Technology can humanize the classroom

SPECIAL REPORT in August 2013 Scientific American
"Learning in the Digital Age"

There are a handful of articles in this special report. Here I have posted excerpts from two of those articles:

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ARTICLE #1
"No More Lockstep Learning" - By Salman Khan (founder of Khan Academy)

Some interesting, and exciting, quotes:

"If a lecture is available online, class time can be freed for discussion, peer tutoring or professor-led exploration. If we have the lecture removed from class time and we have on-demand adaptive exercises and diagnostics, there is no need to continue the factory model inherited from 19th-century Prussia-- where students are pushed together at a set tempo. Instead students can progress at their own pace and continue to prove their knowledge long after the formal course is over."

"They assume the virtual will replace the physical with something cheaper, faster and more efficient. In education, however, the virtual will create a very different type of disruption. Instead we have an opportunity to blend the virtual with the physical and reimagine education entirely."

"In this 'blended learning' reality, the professors role is moved up the value chain. Rather than spending the bulk of their time lecturing, writing exams and grading them, they can now interact with their students. Rather than force a sit-and-listen passivity, teachers will mentor and challenge their students to take control of their own learning-- the most important part of all."

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ARTICLE #2
How to make Online Courses Massively Personal - By Peter Norvig (director of research for Google)

Some interesting, and exciting, quotes:

"Our 'lectures' were short (two-to-six-minute) videos designed to prime the attendees for doing the next exercise. Some problems required the application of mathematical techniques described in the video. Others were open-ended questions that give students a chance to think on their own and then hash out ideas in online discussion forums."

"Our scheme to help make learning happen actively, rather than passively, created many benefits akin to tutoring--and helped to increase motivation."

"Online learning is a tool, just as the textbook is a tool. The way the teacher and student use the tool is what really counts."

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From Mr. Colby:

WOW...So much to think about in all of these articles.
First, I want to point out THAT MY OWN VIDEO LECTURES HAVE EVOLVED INTO 2-to-6-minute MINI lectures. What a strange coincidence. Also, I do NOT have the technological ability to make a full, AUTOMATED learning experience, but I CAN, and plan to, MAKE THE BITE-SIZE CHUNKS AUTOMATED.

Some ideas I have garnered through this: Over the next two years I can develop a bank of online resources (video lectures, Flash activities, and Puzzlers.... plus pull in other resources from the internet) for students to learn the traditional material. Then I can organize them online, like a MAP with LINKS. Then LET THE STUDENTS TAKE THEIR OWN PATHS, AT THEIR OWN PACING, through the resources that I have gathered for them. It would be a combination of "automated tutoring" and "self-directed learning"

These articles have helped to re-energize my efforts a flipping my classroom!