June 29th, 2009
In Wired magazine (June 2009, UK edition) there is a good list of sites for finding online education. It is becoming more and more obvious that information is available for free and that is extending even to higher education. For the industrious and curious soul there are plenty of ways to keep informed without paying now astronimical university fees.
ocw.it.edu is the “source that sparked the open courseware movement”. When the Massaschusetts Institute of Technology starts putting its professors online for free others start to listen (and learn).
academicearth.org hosts thousands of video lections from top scholars around the world.
owercommonns.org is a “major hub” for Open Educational Resources for Brittish institions and the Genome Reserarch Instititue in the US.
steeple.org.uk hosts podcasts from many top British institutions including Oxford and Cambridge.
royalsociety.tv is the host of its science lectures.
And please don’t forget the most recognized of all, ted.com, where you can hear and see lectures from some of the top new thinkers around the world.
June 2nd, 2009
http://www.hyperisland.se
Hyper Island is getting a lot of attention in Sweden and around the globe for its unique attempt to redefine approaches to digital skill training. It’s a post secondary program collaborating with the business world and helping students not only learn relevant skills but also connect and work with business. At least students don’t seem to have a problem getting jobs afterwards and the instructional methods seem to work.
May 26th, 2009
It’s sure a mouthload – but what is it? Well, basically it is the attempt to transfer motivation from outside forces (the teacher, curriculum, grades) to inside forces (owning my own learning). In practicality it means organizing learning in structured project groups where the students learn to plan, structure, analyze and present themes they themselves choose within the overall themes of school curriculum.
Most people associate the term entrepreneur with business. Sure, we need more entrepreneurs. But society really needs people in all sorts of positions and fields that take great individual responsibility. Schooling often does a very poor job of training this because it is asking the students to learn things that are not their own choice, not according to their own learning styles and in a time and place that they have little control over.
There are interesting experiments with another approach and two of the most interesting thinkers and practictioners in this area are Christer and Marielle Westlund who live on the west side of Sweden. Their site is in Swedish, but they will surely answer mail in English if you are curious. Among other things they can tell you how everyone in their high school class was able to support themselves before they even left school. There is no end to what students can do once they are given the right structure, encouragement, methods and opportunity. EL presents a very interesting and important alternative structure.
http://www.meuniveristy.com
May 26th, 2009
Yesterday I had a good visit with Hans Renman, principal of a new high school outside of Stockholm where all the students are equiped with Apple computers. Hans was able to plan his school from scratch with the vison of transferring motivation from teachers to students. The new technology helps, giving the students more control of what, where and how they learn, but, of course, it is a process for teachers and students alike to think differently. The environment was very unusal with lots of open spaces, meeting places and rooms of various sizes. The days are divided into seminars and project groups. With Hans passion, vision and obvious excitement I am sure good things will happen. Already the school is attracting visits from around Sweden and so far eleven different countries. It is time to look for new solutions to learning and schooling.
Sweden, where I live, is an interesting school country, partly because Swedes are good a technology but also good at humanistic values. That combination is rather unique and there is a honest attempt (not always successful but they try) for a democratic education based on the whole person approach and getting the students involved in their learning.
http://www.ybc-nacka.se
May 24th, 2009
http://www.uopeople.org/
Free (or small fee) online courses at university level in development by Shai Reshef, Israeli educational online pioneer.
Things are moving fast in the digital educational world, or maybe I am just in act of discovery. Here in my outpost in Sweden the cutbacks at the physical universites mean that in some fields students are only in physical classes about 3-4 hours a week. Okay, tuition free here, but still. There is certainly a good point to physically interact, meet and discuss, but soon we will wonder what we are paying those tuition bills for. Information is becoming free at a very fast pace.
First the music industry, now the publishing and newspaper industry. Soon the university industry?