[ED-TECH] Urgency

I apologize for my last message; it was insensitive. I have been so busy with other things that I wasn't thinking of the trauma being felt by the lay offs at the medical campus. Obviously the urgency level there is at its highest level. This is not a quiet, restful time to reflect, for people affected either directly or indirectly. I am sorry for not recognizing that on my own. Thank you to those who kindly pointed it out.

I am working hard to align myself to the new reality, to me, that we are not a university with a medical school attached but a medical school with a university attached. I was told that 2/3 of our income and 2/3 of our expenses are based on our medical school, including our clinical services. I didn't know that.

Changing this mindset is important for me. I think of the story of President Kennedy and the janitor at NASA. See http://goo.gl/i8MQ9 to read the story, if you don't know it. I want to know that instead of just helping the faculty at UM use technology to enhance learning, _I_ am working to cure cancer and do all the other amazing things happening at this institution.

When people ask me how I am I always answer "Excellent!" with emphasis. It is just as easy as saying "Ok" or "Fine" or "Getting by". It reminds me that I am doing important things and it is an honor and a calling. When people ask me what I do, I sometimes falter. I need to work on that and have some things that make me proud(er) when I say what I do.

- I am changing our future generations.
- I am helping to cure cancer.
- I am increasing the well-being of Miami.
- I am discovering new knowledge.

I will work on this list and, in the process, hopefully be more sensitive to the many associated parts of this wonderful organization, as I reframe my role and join with them.

Bill Vilberg - bill.vilberg@miami.edu, 786-250-2255

http://vilberg.com - Spreading seeds of education, technology, and more

[ED-TECH] Starting with Creation

Ed-tech List Members,

What a different feel our institution has now that the semester has ended. A few summer classes are in session, but nothing like the bustle of the semester. New sod has been laid next to the walkway between the University Center and Richter Library, now that the Farmer's Market is over until next fall. The music/law parking lot is closed, while part of the new circulation(?) road is being built and the parking lot is being reconfigured. The Student Activity Center (SAC) has sprung up and work continues in earnest. (Want to watch the SAC construction? Go to http://129.171.166.15/appletvid.html for a live video feed.) 

For most of us, this is a time for important/not-urgent activities. (See http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newHTE_91.htm if you are not familiar with the important-urgent matrix.) I posted a lengthy (for me) post on http://vilberg.com this morning. I am including it below, so you don't even have to go to vilberg.com to read it. It certainly isn't urgent, but reflecting on our teaching mission is important, IMHO. If yu want to reply back to the group after reading the article and my comments, just send your thoughts to ed-tech@listserv.miami.edu. No need to include all of this message in your reply.

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LINK TO SOURCE ARTICLE: http://goo.gl/oe1bs

If you have heard about flipping the classroom, read this article. If you have heard of Bloom's Taxonomy, read this article. If you haven't heard of either, read this article. (That covers everyone, right?)

I admit to a curious error when I first saw the image for this article. I saw "cheating" as the starting point. Of course creating and cheating only differ by one letter, and "r" does resemble "h", doesn't it? But now I am wondering, do some (many?) teachers/faculty see Google as cheating? 

We live in a Google world. With smart phones and iPads, the answer to most questions is available instantly, anywhere you are. They can use the facts before having to be told all of them. They can construct the rules, not perfectly or rigorously, but they can begin the construction of the scaffold of understanding, without all the practice and drudgery that we had to experience. Ask a question, and they have the answer immediately, if you let them use Google. How is that learning? They are cheating! 

We feel sort of cheated, too, since we had to memorize all the facts before we could start creating. Now our students can access the information and start creating immediately. Their creations are not the high-level research that we are doing, but the creation of the relationships of the facts, creation of the basic rules of our discipline, and creation of learning tools that can be communicated with others to help them learn all of this. 

How do we assess the attainment of the basic knowledge in our discipline? Normally we use low level testing. This article mentions having the students create an infographic. That sounds too much like fun. It isn't fair. Why couldn't I have learned that way. I feel cheated. 

So maybe I need to let go of my feeling that students can learn in this new way, that it isn't cheating, and that I was not cheated because I was born earlier and didn't have this opportunity. They are not mini-me and they will not learn the way I learned. Maybe starting with "create" makes sense.

This article was written by a high school teacher. I wonder, how will higher education react if/when more of our students come to us having "learned" in this way? How does our mission in higher education differ from the mission in high school, and does that difference affect this flipped Bloom's Taxonomy? This was a great article, for me. It generated far more questions than it answered. 

(via <a href="http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2012/05/flip-this-blooms-taxonomy-should-start-with-creating/">Flip This: Bloom's Taxonomy Should Start with Creating | MindShift</a>)

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Bill Vilberg - bill.vilberg@miami.edu, 786-250-2255

http://vilberg.com - Spreading seeds of education, technology, and more

[ED-TECH] New content on vilberg.com

Ed-Tech list members,

UM is about to see some serious changes, for the better, in Academic Computing (or whatever it will be called). A Chief Academic Technology Officer is being hired to head things up and report directly to the CIO. New positions will be created to build up this important area. New programs will be designed to partner with faculty involved in technology enhanced learning. It is an exciting time.

I have been posting to Vilberg.com almost every day, rather than cluttering your mailboxes with all the stimulating articles and ideas I come across. If you are interested, please check out what is being posted there. If you would like to receive it via email, just enter your email address on the Vilberg.com web page.

Bill Vilberg - bill.vilberg@miami.edu, 786-250-2255

http://vilberg.com - Spreading seeds of education, technology, and more