84 Matching Annotations
  1. Apr 2018
    1. the need for learning contexts that bring together in-school and out-of-school learning and activity.

      Definitely have noticed this in my first year of college anyway. More open discussions on what we learned in class, out of class. It's alway nice to have an out-of-the-classroom discussion, makes you notice the people who are passionate in what you are passionate about.

    2. offer engaging formats for interactivity and self-expression

      I wish I could have put more effort into my twitter. It's just a new thing for me, so I am still learning how to use it. The great thing about thought..is that I will still have it when the course is over. Definitely going to working on it this summer; keep on building my network.

    1. Without taking an open pedagogy class I would never have realized this about myself.

      I think there are probably 50+ year olds that still don't know how they learn...

    2. Five paragraph sentence structure

      I never followed to rules in essay writing, maybe thats why I always got a bad grade is essay structure. I just never thought I had to do it this way especially when I had more sentences to add to my five sentence paragraph.

    3. “I’m a 4.0 student I should be able to do this. It’s just a stupid blog post!” I remember yelling at myself at two o’clock in the morning when the post was due and I still didn’t have a topic. This mounted frustration produced a ‘screw this’ attitude that resulted in me just reading one of the articles and ‘writing something about it’.

      This is a very relatable essay. I really enjoy this one so far.

    1. a learner-centered  vision for higher education.

      Great ending. I love this last bit because it shows how focused this new learning approach is based on how the students want to learn. Also, and most importantly, shows how we have steered away from how learning really works; a never ending journey of curiosity and exploration. Something that is forever changing.

    2. Try, explore, fail, share, revise.

      Always how to do it.

    3. We can involve students in the process of curating content for courses, either by offering them limited choices between different texts or by offering them solid time to curate a future unit more or less on their own (or in a group) as a research project

      Research projects are always good. I know that it is important to gain/improve your skills with working in teams, but I really enjoy independent research. Thats just want I prefer, I can work in a group I just feel I can get better immersed in the project by myself. Maybe, thats because I've had really bad experiences working on a project in groups on a topic I didn't like. I've always liked it when teachers gave us the option to work by ourselves or in groups. One of the few time I felt like I was in control of my learning.

    4. Encourage students to apply their expertise to serve their community. Partner with nonprofit organizations to create opportunities for students to apply their research or marketing skills.[24] Or ask them to write (and submit for publication) op-ed pieces[25]

      I actually did this in my Career Exploration class. My group had to pick a societal issue to find solutions to the issue. Our professor gave us the resources to get connected with outside community partners who deal with our societal issue, ours was poverty. We had to come up with interview questions that directed the interview into how they help people in there low income situations. It helped us understand the problem at hand more and research jobs and other organizations that deal first hand in solving(helping) these people.

    5. Teach your students how to edit Wikipedia articles. By adding new content, revising existing content, adding citations, or adding images, students can (with the support of the Wiki Education Foundation[20]) make direct contributions to one of the most popular public repositories for information.

      Really interesting idea here. I knew that wiki was about to be edited by anyone...but it would be a really interesting assignment for students to do in-depth research on something they are passionate about and contribute their knowledge and what they discovered to a public audience. In a way, it might be easier for students who don't want the attention from their own blogs.

    6. Build OERs with your students. Though students may be beginners with most of the content in your course, they are often more adept than you at understanding what beginning students need in order to understand the material.

      Also, it would make students feel like the teachers really cares about their learning; that how they learn (because everyone is different) will be taken into consideration. When I was in high school I never actually thought the teachers cared to much on how we learn because everything is so standardized. If they only took the time and asked us how we wanted to learn and what we wanted to learn...I'm pretty sure if they did we would be so in shock we wouldn't even know how to respond. Some may not even know how they learn yet. That since everything we learned was pre-told to us in a syllubus at the begging of the semester.

    7. Even the simple act of adding problem sets or discussion questions to an existing open textbook will help contribute to knowledge, to the quality of available OERs, and to your students’ sense of doing work that matters.

      ...And the age old question, "why does this stuff matter; we are never going to use this in real life, will cease to be a question that is used in the classroom.

    8. When faculty use OERs, we aren’t just saving a student money on textbooks: we are directly impacting that student’s ability to enroll in, persist through, and successfully complete a course.[15]

      Amen! Preach it!

