The article I chose is about Collaborative Learning and how the 20th century method of problem solving may be an incomplete model that, until the digital age, was not really questioned.
Dr.Cathy Davidson discusses terms such as Attention Blindness, Crowd-sourcing, and Collaboration-by-difference. The gist of her article is that when focusing on finding answers to complex questions, the educational system until recently has forced people to focus on 'regular systematic tasks' that are taken to completion.
Dr.Davidson says that big solutions are being missed because people are not being trained to look at problems from various perspectives. She cited the Apple iPod experiment conducted at Duke university, where Apple distributed iPod to all the students whose professors agreed to allow integration of the devices into their courses and see what new uses could emerge for using iPods. The result was an abundance of ideas for the use of iPods in education that not even the experts at Apple had thought of.
This article is a great example of 'out of the box' thinking. Relying on different sources of input regardless of expertise, age, ability, opinions or insights leads to greater success in finding innovative solutions to a large variety of issues.
Collaborative blogging projects had led to improved writing skills in students, and wider range of options for them to think critically. I believe we are doing something similar in this course with our blog and comment assignments. We may not be specifically looking for a solution to a problem, but we are developing a 'Culture of Collaboration' which, if needed, could be employed as a tool for defining new solutions to existing problems.
The only doubt I have is her desire to take the somewhat free form approach to students' grading systems. While I applaud the concept, I think it would require an exceptional level of creative ingenuity to put it into practice without risk of losing its' integrity
Great article and blog post. This was not one of my choices I made, but read it after reading this posting. I enjoyed the article very much and found some very interesting points from the work. I also agree that the article shows very solid examples of out of the box thinking. Something very much needed in this neck of the woods.
ReplyDeleteThe grading concept was very interesting also. Very liberal in a not so liberal industry. Many of us grade and evaluate our classes within a strict bell curve, which has it's disadvantages. I would like to know what my director thinks of a free form approach to class and student grading. For another day maybe...
Great blog Kevin! I always find the concept of ‘out of the box’ thinking to be very interesting. And I believe this way of thinking to be especially important here in Korea. I find most of my students to very linear thinkers. Give them something to memorize and they have no problem. Ask for some creative problem solving and they are like deer in headlights. I wholeheartedly agree with looking at a situation or problem from multiple angles and to get our information from multiple sources. Like you stated, collaboration and ‘out of the box’ thinking lead to innovation.
ReplyDeleteI too like the way we use blogs in our class for out of the box thinking and collaborative learning. I always thought blogging was a bunch of Narcissists who thought everyone needed to know what they're thinking. However, now I see it is a great way to share ideas and see what other people are thinking about subjects that interest you.
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