The first session covered the History of Education.
Facilitators: Marshall George @ LC, Kristen Treglia @ RH
Rose Hill
The Rose Hill group had over twenty attendees who discussed:
Online personas versus In-Person personas
Resistance to having students use electronic devices in class
Identifying what “digital literacy” is and teaching students about it
Getting students to think critically about media and technology
How to use technology productively in the classroom – what content do teachers provide in the classroom that can’t be supplied online?
Hybrid classrooms as opposed to all online or not online at all
Lincoln Center
The Lincoln Center group had 13 attendees who discussed:
Critiquing and better understanding the experience of taking a MOOC as a student (reacting to course load, requirements, videos, readings, assignments, etc.)
Reviewing the following quote and how it set the tone for the online class: “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.” – Alvin Toffler
Personal experiences where we had to Unlearn / Re-learn
The idea of “contemporary literacy” and how it might replace “21st century” – is it more timeless?
The importance of curation as a contemporary skill, especially in the shift towards helping more self-directed learners
The possible conflict between preparing students for the future and the traditions of our past
The question of do we teach via traditional ways to instill some prior values of education or do we completely change how we teach?
How the word “illiterate,” especially in the context of the quote above, was meant to be alarming
We’d like to thank all those who attended and especially Kristen Treglia and Drs. Marshall George and Elizabeth Cornell for helping to lead these discussions.
If you’re interested in more information, there is a short, 30-second tour of the course on Coursera.org.
Additionally, feel free to review the slides used during the session
The Information Age
5 Myths About the ‘Information Age’ by Robert Darnton via Chronicle of Higher Education, 4/17/11