GRAD 5114

What is School For?

Seth Godin poses a question in his TEDx talk that I have been mulling over all semester: what is school for? I think we can all agree that a school isn’t just a building to hold students for the day; although, as Parker Palmer points out in “A New Professional,” “the fact that we have schools does not mean we have education.”

I am inclined to agree with many of the points Godin makes about how education may (should?) change moving forward and with the availability of technology:

  • Making lectures and course materials available online would give students control over their schedules, and the freedom to manage their time as they please. In concert with an expert in the subject matter– available either in person as Godin suggests, or online in real time– to direct questions toward, this seems like a promising model.
  • There may have been a time when memorizing information was necessary, but in a world where we have constant access to resources, this is an outdated idea. It is likely that students will, over time, memorize the important facts that come up repeatedly in their work but requiring memorization and regurgitation is unnecessary and ineffective.
  • Godin mentions “precise, focused education.” Products we purchase are customizable, we have precision medicine (kind of), so why not education too? I have some trouble imagining what exactly this would look like. I think of my undergraduate experience; I completed a degree with an interdisciplinary major, which gave me the ability to select courses that aligned with my interests. On the other hand, it failed to create a cohesive progression in my studies that students in established departments had.

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Open Pedagogy

After listening to the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast with Dr. Rajiv Jhangiani, I went looking for a definition of ‘open pedagogy.’ Though I wasn’t able to find one clear definition, it seems to me that the goals of open pedagogy are to engage students in their own learning, and to overcome barriers to education (e.g. cost).

In a TEDx talk, David Wiley says “teachers who are the best teachers, are the ones who share the most completely with the most students.” His point here is that educators should be open in sharing their expertise and experiences. After all, you can “share [your expertise]… without losing it.” Education is about openly sharing ideas back and forth, and collaboratively creating new ideas.

The use of open educational resources (OER), including open textbooks and open access journal articles, can substantially reduce costs of students. Students may find themselves asking: “After paying the high price of tuition, why is the information I’m supposed to be getting still behind a $1000 paywall?” Even worse, the additional cost may prohibit some students from being able to afford to enroll.

Traditional textbooks often get updated every 5-or-so years. Often for introductory textbooks, the new edition of a book might simply rearrange the order of the chapters, or add a few new figures– which probably isn’t worth the $150 price tag. I realize the need for updates can vary by field and sub-field. For fields that are rapidly changing, open textbooks may also be advantageous because they can be revised by experts right away instead of waiting five years for a new book to be published.

 

 

5 Rs of OER: retain, redistribute, remix, reuse, reise

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The Authentic Teaching Self

When I began reading Sarah Deel’s “Finding my Teaching Voice,” the very first line, in which she says “when [she] began teaching… all [she] knew about teaching came from watching [her] own teachers over the 16 years [she’d] spent in school,” resonated with me. I feel that’s the same mindset that I’m in right now– often thinking about instructors I’ve had in the past, and what they did that I liked and disliked.

I realize that I’m making (at least) two somewhat problematic assumptions in this line of thinking:

(1) That I should emulate those who have come before me.
Sarah Deel’s essay dives into this one. She ultimately comes to the conclusion that your teaching style comes from within. That being said, it can be difficult to sit down and answer, “who am I?” To complicate things further, I (and everyone else, I imagine) can be very different in different contexts. So the real question is, “who am I when I teach?” What parts of my personality do I want to accentuate as a teacher?

(2) That the type of instruction that I responded well to as a student is what others will respond to as well.
What I find most helpful or engaging in the classroom isn’t necessarily what others respond to, so trying to base my own teaching style off of what I like in a teacher may not be the best method. Students have different learning styles, and come from different backgrounds and with different skills. While it’s probably impossible to cater to every student’s style (although that may depend on how many students you have), I try to keep in mind that having some variety is important.

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Classroom Engagement

As we watched Michael Wesch’s TEDx talk in class on Wednesday, I found myself relating to his students. With each statement presented in the video, I thought back to my time as an undergraduate student.

I complete 49% of the readings assigned to me. 

Same.

I buy hundred dollar textbooks that I never open.

And then get $10 for them when you try to sell them back to the bookstore. By junior year, I had stopped buying textbooks altogether.

My neighbor paid for class… but never comes.

I’ve been guilty of being that neighbor in some classes.

Personally, the classes I enjoyed most have emphasized application. My favorite course as an undergraduate was biochemistry. I was so happy to be done with memorizing endless chemical reactions and start thinking, instead, about how different stimuli affect the human body. I was excited to share my thoughts on case studies rather than filling in bubbles on scantrons.

The question of how to engage students doesn’t always have an easy answer. I would say that students are most engaged when they can see the usefulness or relevance of their course material to their lives. This is easier in courses like the 20-student biochemistry course I took as an undergraduate, where instructors and students can get to know each other. But when I start thinking about how to keep a lecture hall full of 400 students engaged, admittedly I’m stumped.

I see similar challenges to creating engagement and meaningful discussions when using online platforms in education. The internet is amazing in that it lets us connect to practically anyone on the planet synchronously or asynchronously; and certainly the availability of online courses makes education more accessible by removing geographic barriers. However, whether online or in-person, the question of how to get students to engage critically with course material remains.

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