Archive for March, 2010

Live Blog SXSW: Universities in the “Free” Era

Very strong 101 lecture on new models for universities. I will post the video later (2 hours left on upload).

Major problems with current universities:

  • Change happens 1 death at a time
  • TENURE is broken: 6 years = tenure and then there is little to no incentive to keep learning
  • imparting sacred knowledge
  • gate keepers

Old school professors:

  • lecture with notes
  • drinking from a fire hose
  • 1 to many

New professors:

  • experience designer: guiding the students through interactive systems
  • Project manager: set goals and timelines (Brian: teach them to be PM’s)
  • Curator: helping students build the skills to search through the mounds of info online
  • Resource Allocator: Direct students to others for more information
  • Life Coach: Activating the students to take ownership
  • Validate: act as an emissary to the community promoting student and helping students find their connections in the community
  • Learner: listens to and learns from students (Rowe’s addition)

Ideas to improve the system:

  • Encourage team teachers
  • De-privilege institutional knowledge
  • reward failure (trying and improving is more important then getting the right answer)
  • Get rid of departments (? i am not sure i am board with this one)
  • Teach students to ask and answer questions
  • Contribute to the open commons! (more important the publishing in closed journals)
  • Hire people who get these ideas

Here is the talks description:

MIT, Yale, Stanford, and others put lectures online. Chris Anderson argues all university lectures should be free. From Academic Earth to TED, it’s free. So what is the value-add of a university education? What models of higher education will survive? How will universities leverage the social web to reinvent themselves?

PRESENTERS

Glenn Platt
Peg Faimon
PS: Could have been more interactive… for a talk on issues with the top down system.

Girls, Chess & Opportunity

Today I was told that the second chess class I will be teaching at Perkins has only two girls signed up, my daughter and promissing classmate of her’s in a chess class of 10 to 12 students .  The first session was similar this Fall with a 4 to 1 ratio of boys to girls.  Nearly 15 years after Judit Polgár made it to the #10 ranked chess player in the world, we are still living in a time where girls are not thought of as chess players or even given a chance to play to the game.  Judit proved that women could excel at chess and compete with the best of the best.
In the 3 years that I did private lessons in the Portland area I had not one female student.  In one house I taught a child 7 and one 10 both boys while their sister watched with interest.  When I asked her if she wanted to play, I was told by one of the parents she was not interested.   I contested this idea and the sister mysteriously ended up with an extra circular activity during future lessons.
This saddens me, the skills learned from chess are extremely valuable for anyone.  Learning how to master a skill of the mind is transferable to any academic endeavor and helped me make it through law school.  The focus, attention span, and concentration that it builds in younger students is valuable in reading and listening.  The logical problem solving and strategic evaluation of positions is helpful in project management.  While the ability to step through options is very similar to debugging computer code.
More parents of girls should serious give their daughters a chance to learn from and excel at chess.
Addition:  I was understating how good of a player Judit is, her CV says it better then I could:
“In 1991, I became Chess Grandmaster, breaking Bobby Fischer’s record as youngest grandmaster in history at the time. On four occasions, I played on the Hungarian men’s Olympic chess team, and we won a silver medal in 2002. I have defeated world chess champions Spassky, Karpov, Kasparov, Topalov and Anand at international tournaments, matches and rapid tournaments.”

Student …. :Google Search Type Ahead = 70% Debt

the screen shot says it all:

Top student searches top 10 include Loan, loan consolidation, loan forgiveness, credit cards, loans with cosigner, studentloan.com, loan calculator…  Only thing missing from the list is Usury.

Return top

Activist & Legal Scholar

Information Technology Geek, Free Culture Activist, Copyright & Patent Reformer, Privacy Wonk, Access to Justice Advocate, Disability Rights Exponent, Public Speaker