NomadWarMachine

I’m reading Teaching Naked at the moment for a book group, Twitter chat, who knows what-rhizo thing with Autumm and some others. I like it. Here’s Bowen’s assessment of the supposed revolution caused by the internet age:

The point here is not that online learning is better, but just that it is here (9)

Exactly. For the most part it is the same old content repackaged in a fancy new wrapper.

Content, huh? #rhizo15 pals will know what I think of that,  so it’s good to see Bowen saying that:

It is at best a paradox, at worst appalling, that although we say we want to develop critical thinking skills, we structure most of higher education around delivery of content (20)

Right – yeah?  Technology can offer “an abundance of content”, as Bowen says (24), but it can do so much more than that if used well.

Technology also offers myriad new learning environments, multiple points of entry to every concept … (24)

Hey, rhizo15 – are you getting this? Sounds a bit rhizomatic, huh?

… in an age where information is abundant, quality and specificity of of information have become increasingly important

So if we use tech to build courses that are less about delivering content and more about helping people to assess the information that is out there … but you guys know this already, right?

Next time: how Bowen thinks apps are a metaphor for how education needs to change.

(note: if you are writing a post called “teaching naked” do not use that phrase to google for an image to accompany that post, eek!)