Reading group notes: Innovation in education

Challenge-based learning  (Roger) – aim of CBL is to build 21st skills and  make learning relevant by basing it on real challenges to which students find a solution. It is multidisciplinary, collaborative, student directed and works best in a technology-rich environment.  The New Media Consortium carried out a trial with a number of US schools and Universities, which found that CBL does build 21st century skills, it engages students, and teachers felt that it helped students master the material. TheCBL website gives an overview of the key elements.

“‘… who might gain access to hitherto ‘unlearnable’ ideas” – nice phrase from part 1 of the blog post.

What are Learning Analytics (Suzi) – Puts forward the radical/futuristic idea that with the amount of personal data being recorded (videos watched, events attended, blog posts written, etc) and advanced data processing – formal qualifications might no longer be explicitly pursued. Instead some system would look at everything you’ve done and tell you that you are “64% to achieving a phd in psychology, 92% to achieving a masters in science…”

2011 Horizon Report – Four to Five Years: Learning Analytics (Suzi) – Overview with sensible coherent examples which are basically web stats/web personalisation applied to education. Seems an idea in its infancy.

Ambient learning cities (Suzi) – Learning doesn’t need to be a specialist activity – we can embed it back in our lives through the environments we live in. The only projects I could find around this were museum-focused, crowd-sourcing / crowd-curating collections. The RunCoCo project produces software and a process to manage this.

Suggested reading

  • All three of these short articles, plus one related article of your own choosing: Innovation in Education and Learning (Department of BIS blog): part 1part 2part 3