R&D Weblog

Calvin and Hobbes:Context

Mon, 20 May 2013 10:01:24 -0400

Calvin and Hobbes:
Context

Matt Damon to Teachers: There Are Millions of Us Behind You

Sun, 19 May 2013 10:00:57 -0400

“I had incredible teachers. And as I look at my life today, the things I value most about myself — my imagination, my love of acting, my passion for writing, my love of learning, my curiosity — all of these things came from how I was parented and taught.”

About 54 percent of graduate students report feeling so depressed they have “a hard time functioning,” as opposed to ten percent of the general population.

Sat, 18 May 2013 10:01:07 -0400

About 54 percent of graduate students report feeling so depressed they have “a hard time functioning,” as opposed to ten percent of the general population.

Eddie Huang: Me, Myself, and Why

Fri, 17 May 2013 10:01:19 -0400

From the Skillshare Penny Conference:

Ken Robinson: How to Escape Education's Death Valley

Thu, 16 May 2013 10:00:56 -0400

There’s a new TED talk from Ken Robinson:

Also, check out Ken Robinson’s curated playlist of 10 TED talks on education:

http://www.ted.com/playlists/124/ken_robinson_10_talks_on_educ.html

THNKR: The Future of Learning

Wed, 15 May 2013 10:01:00 -0400

THNKR is hosting a panel event with The 92nd Street Y in New York City on May 21!

PANELISTS
Abigail Besdin, SKILLSHARE
Joe Hall, GHETTO FILM SCHOOL
Jake Schwartz, GENERAL ASSEMBLY
Joel Rose, NEW CLASSROOMS INNOVATION PARTNERS

Moderated by New York Times journalist LAURA PAPPANO.

Meet the other panelists: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=…

Abigail Besdin from the education team at Skillshare talks about Skillshare’s history, the future of education, and the role she sees Skillshare seeks to play in that future.

Learn a new skill at Skillshare: http://www.skillshare.com/

Joe Hall is the president and founder of Ghetto Film School, a non-profit organization that seeks to give a creative education to those who might otherwise not receive one through teaching film classes and establishing mentorships between kids and professionals in New York City.

Check-out Ghetto Film School here: http://ghettofilm.org/

Joel Rose is the co-founder and CEO of New Classrooms, a non-profit organization that is re-imagining and innovating the classroom experience to cater to and address the needs of each student.

Check-out New Classrooms here: http://www.newclassrooms.org/

ABOUT THE EVENT

What is the state of learning in the 21st Century? Virtual education, MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) and peer-to-peer learning communities have the potential to completely reinvent the classroom, and more importantly how we educate humanity across the globe.

More and more, people are self directing their education, and empowering themselves beyond traditional educational institutions. The definition of education is in a state of flux and the capacity for transformation is limitless. Will “education” as we know it become obsolete? What will the future of learning look like? Finally, can a new model of education make for a more just world?

The FUTURE OF LEARNING will bring together thought-leaders and academic luminaries to talk about how our society should think about learning and education in our changing world. The panel will feature those innovators who are on the front lines of reinventing the ways we learn, as well as the great minds who can make sense of seismic changes and the implications they will have for the world at large.

Created and produced by @radical.media, THNKR gives you extraordinary access to the people, stories, and ideas that are transforming our world.

BUY TICKETS: http://goo.gl/1aYo

Aasif Mandvi: Stay Out of School

Tue, 14 May 2013 10:01:46 -0400

David Foster Wallace: This Is Water

Mon, 13 May 2013 10:00:57 -0400

A great new video excerpted from David Foster Wallace’s brilliant 2005 Kenyon College commencement address. We miss him dearly:

“If you’re automatically sure that you know what reality is, and you are operating on your default setting, then you, like me, probably won’t consider possibilities that aren’t annoying and miserable. But if you really learn how to pay attention, then you will know there are other options. It will actually be within your power to experience a crowded, hot, slow, consumer-hell type situation as not only meaningful, but sacred, on fire with the same force that made the stars: love, fellowship, the mystical oneness of all things deep down.

“Not that that mystical stuff is necessarily true. The only thing that’s capital-T True is that you get to decide how you’re gonna try to see it.

“This, I submit, is the freedom of a real education, of learning how to be well-adjusted. You get to consciously decide what has meaning and what doesn’t. You get to decide what to worship.”