    9. Even though 67% of college students in Florida and 54% of those in British Columbia[14] cannot afford to purchase at least one of their required course textbooks, we more readily attribute their inability to complete assigned readings to laziness and entitlement than to unaffordability.

      Why is that?

    10. The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights[12] asserts that “higher education shall be equally accessible to all.” Yet, even in North America in 2017, “the likelihood of earning a college degree is tied to family income” (Goldrick-Rab).[13]

      Ideally, this is how it should be, the view the United Nations has towards education. I agree with this, however, in the U.S. our drive to learn has diminished due to the ever increasing cost of tuition. If tax dollars were used towards education more, like free tuition, we would have a highly educated and more advanced society.

    11. Mike Caulfield, for example, has argued[9] that while OER has been driving the car for a while, Open Pedagogy is in the backseat ready to hop over into the front.

      Nice metaphor here.

    1. open licensing to share their education and research resources?

      There research would honestly become more widely known if it was free to the public. That was, instead of having a small group of students/other researchers who pay a lot of money for the book be the only ones who see it. It would be a wide rage of people for all over that get to see your work.

    2. Open teaching provides individuals who might otherwise never have the opportunity to experience postsecondary learning a free and open chance to participate.

      With this kind of progress it will be interesting to see how education has changed and how interdisciplinary studies have evolved into the school systems. I have hope for the education of my future children.

    3. Faculty are also responding by voting to support “open access policies” at their universities (see http://roarmap.eprints.org), which typically grant the university the rights necessary to archive and make articles written by faculty freely and openly available on the Internet.

      Which is brilliant and what we are using in class. I also think it'a an amazing idea to have student submissions every couple of years. It can give student confidence in there abilities. Plus, also inform future newbies to interdisciplinary studies.

    4. Many feel that this represents a scholarly publishing status quo that is completely out of balance and that the researcher should control the reproduction and distribution rights to his or her work.

      Seems only fair.

    5. Why should we be required to pay a second time for the thing we’ve already paid for? Or worse—if every school district in your state pays to license the curriculum, you’ve now paid for it 250 times.5

      Greed, greed, and more greed. Money is the root of all evil they say. Yet, if it came down to it we would never give up an opportunity to make money in this economy. I wouldn't. Are government is made into a dog eat dog kinda world. I guess is the small changes that are the victories. I vote for FREE TUITION AND FREE TEXTBOOKS FOR ALL!

    6. Through these grants, state or federal governments commission the creation of these resources using taxpayer dollars. In other words, when the National Science Foundation gives a grant to a university to produce a pre-engineering curriculum, you and I have already paid for it.

      Wow, never really thought of it this way, mostly because I didn't really know where textbooks came from. This rages me.

    7. Open educational resources provide an immediate, proven way to make education significantly more affordable and accessible for students.

      It's the greed to make money off vulnerable college students. I get that people want to make money off of their research in but like this chapter said in the beginning; knowledge is sharing and the people who wrote these books are not good educators when they are charging $200 a book!!

    1. Instead of graduating with a comprehensive understanding of a single discipline like anthropology or economics, they graduate with a smattering of knowledge, spread across many fields.

      Isn't that what life is anyway? A whole bunch of information an knowledge gets thrown at you all the time and its up to you to decipher what it means. Either way, you will always have a scattered box of info in your brain. Does that mean we are not still intellectuals if we didn't dedicate 10,000 hours to studying a single subject?

    2. Interdisciplinary studies allows students to experiment and ask questions. It encourages them to follow their hearts and enjoy their undergraduate experiences. Learning should be exploratory and fun, exactly what interdisciplinary studies is trying to do.

      This whole essay really shows how the whole education system needs to be revolutionized.

    3. is collaboration possible without a common language

      common language meaning common understanding?

    4. An example of an attitudinal barrier is the political climate of the United States. Conservatives and liberals are divided by their points-of-view and they’re unwilling, or perhaps incapable, of exchanging perspectives. Each party represents a cultural identity and people choose a party based on their values.  To reinforce their values, people surround themselves with media that reflects their political views, creating a self-propagating “echo chamber.” The attitudinal barrier between democrats and republicans makes bipartisan compromise almost impossible.

