Technology is the Answer: What was the Question? -: UNESCO Education
Education is one of UNESCO’s principal fields of activities. Since its creation in 1945, the Organization has worked to improve education worldwide believing it to be key to social and economic development. The Organization aims to help build a sustainable world with just societies that value knowledge, promote peace, celebrate diversity and defend human rights, achieved by providing Education for All (EFA). Its close links with education ministries and other partners in 193 countries place UNESCO in a key position to press for action and change. The Education Sector comprises some 400 staff members worldwide. The sector is under the authority of the Assistant Director-General for Education. Headquarters in ParisSome 150 staff members work in the Education Sector in Paris.
Modeling Social Media in Groups, Communities, and Networks
Vance Stevens Petroleum Institute, Abu Dhabi, UAE Abstract This article views social networking as practiced distinctly in groups, communities, and networks. Drawing from experience coordinating a teachers’ community of practice for the past decade, the evolution of what was initially a group into a community of practice is illustrated, as well as how social media enables one CoP to interact with others to become part of a distributed learning network. Participants in the networked communities continually leverage each other’s professional development, and what is modeled and practiced in transactions there is applied later in their teaching practices.Recidivism is a problem in technology training for education. Teachers can be shown how to use social media, but unless they use it themselves they are unlikely to change their practices. Living with paradigm shift Another incident illustrates this shift. A third token of paradigm shift is my new Kindle, which I both love and hate.
Why Things Matter
Essay critiques the ideas of Clay Shirky and others advocating higher ed disruption
Clay Shirky is a big thinker, and I read him because he’s consistently worth reading. But he’s not always right – and his thinking (and the flaws in it) is typical of the unquestioning enthusiasm of many thinkers today about technology and higher education. In his recent piece on "Napster, Udacity, and the Academy," for example, Shirky is not only guardedly optimistic about the ways that MOOCs and online education will transform higher education, but he takes for granted that they will, that there is no alternative. Just as inevitably as digital sharing turned the music industry on its head, he pronounces, so it is and will be with digital teaching. I suspect that if you agree with Clay Shirky that teaching is analogous to music, then you are likely to be persuaded by his assertion that Udacity -- a lavishly capitalized educational startup company -- is analogous to Napster. "In the academy, we lecture other people every day about learning from history. But what do you mean "we," Mr.
Designing a New Learning Environment 2012 | Designing a New Learning Environment
Sign up What constitutes learning in the 21st century? Should reading, watching, memorizing facts, and then taking exams be the only way to learn? Or could technology (used effectively) make learning more interactive, collaborative, and constructive? Could learning be more engaging and fun? We construct, access, visualize, and share information and knowledge in very different ways than we did decades ago. The ultimate goal of this project-based course is to promote systematic design thinking that will cause a paradigm shift in the learning environments of today and tomorrow. Course Instructor: Dr Paul Kim Paul Kim is Chief Technology Officer and Assistant Dean for Stanford University School of Education. In the higher education space, he advises investment bankers and technology ventures focused on e-learning, knowledge management, and mobile communication solutions. Teaching Assistants: Pamela Levine Shawn Kim Shwetika Baijal Leigh Anne Miller Gilbert About this site Just signed up?
