donderdag 29 april 2010

How Teachers Become Online Superstars

With video coming to age in the era of Social Graph, I have been noticing that sharing experiences online is becoming really popular and easy. And what also seems te be growing is the appreciation of speakers online. The TED talks are an example of inspiring people sharing their knowledge and thoughts and it attracts a global audience.

This made me think about some of my favorite teachers. There are a lot of teachers out there that are very gifted, not only in supporting their students in learning, but also as speakers. They have the ability to convey their passions about a topic and I am convinced that many people choose their vocation because they got inspired by a teacher.

But what can we expect in the near future? Online lectures will become increasingly more prevalent. So more and more teachers will show up online. It's only a matter of time that the talents of these teachers will also be discovered and recognized outside the confining walls of the class. I would even dare to predict that within 5 years the first breed of Superstar "Youtube" teacher will be a fact.

I hope to meet them soon!

maandag 26 april 2010

Learning in 3D Reading Group

Usefull links


Twitter 

Tags: #lin3drg

Participants
Hans de Zwart, @hansdezwart, http://blog.hansdezwart.info
Ronald In 't Velt, @intvelt,
Victor Maijer, @vnmaijer, http://victormaijer.blogspot.com
Lawrence O'Connor, @lawrenceoconnr, hthttp://www.wisdomarchitects.com
Joost de Vries, @janjoostdevries, http://blog.janjoostdevries.nl


zaterdag 24 april 2010

The game is still the same

I have read some posts stating that the Ipad is a game changer for education. Educational change is being driven by many things, the Ipad might be one of them. With all of the tech stuff going on now, the focus is on the here and now. People seem to over emphasize their own contemporary experiences. Bill Gates once said: "We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten. Don't let yourself be lulled into inaction."

I want to put things in perspective. In my opinion the education game is changing, but we don't need to thank Apple's Ipad for that.

Let's go back in history for a bit. In the 19th century the game was changing because society was changing. Livelihoods were disrupted and communities were scattered because of industrialization. People were migrating into cities leaving their home towns and villages. Times were changing and so was education. Education wasn't focussed on needs or skills and knowledge, but was meant to civilize the people. So education adapted to that new reality. Large numbers of people needed to be taught basic literacy with a now scarce commodity. That resulted in the inception of the system of education that still is prevalent today, class based education, but is failing big time now!

We live in a the age of globalisation. We live in a borderless world and that applies to information and communication as well. We work in multi-disciplinary teams based across the world. So if information is borderless and our peers are scatterd across the world why do we still try to fence of education?

Let's focus on the game again. We learn not as single individuals but as members of a group or a community or a society. Our knowledge and experiences are stacked. It's a shared /common knowledge, it's what we learn from each other, from our parents, our neighbors. The way we learn reflects the way we live.

Basicly we need a way to implement a new order, borderless education, tailored to specific needs. No more classes.