      Really good example. Goes to show another area interdisciplinary studies are needed...

    5. As important as it is for there to be highly specialized scholars in every discipline, it’s just as important to have interdisciplinary students building bridges between ideas, creating cohesive, universal collaboration.

      It's a cool idea to have it where the people that only want to learn one discipline can do that and master it and then there are the interdisciplinary people who want to dabble in a little of everything. It makes education way more personalized.

    6. Knowledge is like a mosaic: every tile represents a scholar who has spent an entire lifetime exploring a single idea.

      Or 10,000 hours....

    7. Why is it desirable to be a “master?”

      Well, first thought is money to be honest. I guess you have to give one to get money so I guess at the graduate level you's probably value the importance of your education a lot more. It also so your seriousness in the field and or passion.

    1. Because at the end of the day, your opinion and your thoughts matter, and you need to make those important to you before they are important to anyone else.

      Well worded. I agree strongly.

    2. Starting with entrepreneurship, majoring in Interdisciplinary Studies has given me the confidence to create something of my own that may not be out there yet.

      Smartest thing to do probably as long it has the potential to become something.

    1. The question—“how do we do interdisciplinarity?”—is a rhetorical question because everyone is always already doing it. Now the question becomes: how do we combine interdisciplinarity and education to make learning more relevant?

      It can be hard for children who are in elementary school to understand the complexity of how everything integrates. So it makes sense from the ages of 4 to 6 they learn each discipline as its own thing. I just feel once they reach middle school is when we should start teaching this complex integration because then students are old enough to get an idea of what they are interested in and where their skills lie. If in middle school their were interest courses that lets kids explore different areas of discipline where they can sign up for classes merely to figure out if they like the subject or not. Middle school is never considered an important stage in school only to prepare you for how the high school system works. It would be amazing to even see this exploratory learning in 5th and 6th grade.

    2. If people want to be successful in life, it makes sense to understand the big picture, which is, in a word, interdisciplinarity.

      It's really amazing how the word "Interdisciplinarity" has so many meanings. I mean there is a dictionary definition but I feel one of the most important thing as an interdisciplinarian is to understand multiple meaning and come up with ones own definition that better helps them understand it.

    3. Interdisciplinary students are actively engaged with their education, involved with every decision that’s made. It’s all on them.

      yes we are! we've basically mapped out the rest of our years/months in college. I had to plan for the next three years. I even put exactly what directions and connections courses I wanted...I'll be really bummed if some of them are not available by the time I can take them. Either way, I have a plan of action. This responsibility has been the most I've ever had in controlling where my education goes. It's very exciting and gives me the confidence to plan other serious things in my life...when it comes time for that.

    4. Interdisciplinary studies is a disruptive ideology that takes control away from educators and puts it where it belongs: in the hands of students. “Work now, play later” sends the message to students that now is never good enough; that education will be relevant later. The goal of interdisciplinarity is to be relevant now.

      I haven't read the whole thing and I already want to send this to a friend of mine who is in a community college and is struggling with the fact that he "can't live his life right now" or is jealous of how other people his age and how they are out having fun and he's getting criticized for every thing he does in school because he can't find the motivation to put in the time to work on things. I'm not bashing community colleges but I feel thats a common feeling for students. Especially when they don't know what they want to do yet, or do and are pushed back by teachers who are not open to different ideas on teaching and education.

    1. One of the benefits of a common core trajectory is the sense of community it brings to education, a sense of community that some interdisciplinary students may not experience in the same way that traditional students experience it.

      That's why all teachers and departments should get on board. So everyone is on the same page of cross-disciplinary learning.

    2. Many students entering college for the first time are surprised by the way it changes their thinking, identity, and perspective. The unique environment created by residential college life is an incredible experience for most young, college-aged students. It’s such a transformative experience for so many people that it seems almost irrational to expect students to know what they want from it before they arrive.

      This, right here, speaks volumes. EVERYONE NEEDS TO READ THIS! If only there was some way for it to be broadcasted on all TVs.

    3. If students wander around at their own will, these educators argued, they may leave school with an incomplete or inconclusive education.

      That why we need to change the guidance we give students.

