Strands of Standards is an Anti-Pattern
Tom Hoffman, Tuttle SVC, February 3, 2014
Although Liping Ma's article is a critique of the reorganization of mathematics instruction, it offers lessons applicable to the redefinition of learning into the acquisition of competencies in general. Tom Hoffman summarizes it nicely: "Ma's argument is that American elementary school mathematics was profoundly but nearly imperceptibly transformed by the switch from what she calls a 'core-subject model' to a 'strand' model. The difference to Ma is that a 'core-subject' '...is a collection of skills or a self-contained subject with principles similar to those of the discipline of mathematics." Now a strand isn't the same as a competency, but the problem is the same. More...
Anant Agarwal: Why massive open online courses (still) matter
Anant Agarwal: Why massive open online courses (still) matter
Anant Agarwal, TED, February 1, 2014
This TED talk was referred to me by email and I viewed it on Saturday. "Through blended courses Anant Agarwal is pairing online education with face-to-face student-faculty interactions, reshaping the university campus experience." As I've stated before, my first experience with this sort of learning was in 1986 studying philosophy of mind with John A. Baker at the University of Calgary. The key isn't that it's active or self-paced or any other other things he says. More...
Share This With All the Schools, Please
Share This With All the Schools, Please
Glennon Doyle Melton, Momastery, February 2, 2014
OK, I really dislike this style of writing, but it is obviously appealing to a very large audience (this item from a couple days ago has 1277 comments as of this writing). And it contains some really good stuff in between the fluff and hyperbole. More...
The Sweetest Fruits are Further Up
The Sweetest Fruits are Further Up
Jason W. Dean, ACRLog, February 2, 2014
How often have I heard the expression, "go for the low hanging fruit." The point of this post is to say (and I agree with it), "Don't go for the low hanging fruit." Why? Because that's what everyone is doing. More...
The attack on our higher education system — and why we should welcome it
The attack on our higher education system — and why we should welcome it
George Siemens, TED Blog, February 3, 2014
George Siemens offers one of his better columns this week in the TED blog (of all places). More...
Learning Theory and MOOCs
Learning Theory and MOOCs
Norm Friesen, Learningspaces, February 3, 2014
This is an interesting set of slides from Norm Friesen on the past and future of learninga and of MOOCs. More...
Theories Related to Connectivism
Theories Related to Connectivism
Stephen Downes, Half an Hour, February 3, 2014
I write a short poist over the weekend highlighting the differences between connectivism, connectionism, constructivism, constructionism, and the like. The number of theories with similar names is confusing. More...
D & G and Connectivism
D & G and Connectivism
Matthias Melcher, x28’s new Blog, February 2, 2014
D & G stand for Deleuze & Guattari and relate to a nice comment from Cath Ellis: "The value of critical theory (from my point of view) is that it exposes things that the vast majority of us believe to be 'true' and 'factual' to actually be constructed and mythic." How is this relevant. More...
The market is dead: long live the market
The market is dead: long live the market
Adam Wright, Wonkhe, 2018/07/03
Adam Wright says it all in the first paragraph: "There is no evidence that greater competition between higher education providers will improve the quality of provision. This is the conclusion of the Public Accounts Committee’s (PAC) recent (21 page PDF well worth reading in its own right - SD) report into the higher education market. More...
Aboutness in imagination
Aboutness in imagination
Francesco Berto, Philosophical Studies, 2018/07/03
One of the reasons I favour a non-representational semantics is that I don't think we can really make the idea of 'aboutness' work consistently. And 'aboutness' is core to the idea of representation: we define (in language, say) the way one thing represents, or is 'about', the other. What this paper addresses in one of the problem areas for aboutness: the imagination. More...