libraries avoid trying to look like libraries but reinvent themselves as life style centres which serve coffee and avoid trying to let slip elitist words such as ‘books.’
Ninety percent of sites visited by teenagers are social networks. They are immersed not in knowledge but in gossip and social banter. According, to Mark Bauerlein, they live off the thrill of peer attention. Shelly Gare has described this new generation of kids on the block as Airheads. Where celebrity matters more than substance and knowing how to PowerPoint is more important than spelling. But could she perhaps be merely reiterating no more than the age-old argument against change?
In a report of a 2020 vision for schools the UK government want the youth to leave school with functional skills in English and mathematics as well as understanding how to think creativity and take risk. Personalised learning using information related technologies is encouraged. The proposed learning models in the report is a combination of learner centred, knowledge centred and assessment centred learning.
Notwithstanding evidence that shows IQ tends to the norm more and more people are graduating from universities. Not everyone should be encouraged to see university as some ultimate utopia.
The reality is as most educationalists know that students learn in different ways. Not all can think creativity and fewer want to take unnecessary risks. Certain basic skills should be instilled in all young people upon leaving educational institutions and this largely depends on good highly motivated lecturers. Beyond all this many students do enjoy lecturers, classes and homework
Instructional learning, however, has become out of favour in recent times. In the UK more than one in six young people leave school unable to read, write and add up properly. Somehow this is seen as the fault of the teaching pedagogy. The new vocabulary is ‘student centric learning.’ Students construct. The teacher becomes the guide on the side heaping praise and supposedly everyone ends up happy, apart from the parents.
Two Australians, Shelly Gare and Kevin Donnelly have been critical about this direction of education in their country. They highlight the lack of instructional learning and that school measurement is more about outcomes that follow a prescribed syllabus. Bring back rote-learning, discipline, exams, grammar, spelling, phonic reading and the realty of objective truth, is their message. Teachers must be supported as teachers, not just facilitators.
After all rote-learning is still important. There is a core knowledge mass that needs to be learned, e.g. basic arithmetic and key facts which place other things in context. The problem is defining this core. We learn facts because the facts point to events in history and we seek to understand their significance to us. If we cannot remember them, we cannot make any arguments or draw any conclusions from the relationships between them.
John Seely Brown, an American visionary, has suggested a hybrid learning approach ie instructional and constructional where schools can teach essential knowledge and crucial thinking through traditional means, but this should be complemented with learning that focuses on getting students more engaged with topic experts.
The existence of Google, Wikipedia and online libraries means that there is no useful place in school for old-fashioned rote learning, according to Don Tapscott, because such information is readily available a mere mouse click away. A far better approach would be to teach children to think creatively so that they could learn to interpret and apply the knowledge available online. In other words, knowledge is useless as here is always an external source which makes information available quickly. But if you remove that external source you can get a bunch of people with short attention spans with an inability to retain facts. Surely, the desire for knowledge is part of what makes us human.
In the educational mantra student centric learning is the rage. It has developed as Gen Y students find they are faced with a complex chaotic world that is ever changing and unpredictable, where the things that have brought them here are not the things that will bring them there! The expectations of Gen Y youth include immediate results, preference for short term commitments, reluctance to do repetitive work, an aversion to reading books and a need for constant stimulation. Educationalists have answered this with student centric learning. Some go one step further to satisfy the whims of this generation by ensuring libraries avoid trying to look like libraries but reinvent themselves as life style centres which serve coffee and avoid trying to let slip elitist words such as ‘books.’
Ninety percent of sites visited by teenagers are social networks. They are immersed not in knowledge but in gossip and social banter. According, to Mark Bauerlein, they live off the thrill of peer attention. Shelly Gare has described this new generation of kids on the block as Airheads. Where celebrity matters more than substance and knowing how to PowerPoint is more important than spelling. But could she perhaps be merely reiterating no more than the age-old argument against change?
In a report of a 2020 vision for schools the UK government want the youth to leave school with functional skills in English and mathematics as well as understanding how to think creativity and take risk. Personalised learning using information related technologies is encouraged. The proposed learning models in the report is a combination of learner centred, knowledge centred and assessment centred learning.