    4. For example, one of his most influential reforms was advocacy for a curriculum based on students’ interests rather than a pre-established curriculum. He believed that a student, by age eighteen, was old enough to select his own courses and pursue his own imagination (Zakaria 54-7)

      Exactly, explore your imagination and not explore your permanent career choice at eighteen. It really is an impossible thing to know exactly what you want to do. I guess back then there was slim pickings for career options.

    1. The most interesting part to me about social communities within disciplines is that “faculty members share common formative experiences…and appreciate a common canon of writings by the ‘founding fathers’ of the disciplines” (Repko 90). This caught my attention because the founding fathers in the different types of art and psychology have always interested me and I hold a lot of respect for most of them. It intrigues me to think that I will be able to belong to my own disciplinary community of art therapy and be a member of the American Art Therapy Association while also being a part of the art and psychology social communities on their own.

      I love the idea of disciplines being thought as communities rather than just there content. It's a nice idea to think that if you are exploring in areas of different disciplines other then your own, you will open doorways to new connections with people and can learn new things from them. It's like and ever continuing feed of knowledge you can gain access to from friends and co workers. Not just from schooling.

    1. Already we see much collaboration in medicine between researchers and doctors, but how much of it is multidisciplinary, rather than interdisciplinary as it should be?

      A lot of hospital say they are multidisciplinary. This is obviously true because there are multiple other fields in health care. I would assume though that many doctors have to come together to solve an issue that involves multiple departments. I think hospital work is a great example of multidisciplinary work and interdisciplinary work. Doctors have to be progressive and keep up with changes in medicine and how they practice medicine.

    1. If it ever seems as though the disciplines are scorned, the only thing we deem negative is their lack of integration with other disciplines. We see the roots of interdisciplinarity beginning to show in society and in educational institutions, and now we need it to grow and show its potential.

      Yes, I agree. I think that whether we try to deny it or not, interdisciplinary approaches to education are happening. It almost seems like a cosmic shift, and everyone has at least thought to themselves that it would be a better way to learn if you got to experience other disciplines..

    2. The great aspect of the twenty-first century is that mostly all disciplines encompass aspects of other disciplines creating a multidisciplinary approach.

      Some do. I think it all matters on who is teaching it and whether they are updated with the fact that you get more out of a discipline by incorporating other disciplines in the curriculum. I think that's why there is such a revolution on education now because some schools still teach with a single-disciplinary approach.

    3. Students get to choose what they want to study based on their own personal passions, unlike in the eighteenth and nineteenth century when there were limited fields of study.

      Yay for evolution! Am I right?!?

    4. “Harvard University, the oldest university in the U.S., graduated about 70% clergymen in the seventeenth century, 45% in the eighteenth, and by the latter half of the nineteenth century, only 10%” (Kaufman, “The History of Higher Education in the United States”)

      First in-text citation I've seen. Wish there were more quotes and citations in the first half

    5. An academic discipline is a field of study in higher education. It is field that is taught, studied, and researched in a college or university setting. Some disciplines have been around as long as the academy, while some have just blossomed within the last few years

      It's interesting that high school is not considered to teach disciplines..in this essay anyway. It's almost like your high school and elementary education wasn't considered education at all. More like this mandatory place you go to, to try and absorb the things that are being said to you. Only to realize at the end or your high school career you didn't learn anything at all. I seriously feel that as colleges advance there education that elementary and high school education evolves as well. If not, the transition from high school to college may be even more difficult for some.

    6. The most dramatic advancements have occurred in the 50 years leaving one to ponder how the academy will look even a decade from now.

      With how progressive Plymouth State is, I hope other universities are taking notice of our cluster programs. In ten years, if it keeps moving in the direction it is with open education and room to experience a multitude of disciplines. I wouldn't want my future children to experience anything less.

    7.  After completing the chapter, they would mail it back and request the next one.  There were no degrees awarded after completion, but it was a way for students to gain extra knowledge and skills.

      It's amazing how the drive to learn was so great people didn't need a grade or piece of paper that says they completed the course. They wanted to learn out of the pure curiosity of it. We need to get back to that. To want to learn without the satisfaction from a letter grade, but to get the satisfaction out of ourselves from the fact that we learned something new.

