Month: December 2011
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Why online conversation cannot be the focus of a new pedagogy
One of the most commonly touted features of a new, digitally-enhanced pedagogy, championed by many plugged-in education theorists, is that education in the digital age can and should be transformed into online conversation. This seems possible and relevant because of online tools like wikis and blogs. There has been a whole cottage industry of papers and…
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Would degrees by examination revitalize university education?
A 14-year-old essay by Prof. Paul Trout inspired some random but related thoughts on university education: • Dumbing down college education, by grade inflation and lowering standards, can’t continue forever. The nature of education itself demands limits. At some point, a college degree will inevitably become meaningless, as many have said, and employers will need…
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On educational anti-intellectualism: a reply to Steve Wheeler
Suppose a student arrived at the age of 18 not knowing anything significant about World War II or almost any other war, barely able to do arithmetic, ignorant of Sophocles, Shakespeare, Dickens, and most other great writers, and wholly unschooled in the hard sciences (apart from some experiments and projects which made a few random…
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An example of educational anti-intellectualism
I’ve got to stop blogging quite so much, but I couldn’t let this pass without comment. One would expect Steve Wheeler, Associate Professor of learning technology at Plymouth University in England, to be plugged into and more or less represent the latest academic trends in education technology. If so, I’m a bit scared. I came…
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A short manifesto for schools: time to focus on knowledge
Ever since I was an elementary school student myself, I have been chronically disappointed with the American education establishment. Don’t get me wrong–I get along fine with most of the educators I encounter, who are good people and full of all sorts of good ideas and real competence. But I also believe a sickness pervades…
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On changing student beliefs
I came across a very irritating post in the Coffee Theory blog by Greg Linster, and felt inspired to respond. This began as a comment on his blog, but after a while it became too long for that, so I figured I’d just put it on my own blog. Greg, you actually seem like a…