muraPOI: December 20, 2012

Do We Educate for Life?: This question raised by Nic Finelli is as relevant to my day job as it is to Common Core Standards:

“How will the Common Core Standards help children to learn how to learn for themselves, to be persistent, to be creative thinkers, to be aware of their surroundings, their unique gifts and purposes, and their roles in situations and life? How are schools doing this, or not doing this, and will it be done better with this new set of standards?”

And one of the things that frustrates me is that we’re going to copy and paste in the MOOCs we’re developing here and not rethinking what we’re doing for the medium and the outcome!

“May I suggest that what may be needed is not a better list but rather a paradigm shift of how and why we ‘educate'”

(Via +Esther Wojcicki, December 9, 2012)

Khan Academy: Great Idea- With One Glaring Hole: A great take on what’s “fashionable” (and “easy” to do). Daniel Rezac writes:

“The Khan Academy is not teaching concepts and ideas. Khan Academy teaches answers. 1 + 1 = 2 . The concepts and the ideas are really what we want our students to understand, not the rote knowledge.”

And then goes on to say:

“But one glaring hole has yet to be undertaken: context.”

Khan Academy cannot give my students the context they need to make most of the connections they need to fully engage in these videos, I believe. Context is key. Ever wonder why so many of those math videos are boring? You’re missing the context by which they occur in.”

And that’s yet another reason why I’m enamored of context.

(Via +Esther Wojcicki, December 9, 2012)