    8. In 1869, Charles Eliot (21st president of Harvard) gave a speech stating that there is no best method or focus for learning, therefore Harvard will have them all.  Today, there are 11 academic units that Harvard has to offer including the prominent Business, Law and Medical programs.

      ..."have them all" yet they only have 11 academic units? doesn't seem like a lot for such a prestigous school like Harvard.

  2. Mar 2018
    1. . At the global level, this implies a wide range of disciplinary and interdisciplinary educational programs. At the institutional level, this implies encouraging students to take at least one consciously integrative course.

      Or have all classes be intergrated into a coherent and understandable flow of knowledge. Something that all students could take part in and remember the joy of learning.

    2. The case for interdisciplinary education, it seems to me, is not as straightforward as its knowledge and research counterparts. Because educational philosophies are shaped in part by ideology, intuition, and aesthetics, the controversy about the extent, timing, and need for holistic education may well be irresolvable.

      It's kind of like teaching people to be more intuitive and or use there intuituon. Which should already be a naturally occurring thing. But we have defiantly lost our intuition from standardization of education.

    3. Despite the barriers and drawbacks, the foregoing discussion forcefully calls for a mild shift (in both attitudes and institutional arrangements) towards interdisciplinary knowledge and research. To overcome the negative sides of specialization, to retain its vitality, the academy must cultivate interdisciplinary knowledge and research. It must never forget that a vibrant community of scholars–just like a thriving ecosystem–nurtures specialists and generalists, diversity and interconnections.

      I wish everyone could major in interdisciplinary studies. That way no one would have to be so worried about what they are doing or where they are going. I am sure is high schools practiced this most anxieties about it would subside and student would already have an idea of what they are interested in.

    4. Interdisciplinarians, by contrast, are forever treating themselves to the intellectual equivalent of exploring exotic lands.

      A lifetime of learning.

    5. The modern mind divides, specializes, thinks in categories: the Greek instinct was the opposite, to take the widest view, to see things as an organic whole. . . .

      The greeks knew something we don't...Even though they had gods and goddesses, who are we to deny that they didn't. Smart people the greeks.

    6. Previously, men could be divided simply into the learned and the ignorant, those more or less the one, and those more or less the other. But your specialist cannot be brought in under either of these two categories. He is not learned, for he is formally ignorant of all that does not enter into his specialty; but neither is he ignorant, because he is “a scientist,” and “knows” very well his own tiny portion of the universe. We shall have to say that he is a learned ignoramus, which is a very serious matter, as it implies that he is a person who is ignorant, not in the fashion of the ignorant man, but with all the petulance of one who is learned in his own special line.

      So, basically everyone in there field of study is a learned ignoramus? Interesting...

    7. Ironically, in this age, one may know much about a subject and yet know little about its ramifications. I for one know decent people who know everything about the chemistry of CFCs and nothing about the ozone layer (Nissani, 1996); everything about internal combustion engines and nothing about global warming; everything about minimum wage legislation and nothing about poverty. Compartmentalization, besides lack of education, is the enemy; an enemy that can only be conquered through holistic scholarship and education:

      I think this stresses the importance of interdisciplinarity in all forms of educations. Since we are realizing this more and more hopefully it will lead to the evolution of humanity as a whole, as well.

    8. Bertrand Russell’s (1960, p. xv) characterization of politics may still merit our attention: “It is the custom among those who are called ‘practical’ men,” he says, “to condemn any man capable of a wide survey as a visionary: no man is thought worthy of a voice in politics unless he ignores or does not know nine tenths of the most important relevant facts.” Even well-meaning statesmen may err because they do not understand the technical, social, or scientific aspects of a policy:

      I feel this quote is still so relevant today. Many politicians err when it comes to holding true to their opinions and not considering other aspects. So, their view points become very narrow minded. I think thats why its very hard for people to choose between democratic and republican parties. Especially people who are independents.

    9. Suppose that you wished to understand the Soviet-American Cold War. Suppose further that you were interested in fathoming this entire conflict, not merely one or another of its aspects. A few years and a few bookshelves later, you might realize that most experts have failed to arrive at a self-contained portrait because they examined this subject from a single disciplinary perspective. An integrated approach, you might conclude, holds a greater promise of bringing you closer to a firm grasp of this complex subject than any important but one-sided study.

