Heres whats great about an online resource, called MIT Blossoms, that helps high school students learn about science and math: It exerts its appeal through an unassuming but remarkably sophisticated understanding of what it is that students and teachers actually need. It’s an understanding that is directly at odds with the assumptions of most of the ed-tech universe. For example: Blossoms is not student-centered. In its Twitter profile, the program is described as teacher-centric—heresy at a moment when teachers are supposed to be the “guide on the side,” not the “sage on the stage.” The attention of students engaged in a Blossoms lesson, it’s expected, will be directed at the “guest teacher” on the video or at the classroom teacher leading the interactive session. Blossoms is not BYOD—bring your own device. When the Blossoms lesson begins, the lids of students’ laptops go down and their smartphones go off,” says [Blossoms founder and MIT professor Richard] Larson. Students are looking at the video, at the teacher, or at each other, not at their own screens. And Blossoms does not encourage each student to work at his or her own pace. The point of the interactive exercises is to have students work as a team, arriving together at the finish line. All this is blasphemy in view of the hardening orthodoxy of the ed-tech establishment. And all this is perfectly aligned with what research in psychology and cognitive science tells us about how students learn. We know that students do not make optimal choices when directing their own learning; especially when they’re new to a subject, they need guidance from an experienced teacher. We know that students do not learn deeply or lastingly when they have a world of distractions at their fingertips. And we know that students learn best not as isolated units but as part of a socially connected group. Modest as it is from a technological perspective, MIT Blossoms is ideally designed for learning—a reminder that more and better technology does not always lead to more and better education. Brilliant readers, what do you think? slate/articles/technology/future_tense/2014/07/mit_blossoms_educational_tech_needs_nothing_but_a_tv_and_vcr.html
Posted on: Wed, 16 Jul 2014 17:25:25 +0000
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