You can read the full speech here, or listen to the original speech here, courtesy of the wonderful Open Culture. (Or, if you want to pay $10, Hachette Book Group has made the unscrupulous decision to make money off the virtually cost-free digital distribution of the public speech given by the now-deceased writer on their site here).

imagininglearning: Use your voice to change the world! Follow...

Sun, 12 May 2013 10:10:10 -0400

imagininglearning:

Use your voice to change the world!

Follow Imagining Learning to help Young People use their Voice to Change Education!

Stefan G. Bucher:How Are You Educating Yourself?

Fri, 10 May 2013 10:01:24 -0400

Stefan G. Bucher:
How Are You Educating Yourself?

Richard Feynman on Curiosity

Tue, 07 May 2013 10:01:23 -0400

Dale Dougherty: The Maker Education Initiative

Mon, 06 May 2013 10:01:08 -0400

From last year’s Maker Faire Bay Area (this year’s starts in just two weeks, on May 18):

“Forget the courses. Forget the test scores. Let’s look at what the kids [are] actually doing…The goal really is to figure out how to get making into kids lives…This is an antidote to standardized education. This is really authentic learning…”

–Dale Dougherty, Founder of MAKE and the Maker Faire

Read Dale Dougherty’s “Learning By Making” on Slate.

Staring At A Wall, Learning About Life

Sat, 04 May 2013 10:01:07 -0400

Staring At A Wall, Learning About Life

Education Cities: The City As One Big School

Fri, 03 May 2013 12:07:22 -0400

From Education Cities, an initiative founded by Israeli democratic educator Yaacov Hecht:

Education Cities – Vision

An Education City perceives the education system as an essential instrument for a citywide development, and the city as a central instrument in the education system’s development.

The city as one big school – An education city is a social educational network, a tangible network focused on the realization and development of both the individual and the city.

The Narrative & the local language – An education city authors a Narrative and develops a Language and a local way of life, all of which is founded on local strengths and leverage future development avenues.

Innovation – An education city is a central platform for linking the city to approaches of educational, urban and technological innovation, suited for the 21st century.

The art of collaborations – The process that takes place in an education city is dynamic and inspirational. Similarly to artwork, it weaves collaborations and gives rise to unique projects of the city’s people and various active organizations. As a result, a city climate characterized by social, local and environmental responsibility is generated.

Mission of Education Cities

To grow sustainable education cities both in Israel and worldwide, that will facilitate innovative educational and urban initiatives. Initiatives that are based on the development of areas of strength of students, residents and every public and private organization active in the city.

Pedagogic approach

We believe that the education system’s role is to support children’s growth, which stems from their own areas of strength. A child that discovers an area he or she excels in, will experience success – a necessary prerequisite for growth and for the capacity to advance towards areas of lesser strength. In order to support a child’s quest for strength areas, the city as a whole must transform into a school. Every enterprise, whether a theater or a soccer team, and every available resource in a child’s city can serve as a fertile ground for his/her learning. From this point on, the path is short towards strengthening a child’s cultural, local and national identity, which absence is emphasized in the era of globalization. Simply put, a child embraced by the city will reciprocate with love.

The city’s role as a learning field and as a source of individual strength
In an era where the world is only a mouse or a keyboard click away – home, neighborhood, city and immediateenvironment, become a central part of the componentscomprising individual and cultural identity. When faced with global uniformity, one’s perception of belonging to a unique place with an intriguing story, breeds a sense of identification and pride. And in order to leverage this local story and use it to strengthen the city’s people – adults and children alike – one must harbor collaborations between the various active elements in the city. Every city, very much like every person, has unique areas of strength and multiple growth areas. A city successful in linking its strength and growth areas with that of its students and population as a whole, will produce strategic and exceptionally meaningful growth engines. This link is only made possible by collaborations between the first sector (formal and informal education, welfare, employment, city planning, engineering, etc.), the second sector (businesses), the third sector (non-profit organizations) and the fourth sector (social business organizations) active in the city.

Tupac Shakur, Age 17, On School

Thu, 02 May 2013 16:10:00 -0400

skillshare: Our CEO and Co-founder, Mike spoke to Economist...

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 10:00:58 -0400

skillshare:

Our CEO and Co-founder, Mike spoke to Economist Events recently about new ways of learning and the future of education. Check it out!