      Reminds me of film makers like documentary films. They get multiple perspective of the subject and leave you, the viewers to decide for yourself what the conclusion is. but they never seem to wrap the film up themselves with all those perspectives in mind. I would say that documentary can be very interdisciplinary.

    10. Regardless of the historical reality of unexplored gray areas, one point is perfectly clear: such areas include important topics which often require interdisciplinary research.

      This is an important point, to be able to bridge the gap between different disciplines seems to bring more opportunities into research.

    11. Crossdisciplinary Oversights: The gaps among [the social science] disciplines are much too large. . . .  As a result, many sociologists . . .[long continued] to draw their imagery of the Protestant Reformation from Max Weber, although professional historians have long since relegated his theories to the dustbin. In the same way, sociologists long continued to draw their imagery of primitive societies from Patterns of Culture far after the time when anthropologists had dismissed Benedict’s ethnographic depictions as quite misleading. In neither case does the rejection of the work deny the intriguing quality of the conceptual scheme, but it does brand the specific historical or ethnographic accounts as so fallacious empirically that the concepts would not be utilized without the most careful reconsideration. And, both cases serve to illustrate how the gap between disciplines has led to one of them relying on theories and data which are quite invalidated among the originating discipline (Wax, 1969, pp. 81-82).

      So...many...big words.

    12. Thus, if chance favors the prepared mind, and if preparation often involves grounding in two or more disciplines, then those who wish to speed up the growth of knowledge should promote, or at least tolerate, interdisciplinary knowledge and research.

      I don't see what the big deal is. It seems like the most natural thing to do. To be able to see into the perspective of other disciplines gives a less biased opinions and research. Makes way for less error. Is there really this much push back of the opportunity to learn multiple disciplines in schools that its trained everyone to think that doing so is unimaginable.

    13. It has become too easy to criticize esoteric research as narrow, detached, and trivial. Such criticism lacks an appreciation for the elegant way in which fields of study merge. . . .  Some links facilitate integration and thereby prevent specialization from becoming narrow-mindedness. . . .  We need to reconceptualize our model of disciplinary growth and specialization, adopting a more organic model that accounts for the intricate links among the many specializations. Our current mechanistic model divides disciplines into numerous blocks of specializations; it is inaccurate  . . . and misleading.

      This is similar to everything else we've been reading just with different wording...

    14. It has become too easy to criticize esoteric research as narrow, detached, and trivial. Such criticism lacks an appreciation for the elegant way in which fields of study merge. . . . 

      I agree

    1. Third, there is the epistemology of the discipline. This is tied to both content and methods. An epistemology is a worldview, ideology, or approach to truth and knowledge. For example, in math, the dominant epistemology is one of logic and objectivity.

      Can there be opposing views on an epistemology of a discipline. Like, where there is so much so that it is hard to tell what the actual world view is..unless the world view is that its undecided..?

    2. . For example, your disciplines may be primarily quantitative, using numbers, measurements, and empirical research to understand its content. Or your disciplines may be primarily qualitative, using interviews, case studies, and observations of human behavior to understand its content.

      I feel my program of Ecological Design contains both!

    1. Setting in Context: Sometimes we actually don’t want to carve a problem or concept into small bits, but instead want to see how something specific fits into a larger pattern or fabric.  This is called “setting the problem or issue in context.”

      This makes me think of what crime scene investigators do. Even though they know the bigger picture of what has happened. They have to look at all the small bit of evidence to fine WHO which is the bigger question.

    2. Drilling Down: Sometimes we break problems down into smaller parts so that we can solve it piece by piece.  This is called “drilling down” a problem. We can also think of breaking a larger whole into its parts in order to understand the whole more fully, and this is called “systems thinking.” Both are very useful for interdisciplinarians, since breaking a problem or concept down may help us see the different disciplines that are involved, which will then allow us to organize our research approach.

      For me the best example of this is to think of the fruit again. If you are trying to give an apple to a child it might be hard for them to eat but when you cut it into pieces its easier. It also makes me think of working in groups because when you have more in put into a problem you can break it down smaller to understand it better.

    1. Note that the amalgamation quotient says nothing about quality: in some circumstances, a plain mango will surpass all the smoothies in the world; in others, only a fruit salad will do.

