THE IMPENDING DEMISE OF THE UNIVERSITY By Don Tapscott. For fifteen years, I've been arguing that the digital revolution will challenge many fundamental aspects of the University. I've not been alone. In 1998, none other than, Peter Drucker predicted that big universities would be "relics" within 30 years. Flash forward to today and you'd be reasonable to think that we have been quite wrong. University attendance is at an all time high. The percentage of young people enrolling in degree granting institutions rose over 115% from 1969-1970 to 2005-2007, while the percentage of 25- to 29-year-old Americans with a college degree doubled.
The competition to get into the greatest universities has never been fiercer. At first blush the university seems to be in greater demand than ever. Yet there are troubling indicators that the picture is not so rosy. Meanwhile on campus, there is fundamental challenge to the foundational modus operandi of the University — the model of pedagogy. The Many Challenges to the University The Model of Pedagogy.
Twitter Tips: for Teachers & Educators | eLearning Blog // Don’t Waste Your Time … Once people have found out I’ve been using Twitter for all of about 4 months now they think I’m an expert (I’m not, and do not profess to be) and keep asking me; what is it all about, then? Good question, and not one I’ve really been able to answer for myself, let alone answers for someone who hasn’t spent time trying different things to see if it works for them or not. So, in an effort to work through my own thoughts, and to provide something for others to benefit from, here are some ‘top tips’; Work out what you want to get out of Twitter.
If you don’t do this, then Twitter will be a waste of time. if you are an eLearning specialist, or you are developing new mobile learning (mLearning) technology, or you just want to talk to people who like to run marathons, then these are the kind of people you should be looking for. You can put a picture of yourself in your profile, use it wisely! Share and share alike. Use URL shortening service. Use #Hashtags. A guide to online educational resources. Teaching My Daughter To Code. First party of a journey of writing a Doctor Who video game in Java with my 9-year-old daughter. [Update: part II, part III and part IV of this story are available now.] [Update 2: Belorussian translation available now, provided by Webhostinggeeks.] Yesterday, my daughter Sophie asked me to show her how to write a computer game. She is nine. I am a computer scientist, and one of our projects is Greenfoot – a programming environment designed to teach kids (and older students) to code with Java.
I have often wondered how low in age you could take Greenfoot. So I told Sophie that we’d start making a game tomorrow. So here is my (hopefully continuing) diary of coding with my daughter… (Our results, live demo and source code, are at the bottom.) Over the last few days, Sophie had been playing Midnight Mansion, a platform/side scroller game. Now, Sophie is a big fan of Dr Who, a long running (and when I say “long-running”, I really mean long-running: the series started 45 years ago!) Wow! Free Homeschool Curriculum - Lets Homeschool. There are pros and cons to free homeschool curriculum. This article has information on types of free homeschool curriculum and where to find free homeschool curriculum. But is free homeschool curriculum really free, and is it of value? Keep reading to find out. Free homeschool curriculum can mean several different things.
What Is Curriculum? The word curriculum is used both to mean the entire plan of a course or subject of study, as well as the entire plan of study available at a particular institution or organization. This means that what you might find includes course plans, lesson plans, worksheets, literature, Types of Free Homeschool Curriculum With this definition in mind, lets consider where you might get “free homeschool curriculum". Substantive offers of free homeschool curriculum materials on the Internet include the following: Video Placement Worldwide (vpw.com), free print material and educational videos. . • BBC Schools - Bitesize - bbc.co.uk/schools/revision. Please go see “Waiting for Superman” – Here’s Why: Yesterday I went to see the film Waiting for Superman.
It’s the story of what’s broken with the education system in the US. It’s an important film and the most important topic of our generation if we as a country want to remain competitive in a world that has globalized. It’s a documentary including personal stories of people caught in the system. I’ll leave more of the human drama for you to see yourselves but telling you the premise of this film won’t ruin anything. When I watched the movie I’d like to tell you I was angry (I was) and that it made me verklempt but the truth is that the film brought real tears to my eyes that strolled down my face and I had to wait to wipe them away at the sad parts so my neighbors wouldn’t see me.
It’s crushing to watch little children in America who have the same dreams as my 5 & 7 year olds and not have the ability to lead a normal life because of where they’re born. Wasn’t that the American promise? The movie basically has the following thesis: Is TED the New Harvard? Reactions from Around the Web. My story has occasioned a healthy amount of reaction around the web, including from TED and Chris Anderson himself. First, the snark: Maura at The Awl (a commentary site run by ex-Gawkers) calls the story "breathless" and TEDsters "smug". Most of the commentators admit that they enjoy watching TED talks anyway.
I batted back with some snark of my own but also tried to answer what i took as her serious point, which was that TED seems just as elitist as the old-line institutions it's being compared with: "I actually think we have similar concerns about elitism vs. openness. My contention is that many of the cool things that TED does spread more widely than the cool things that Harvard does, because of its attitude toward openness and its use of social media.
Harvard has a crappy open courseware site–it's very difficult to find and view many Harvard lectures online. I responded: "I never claimed that watching TED talks=attending Harvard. Not surprisingly, I think this is spot-on. Where to Get the Best Free Education Online.