Federal Student Loan Rates: Double, Double, Toil and Trouble

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 10:01:03 -0400

A recent New York Times article reports that a coalition of student advocacy groups has released an issue brief opposing a potential doubling of federal student loan interest rate, from 3.4% to 6.8%. The brief projects that the federal government will reap over $36 billion in revenue this year from heavily indebted college and graduate students. Meanwhile nearly 6 million students are in default on their loans, meaning that nearly 1 in 6 borrowers cannot afford to pay the extraordinary debts they assumed in order to pay for college and attain those purportedly valuable degrees.

The article says nothing of the private financial firms in this whole student loan business–a silence which is deafening, considering their enormous presence in the student loan market and their extraordinary influence over government policy on all matters financial. Many millions are spent each year to ensure that this absurdly unjust system remains this way, that students continue to be exploited by banks in order to secure the privilege of an education and a degree that seems every year less valuable as a means of securing a profession.

Myriad forces are conspiring, it seems, to expand this student debt bubble until it bursts. Meanwhile, we’d like to remind potential college students out there that there are a lot of other options, there are many paths to a successful and satisfying life and career without attending college and getting a degree.

The Center for American Progress released a report on the student loan crisis last year which contains a wealth of useful data. You can dowload the report by clicking right here, or on the image below.

And if this is is all just too depressing to handle, be sure to check the Onion article we posted yesterday, “Man Has Alarming Level of Pride in Institution That Left Him $50,000 in Debt, Inadequately Prepared For Job Market,” for a some dark satire that’s so true you gotta to laugh.

The Onion: College Pride

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 10:01:16 -0400

Man Has Alarming Level Of Pride In Institution That Left Him $50,000 In Debt, Inadequately Prepared For Job Market

The Onion nails it, as usual:

Calling his college experience “the greatest four years of [his] life,” 27-year-old University of Miami alumnus Mark Felder maintains a startling level of pride in his alma mater, a private academic institution that left him $50,000 in debt and completely unprepared for the current job market, sources confirmed Tuesday.

Felder, who graduated in 2007 with a bachelor’s degree in communications, reportedly exhibits a remarkable amount of devotion to the school that led him to flounder both professionally and financially, claiming that attending the university was “the best decision [he] ever made.” …

“Whenever I go back to [the] Coral Gables [campus], it just brings back all those great memories of my time there,” said Felder, who has been unable to utilize his $35,000-a-year education to land a job that could possibly grow into a long-term and stable career. “The nightlife is amazing, we have awesome sports teams, and the campus is practically right on the beach. And everybody knows UM has the hottest girls.”

“I’m pretty sure we have one of the top law schools in the country, too,” added the man who would be in a far superior financial position at this point and face more or less identical job prospects had he not attended the university at all.

Seth Godin: What Is Your Art?

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 10:01:39 -0400

HourSchool: What Have You Always Wanted To Do?

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 09:01:21 -0400

The Austin-based HourSchool has created a unique platform for learning, by encouraging individuals to connect with their community through the pursuit of self-directed missions. Achieving something you have “always wanted to do” usually requires learning new things, and thus each mission entails specifying topics to learn, and organizing or attending classes, workshops, and “happy hours” with community members to acquire necessary skills and knowledge. Like our friends at Skillshare, the folks at HourSchool believe that everyone is a teacher and everyone is a student, for life.

From HourSchool:

We believe the best way to achieve a goal is with a Mission.

What is a mission?

Each mission is a micro-community that connects passionate people working towards their individually-defined goals through in-person classes, workshops, and happy hours.

How does a mission work?

Here are the building blocks of a mission:

MISSION

A mission is something you want to accomplish.

TOPICS

Topics are knowledge or skills you need in your toolbox to achieve your mission. They are collectively, and continuously built by everyone in the mission.

EVENTS

Events are organized based on the topics, where people get together in person to learn with and from each other - whether through a class or a happy hour.

FOR EXAMPLE:

“I want the HourSchool platform to inspire people to aspire, aspire to be more, aspire to live the life they want to live, whatever it might be.”

–Ruby Ku, HourSchool Co-Founder

“We believe everyone can and should teach. And it doesn’t have to be the old school version of teaching, the big scary ‘I’m going to stand up in front of a room of forty people and give a lecture.’ It can be something a lot more intimate, a lot more social…I love what happens in our classes when you have somebody who doesn’t necessarily think of themselves as a teacher but has this wealth of knowledge, and when they start sharing that knowledge, you can watch what happens as people kind of like lift them up…Our core metric for success really is turning students into teachers. A community is better off when its members are engaged, when its members aren’t just receiving but giving. A community is better off when they’re participating in the world around them, when they’re participating in life.”

–Alex Pappas, HourSchool Co-Founder