      This is actually a funny way to explain different learning paths.

    1. Transdisciplinarity: This term sometimes refers to work that seems to entirely transcend the realm of the academic disciplines altogether. More helpfully, though, the term can be used to describe work in which academics, using the tools of the disciplines, partner with stakeholders from outside the university. In this sense, transdisciplinarity builds bridges across disciplines, but also across the disciplinary structures altogether, linking the academic world with the practical world, and scholars with non-academics who are working on similar problems or ideas

      I am really excited for my capstone course/independent studies/internships, because I want the most real-world experience as I can get. To transcend my major by making a career out of it. Now thats the college dream. for me at least.

    1. “Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?” T.S. Eliot once asked. “Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?” Colleges and universities must, once more, play a critical role in rediscovering that knowledge and that wisdom. Otherwise, they will resemble what Eliot described in a commentary on Dante’s Inferno, when he wrote to the effect that hell is a place where nothing connects with nothing.

      Very powerful paragraph. Honestly I knew my educational learning experience was important. But I never realized until joining IDS that I really should push my drive for life-long learning.

    2. Unfortunately, many of those student workers say that holding a job hurts their grades, as well as limits their choice of courses.

      Exactly why I find it so difficult to keep a job during the school year. I obviously care about my education a little more. So, if it's hurting my grades, It doesn't seem worth it to keep the job...and then I remember my tuition bill.

    3. And when people do not know how to question deeply, to separate fact from fiction, and to give coherence and meaning to life, they can feel a deeply unsettling emptiness in their lives.

      That's some deep stuff...

    4. … and none of these problems can be tackled using linear or sequential methods

      Of course, you can't just "wing-it". You'll end up with more problems then you started with.

    5. We must reform higher education to reconstruct the unity and value of knowledge.

      Exactly what I just said in my annotation above!

    6. I share this view as well as Jefferson’s optimism that societies become more democratic as citizens become more knowledgeable and cultured.

      Defiantly why it is important to not only have an educated America but and educated world. Some have forgotten the importance of education from traditional methods of teaching/educating.

    7. Instead of helping students learn and grow as individuals, find meaning in their lives, or understand their role in society, college has become a chaotic maze where students try to pick up something useful as they search for the exit: the degree needed to obtain decent employment. Today’s

      Ain't that the truth... Yes, I'm aware ain't is not a word.

  3. Jan 2018
    1. The web is a network for conversations, and if students still see their audience as a teacher with a red pen, then nothing changes.

      I was also curious about this too, starting up my own website. I can tell this class is going to be different, I just don't know how excited I am about posting assignment on the website...but either way I don't know what I am going to put on it period.

    1. multimodal writing to information science, knowledge management, bibliographic instruction, and social networking. Fascinating and important innovations would emerge as students are able to shape their own cognition, learning, expression, and reflection in a digital age, in a digital medium. Students would frame, curate, share, and direct their own “engagement streams” throughout the learning environment.4

      If we can use technology to our advantage why not? plus we learn how to weave through all the non-credible sources to find what is relevant and true.

    2. Yet higher education largely failed to empower the strong and effective imaginations that students need for creative citizenship in this new medium.

      Change is always happening. We see it everyday with ourselves and everyone around us. New way of expressing ourselves through anything even the internet always needs updating and it probably will again soon. It's important to encourage new things

    1. Too often, students’ work in these systems gets deleted over the summer months as schools aren’t in the business of permanently storing student work

      Many times, in high school, I would create something on the schools computers whether it be art or a writing piece and I would forget to send it to myself. Now, years later there are some things I still wish I had, sadly they are long gone now.

    2. the domain and all its content are the student’s to take with them. It is, after all, their education, their intellectual development, their work

      I'm liking this idea more and more, it's really interesting to see how everyone can not only personalize there major with courses they choose, but also personalize their learning style. Individuality for the win!

    3. students need a proprietary online space in order to be intellectually productive.

      Kinda like what we are doing in class...I see what you did there

    4. There’s some pushback against these proposals too, with arguments that restrictions on data might hinder research or the development of learning analytics or data-driven educational software.

      It's kind of a catch-22; we know the dangers of the web and should support such proposals if it protects us, but if it hurts our ability to analyze certain information that may be important makes it a tricky situation.