Sometimes personal, sometimes a bit about science or math or politics or whatever.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
DIY U
This morning, I greatly enjoyed Community College Dean's takedown of DIY U by Anya Kamanetz (it's the "edupunk" one you may have heard about). I haven't read Kamanetz's book, but I already basically think it's full of crap, so I surely won't.
Given the huge number of college-enrolled 18-22 year olds who regularly don't have their shit together enough to show up to their classes or read the textbooks they've already bought, the idea that these kids are going to become educated on their own initiative is laughable.
It almost seems to me to parallel the problem with the overall explosion of data - the more data we have, the more we need people who can make sense of it and turn it into information. The more "free" (i.e. underwritten by universities) information that is available, perhaps the more we need people who are able to make sense of it and turn it into education. (This doesn't mean spoon-feeding, but drawing connections, picking out themes, organizing the vast quantities of information, deciding what's critical, what's good to know, what's not very important, etc.) College freshmen do not appear to be strongly positioned to do so.
1 comment:
Good essay.
Given the huge number of college-enrolled 18-22 year olds who regularly don't have their shit together enough to show up to their classes or read the textbooks they've already bought, the idea that these kids are going to become educated on their own initiative is laughable.
It almost seems to me to parallel the problem with the overall explosion of data - the more data we have, the more we need people who can make sense of it and turn it into information. The more "free" (i.e. underwritten by universities) information that is available, perhaps the more we need people who are able to make sense of it and turn it into education. (This doesn't mean spoon-feeding, but drawing connections, picking out themes, organizing the vast quantities of information, deciding what's critical, what's good to know, what's not very important, etc.) College freshmen do not appear to be strongly positioned to do so.
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