The TLTC (Teaching, Learning, and Technology Center) here on campus hosts a conference every year on Advancing Teaching and Learning. Jose Antonio Bowen is this year's keynote speaker (the conference is coming up in March 2011). He's well known for advancing his "teach naked" idea, which I've blogged about briefly earlier this year. The conference is soliciting proposals for workshops on pedagogical topics. I'm thinking along these lines:
Everything today is available instantly. No need for diet: get your stomach stapled. Can't wait for dinner? Microwave a burrito. Need an answer? Google will find it for you in 0.00024 seconds (along with a million other possibly related answers). Not only that, but now, with smartphones, you can get that answer anywhere. Want to watch a movie? Just click "order" on your remote control. No need to go to the video store anymore, or even to get off of your couch.
Studies have shown that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become an expert at anything. These same studies have also demonstrated that there are no shortcuts to this goal--even child prodigies put in 10,000 hours; they just do it sooner than most of us.
It stands to reason that people will take any opportunity to shorten that 10,000 hours, and with the availability of so many sources of instantaneous gratification, it seems very possible to achieve expertise in less time than this.
This raises several questions to me. First, as a teacher, do we embrace the new technology and teach to it? Do we try to slow our students down? Is the means what's important here (i.e., learning how to learn) or is it the ends (i.e., being an expert)? Can one be an expert without knowing how to learn?
Proposals are due in a few short days. I'll keep you posted if and when this develops into something. I thought it might be fun to recruit a panel and have some folks argue both sides of the question.
Everything today is available instantly. No need for diet: get your stomach stapled. Can't wait for dinner? Microwave a burrito. Need an answer? Google will find it for you in 0.00024 seconds (along with a million other possibly related answers). Not only that, but now, with smartphones, you can get that answer anywhere. Want to watch a movie? Just click "order" on your remote control. No need to go to the video store anymore, or even to get off of your couch.
Studies have shown that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become an expert at anything. These same studies have also demonstrated that there are no shortcuts to this goal--even child prodigies put in 10,000 hours; they just do it sooner than most of us.
It stands to reason that people will take any opportunity to shorten that 10,000 hours, and with the availability of so many sources of instantaneous gratification, it seems very possible to achieve expertise in less time than this.
This raises several questions to me. First, as a teacher, do we embrace the new technology and teach to it? Do we try to slow our students down? Is the means what's important here (i.e., learning how to learn) or is it the ends (i.e., being an expert)? Can one be an expert without knowing how to learn?
Proposals are due in a few short days. I'll keep you posted if and when this develops into something. I thought it might be fun to recruit a panel and have some folks argue both sides of the question.