I recently wrote a blog piece on the Creation Renaissance. One day I tweeted about it and the next day I posted about it on Facebook. I would have guessed that the Facebook posting would have generated more views, but for all three; pageviews, visits and unique visitors, the tweet brought in slightly more people. Of course there is some overlap of users, but I have to say that I don’t think there is a whole lot.
100 years ago and prior, people knew how to do things. Sears, Roebucks and Co. sold kits to build your own homes. They delivered the plans and the materials to your lot, and you built it. People could eat off the land. Even those working in a factory might only bring a bowl and fork for lunch, and eat greens that they would pick off the surrounding property at lunch time.
Up until recently (and really most people still fall into this category), we modern society humans haven’t known how to do much. We would probably starve to death with edible plants growing in our own back yards. If, left in the woods, successfully building a shelter might depend on whether you had watched a season of Survivor or some other “left in the woods naked” reality TV show. (And really, how do you think that would really work out?)
Why has this happened? Why this dumbing down of the people? One reason may have to do with how much money it takes to get by. Another reason may have to do with the manufacturing requirements of an overpopulated society. Consumerism certainly doesn’t help. But something seems to be changing.
Now that all the knowledge of the world is so easily accessible, and answers are all around us – people can, and need to, learn how to do, make, tinker and innovate again. There are so many things to rediscover (not everything is innovation), mechanics, urban/vertical agriculture, textiles, 3d printing, woodworking, electrical engineering, — AND higher education is the perfect time to do it. Before you have a mortgage, while you still have time to explore, find your passion and discover the peers that make you tick! Some of these ideas could be the beginning to something wonderful, and some of those people might be the team that you go forward with to tackle challenges that face the world today. (Anyone interested in space elevators? Anyone have a great idea to remove all that space junk?)
Students don’t need to sit down and listen anymore for hours on end. They need to hold tools. We need a bit more pre/primary school, the scissors, work benches, glue, and mess. If given the chance, we will amaze ourselves with what we can accomplish. There is a renaissance coming. Let’s make higher education be a part of it.
Ironically, bringing women into the workforce may have led to a brain drain in terms of knowing how to do more practical skills around the house.
“The shift continues towards becoming a creator society. Today, society is increasingly mobile and continues to demonstrate evidence that creation is gaining traction over consumption. The Maker movement, user-generated videos, self-published eBooks, personalized domains, and other platforms have all seen steep increases in recent years. Higher education is now in a position to shift its curricular focus to ensure learning environments align with the engagement of creator-students and foster the critical thinking skills needed to fuel a creator society. Courses and degree plans across all disciplines at institutions are in the process of changing to reflect the importance of media creation, design, and entrepreneurship.”
Margaret Schedel, Alexandra Pickett, Jennifer L. Adams
Chancellor Nancy L. Zimpher, Dr. Frank Mayadas
J.L. Adams
Dr. Margaret Schedel, Lisa Stevens, Jennifer L. Adams
Nancy Wozniak, Linda Unger, Jennifer Jaiswal
Carey Hatch et.al.
J.L.A., Lisa Stevens, Margaret Schedel
J.L.A.
Alexandra Pickett, J.L.A., Margaret Schedel
Chancellor Nancy L. Zimpher
full flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/74869634@N08/tags/slnsolsummit2014/show
Video Recordings: http://slnsolsummit2014.edublogs.org/mediasite/ and http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrSUIV-q1uFVD7Zg1Gn7Nfm55KPWPU3AZ
@jlabeatnik
warning… Not strictly work related. Also not a place to find out about my son. :).
Laszlo Bock, Senior VP from Google, responding to what he looks for in a new hire:
The second, he added, “is leadership — in particular emergent leadership as opposed to traditional leadership. Traditional leadership is, were you president of the chess club? Were you vice president of sales? How quickly did you get there? We don’t care. What we care about is, when faced with a problem and you’re a member of a team, do you, at the appropriate time, step in and lead. And just as critically, do you step back and stop leading, do you let someone else? Because what’s critical to be an effective leader in this environment is you have to be willing to relinquish power.”
WANT.
Did you know?
SBCapture not only does room based capture, but also has “Personal Capture” which can record the screen, webcam and audio from any computer, and “Video Ingest” which can take any supplemental video and load into Blackboard?
I’ll be presenting along with Meg Schedel at the SLN SOLsummit as an invited speaker. We’ll be talking about the MOOC “Introduction to Computational Arts”, which was the first official SUNY MOOC.
February 26-28, 2014 . SUNY Global Center . NY, NY .
The SLN SOLSummit, sponsored by the SUNY Learning Network (SLN), is an annual SUNY-wide conference specifically for online instructional designers, directors of online learning, and those interested in online learning environment support, services, and best practices.
The first Summit was held in 1998 as an annual face to face meeting of the SLN faculty developmentand instructional design team and the online campus-based SUNY instructional designers (also known at that time as MIDs) whose campuses participated in the SLN program.
Today, the SLN SOLSummit is open to anyone regardless of their CMS, SUNY, or SLN affiliation.
Click on the general info link on the left for Summit posts. Check http://twitter.com/slnsolsummitfor Summit news, status, and updates.
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The SLN SOLsummit has a 3-day agenda.
Day 1 (2.26.14)
Open to all regardless of affiliation with SLN or SUNY.
Day 2 (2.27.14)
Open to all regardless of affiliation with SLN or SUNY.
Day 3 (2.28.14) Special Event: Networking with NUTN
Open to all regardless of SUNY or SLN/CPD affiliation. Enthusiastic participation from SLN, CPD, and DOODLE members is invited.
