RSA Animate - Changing Education Paradigms - An Idea Igniter

Jean Grosser, chair of the Coker College Art Department, shared the above video with faculty in an email. This video is a thought starter on the entire concept of education and I hope some of us use it as a thought starter to the way we might even redefine classroom learning. There will be nothing easy about it.

I am finding a real convergence of ideas in having this video cross my communication environment this morning. First, I am in the middle of the new biography of Steve Jobs by Walter Issacson and Jobs is a concrete example of a person who took control of his own education. Was Jobs really that much more "special" than a lot of other children in our world? Next, I was reading a statement of teaching philosophy from my daughter, Dr. Eve Puffer and a couple of her comments are directly related to some of the ideas spawned by the above video. Third, I am thinking of days students in my classes become particularly engaged and days when nearly all seem to be somewhere else. What can I do differently to make the first days far more common in their lives?

One of the great things about being in a campus atmosphere is the opportunity for thinking about thinking and thinking about how we think and how we learn and how we can become better at both thinking and learning.

Sabbatical trip is going to be interesting

Heading to Muhuru Bay in Kenya to get an idea of what a smaller community in that country might be like. Going to be observing how it is different and how it might be the same as some of the smaller communities in the US. Eve, Dr. Eve Puffer, my daughter is letting me join her as she goes back to evaluate an HIV prevention project that she has been working on through the Duke Global Health Institute. Looking forward to this visit -- have not been out of the US for several years and this trip is going to be interesting. Hoping to meet with some university people to talk about potential for setting up a Coker College study away program.