Notwithstanding evidence that shows IQ tends to the norm more and more people are graduating from universities. Not everyone should be encouraged to see university as some ultimate utopia.
The reality is as most educationalists know that students learn in different ways. Not all can think creativity and fewer want to take unnecessary risks. Certain basic skills should be instilled in all young people upon leaving educational institutions and this largely depends on good highly motivated lecturers. Beyond all this many students do enjoy lecturers, classes and homework
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
RSS Feeds
RSS Feeds use push technology (coming to you rather than going to get it) to keep you updated on topics that may be of interest. For instance blogs and news items ie BBC education. However, there is no discernment generally available. If you only wish for articles about tertiary education you cannot fine tune the RSS feed for the BBC education website. One gets all types of education news items.T S Eliot’s great summary of the modern predicament: “Distracted from distraction by distraction”.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
I am not afraid of tomorrow, for I have seen yesterday and I love today.
Ways in which technology might contribute to personalising learning for students, according to a DFES 2020 report:
broadening the range of learning material students are able to access, either guided by a lecturer or as part of self-directed learning
enabling quick interactive assessments, for example, using ‘voting’ technology
promoting development of a broad range of knowledge, skills and understanding,in new contexts and with virtual access to experts
facilitating collaboration with peers (in the same poly and in other polys)
increasing the variety of learning resources, software and communication tools, through new media
helping polys to use a wider range of readily available resources and software to enhance learning, including making software available to students use at home
blurring distinctions between informal and formal learning – giving students the ability to choose what they learn and when they learn it
increasing motivation, through pace and variety
increased relevance, through greater links between students experience of poly and of the technology-rich world outside.
broadening the range of learning material students are able to access, either guided by a lecturer or as part of self-directed learning
enabling quick interactive assessments, for example, using ‘voting’ technology
promoting development of a broad range of knowledge, skills and understanding,in new contexts and with virtual access to experts
facilitating collaboration with peers (in the same poly and in other polys)
increasing the variety of learning resources, software and communication tools, through new media
helping polys to use a wider range of readily available resources and software to enhance learning, including making software available to students use at home
blurring distinctions between informal and formal learning – giving students the ability to choose what they learn and when they learn it
increasing motivation, through pace and variety
increased relevance, through greater links between students experience of poly and of the technology-rich world outside.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Worlds Funniest Joke!
Scientists in Britain have unveiled the world's funniest joke at the end of the largest study of humour ever. The LaughLab experiment conducted by psychologist Richard Wiseman, from the University of Hertfordshire, attracted more than 40,000 jokes and almost two million ratings.
Here it is:
Two hunters are out in the woods when one of them collapses. He doesn't seem to be breathing and his eyes are glazed. The other guy whips out his cellphone and calls the emergency services. He gasps: "My friend is dead! What can I do?" The operator says: "Calm down, I can help. First, let's make sure he's dead."
There is a silence, then a shot is heard. Back on the phone, the guy says: "OK, now what?"
Here it is:
Two hunters are out in the woods when one of them collapses. He doesn't seem to be breathing and his eyes are glazed. The other guy whips out his cellphone and calls the emergency services. He gasps: "My friend is dead! What can I do?" The operator says: "Calm down, I can help. First, let's make sure he's dead."
There is a silence, then a shot is heard. Back on the phone, the guy says: "OK, now what?"
The Guide on the Side
Truly great lecturers (as opposed to popular entertainers who are good for a laugh) are first and foremost active in research for otherwise their teaching will be superficial. They are passionate about their subjects and enthusiastic in delivering their classes. They really want to be in the classroom. They can inspire students and excite interest in what might appear to be the dullest of subjects. They have thought deeply about their course goals and prepare for class meticulously. They are always thinking about how to improve their performance. They do not simply impart information, which can probably be found in textbooks anyway, but seek to challenge students to think critically about the course material. They do not underestimate the students’ willingness to learn and to be challenged, but at the same time they have realistic workload expectations. They care for their students’ welfare. They set fair assessment and certainly do not seek to trick students in examinations. Most importantly, they have a sense of humour and don’t take themselves too seriously. On the other hand, for unmemorable lecturers, teaching is a chore, and they have few, if any, of the above qualities. Fifty minutes in their classes seems like an eternity.
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