Posts tagged education

#Gamification13 assignment 3

Just submitted (a mod of) the 3rd #gamification13 assignment (I skipped the second). Using the teacher’s D6 framework for gamification design, I have described a project I am currently involved in and where we want to apply game elements to improve (or stretch the pedagogical horizon of) education in Latin America.

Stretching the horizon

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The Google generation: myth or reality?

Digital natives

Very comprehensive list that critically analyzes many of the claims made about the Net Gen, Homo Zappiens, Digital Natives, Millenials, or whatever the kids born in the 90s are called. What should be noted is that only in some cases, opposite claims are made, but in most cases, it is just explained that there is no clear evidence supporting the original claim. The research is published in 2008 and the sources they have used to do their analysis even older, so more recent insights will probably add additional proof. However, the list gives a good overview of the different claims used and shows that one should be careful in interpreting what is said.

Paper: Rowlands, I., Nicholas, D., Williams, P., Huntington, P., Fieldhouse, M., Gunter, B., Withey, R., et al. (2008). The Google generation: the information behaviour of the researcher of the future. Aslib Proceedings, 60(4), 290–310. doi:10.1108/00012530810887953

Many of the claims made on behalf of the Google generation in the popular media fail to stack up fully against the evidence (Williams and Rowlands, 2007, pp. 11-18). Over the following pages, we try to assess these claims on the basis of the very scant available evidence.

Confidence level: low [a], medium [b] or high [c].

    • They are more competent with technology[b] (see confidence level above). Our verdict: generally true, we think, but older users are catching up fast. However, the majority of young people tend to use much simpler applications and fewer facilities than many imagine.

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EdX Business model (by EdX CEO)

Through this Quora post, I came across an interview with the CEO of EdX, who, somewhere in the interview, explains his views on the business model.

Sramana: How does the money flow in all of this? Who is paying whom, and what are they paying for?

Anant Agarwal: We are a nonprofit, but we must be self-sustaining. At this point certificates are free, but we are exploring an option for paid certificates. Students need to pay to take exams at Pearson’s centers, and we should be able to get some of that fee to offset our costs. That is our equivalent of a B2C model.

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Just stumbled across this video I saw years ago, about the paradox of choice, freedom, and happiness. Makes me wonder, looking from my edu/learning perspective, the enormous choice of learning opportunities we have at our finger tips, does it increase our well-being? Or makes us lame? What does it mean for education? It emphasizes curation and sense-making, recommendation engines and filters. Within the open education paradigm, there still is (which btw is justified) still a strong focus on OER production and sharing. The next phase in open education will be focused on personalization, filtering, curation, and being able to make sense of this giant learning soup which is called the Internet.

Acquisition versus Participation: 2 Metaphors for learning

Sfard, A. (1998). On two metaphors for learning and the dangers of choosing just one. Educational Researcher, 27(2), 4–13.

Sfard

The modern university has forfeited its chance to provide a simple setting for encounters which are both autonomous and anarchic, focused yet unplanned and ebullient, and has chosen instead to manage the process by which so-called research and instruction are produced.
Illich, I. (1971). Deschooling society. New York. Harper & Row New York.