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Enhancing Life-wide Learning and Sustainable Development
via an Academic Course
ICOLACE 2012
Marion Ben-Jacob, Ph.D.Mercy College
Dobbs Ferry, NY USA
Involves technology Global in nature Sustainable development
◦ World livable and fair for all ◦ Differences and Similarities
Economic development Environmental responsibilities Social programs
Prepare students for future◦ Life-wide learning◦ Lifelong learning◦ Basic competencies in traditional classroom
Today’s Educational Environment
Needed for life-wide learning Needed for life Reading with comprehension Sound critical inquiry abilities
◦ Retrieval of information◦ Evaluation of information
Writing grammatically Understanding of basic math concepts
Basic Competencies
Educational
Professional
Preparation via a required freshman course◦ Format◦ Exercises◦ Projects◦ Suggestions for enhancements
Evolving Environments
Both social and active
Based on different opinions, experiences and discussion
Is ability to arrive at sound conclusions after giving rational thought to different sources
Need to prepare our students for the future
Learning
The US Dept. of Labor estimates that today’s students will have 10-14 jobs by the time s/he reaches 38 years old.
More than 1 out of 2 people are working at their current job for less than 5 years.
There are approximately 540,000 words in the English language; about five times as many as during Shakespeare’s times.
Startling Statistics
Estimated that 1.5 exabytes (1.5 x 1018) of unique new information will be generated worldwide this year, more than in the previous 5,000 years.
By their 21st birthday, digital kids (students with access) will◦ have received/sent 250,00 emails or instant messages◦ spent 10,000 hours on the pone◦ watched 20,000 hours of television with 500,000
commercials
More Startling Statistics
In 2010 Facebook passed 500 million users
Over 740 billion text messages were sent over carrier networks in the US during the first half of 2009.i.e. 4.1 billion SMS messages are sent daily, -nearly twice as many as sent during the same time period last year.
There are currently over 276 million wireless users
More Startling Statistics
Topics of specialization Basic Competencies
◦ Information is exploding exponentially◦ Need to continue learning◦ Move forward with progress◦ Fluent in
Information literacy Written and oral skills Critical thinking Qualitative analysis
How to Proceed with Education
Ability to research information from different sources◦ Interpret veracity◦ Interpret timeliness
Critical thinking◦ Analysis of a complex problem of issues by
identifying components◦ Ability to defend a chosen course or path of action
Information Literacy/Critical Thinking
Oral &Written Competencies◦ Focus on ability to communicate effectively◦ Convey Information◦ Present info clearly and concisely◦ Grammatical language◦ Appropriate vocabulary◦ Hear, interpret, evaluate information and respond
to instructions (oral competency) Quantitative Competency
◦ Ability to understand use of numbers and mathematics as they appear in literature
◦ Analyze statistics and graphs in a document
Oral/Written/Quantitative Competencies
Required course for incoming freshmen and transfer students
Addresses the issues of competencies
Underlying theme selected by professor◦ Pros and cons◦ Computer ethics◦ Geography◦ World explorers◦ Specific novel
Freshman Seminar- Critical Inquiry
Periodic quizzes, exams, papers
Weighted average of all the aforementioned
More concerned with summative learning than formative
Focus of course to provide student with leg-up in competencies so maybe greater emphasis on final project (at least 50% 0f grade)
Grading Consideration
Standard methods◦ Reading Assignments◦ Required Papers◦ Required PowerPoint/Presentations
More Creative◦ Digital Stories – short video with voice-over ◦ Educational Games
Engaging Students
Here are the answers to questions, organized topic-wise. You need to formulate the question to each answer, written in grammatical English. See how many questions you can formulate without referring back to the book. After that, you can refer to the text to arrive at the remaining questions.◦ Plagiarism
1.APA and MLA 2.Date of last revision and access date 3.Intellectual property 4.Promotion at work and time deadlines 5.Referring to another’s work that is in the public domain
◦ Licensing of Software Engineers◦ Responsible conduct of research
Freshman Seminar Jeopardy
The competencies that we are trying to reinforce this semester are: ◦ information literacy (search and select relevant
and reputable sources of information from the library and the Internet),
◦ critical analysis (read and comprehend material), oral presentation (organized and effective speaking),
◦ written presentation (organized and effective writing) (and our section sneaked in quantitative reasoning).
The Match Game
For each of the following activities that we engaged in, please match it to the competency (competencies) that it reinforces. Be prepared to defend your answers. Activity: Finding and retrieving sources on Mercy’s
database on a specific topic Reading chapter in e-book Answering questions at the end of the chapter Sharing responses in class
The Match Game Continued
Sharing opinions on issues in class Searching the Internet and evaluating the
reliability of sources found Answering questions posed in class- writing
the responses grammatically and then articulating them
Reviewing statistics Reviewing graphs Writing summaries …
The Match Game Continued
Pre and Post Course Assessment
Pre and post course assessment
Same question asked on both
20 students per class
Some do pre, some post, some both
Those who do not do post, were eliminated from chart.
Some post assessment lower than pre !!
Administration claims there is a positive trend over the years.
Conclusion- Assessment needs further work!
Statistics
Competencies needed for◦ Lifelong learning
◦ Life-wide learning
◦ Sustainable development
Conclusion
Changes happening at rapid rate and need to
be prepared; basic competencies are
profession-independent and goal-
independent.
Lifelong Learning
Setting goals that are based on research and
reality; critical thinking, information literacy,
oral and written competency.
Life-wide Learning
Need to research and evaluate situations
and make incisive decisions based on facts;
information literacy and critical thinking at
its best; statistics/graphs (quantitative
analysis) often included.
Sustainable Development
Are the foundation for success for the
individual and the global environment as well.
Basic Competencies
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