Education: The evolution towards blending Arts and Science | BizNews

The theory of left and right brain dominance is fast being discounted by growing evidence that creative and analytical thinking are not separate, as was once thought. Nicole Willis discusses why society still considers the Sciences and the Arts as opposing forces in education, and why this is short-sighted. In South Africa, mathematics and science have been subjects of great debate in the schooling system. The 2019 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study ranks South Africa as unable to reach the lowest benchmark in the report. Willis dissects the skill sets we will need moving into the future of a rapidly evolving world and whether one ‘side’ of the brain will ever outweigh the other. This article appeared on FirstRand Perspectives. – Melani Nathan.

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Perspectives on education and the balance between analytical science and creativity are shifting. Nicole Willis, considers new thinking.

Photo: BizNews

A debate through the ages

For those of you into your second or third decades in the working world, think back to a point in time during high school when the conversation with parents, and sometimes teachers, was about future study choices and career ambitions.

The debate centred around which university degrees and fields of study had more credibility than others, and would therefore result in the assurance of future success and wealth. There seemed to be a foregone conclusion that a ‘real’ qualification would provide a ‘real’ job – and those would invariably be either doctor, lawyer, auditor, or accountant...

Jumping back a few centuries to the Classical Greek period, philosophy was seen as the mother of all sciences, as a subject covering the scientific and intellectual understanding of the world.

It seems that, as humans have evolved, it has become more important to favour one over the other, based mostly on their ego value and perceived societal stature. So, are we now seeing a return to placing equal value on left and right brain capabilities?...

Where do we place the value?

...The ‘clever kids’ studied science, technology, engineering, and maths as a path to guarantee future success and today, we are living in a society that is more technically advanced than ever before.

But we are also living in a society where humans have more of a face and a voice and more power than ever before, and demand a human discourse between business, governments, and the people...

While, in the past, there may have been a clear winner depending on the zeitgeist of the time, the winners today are those mastering flexibility, educational and professional resilience.

In 2015, the World Economic Forum released the most important skillsets for the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Source: Future of Jobs Report, World Economic Forum

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Source: BizNews   

4 apps to help you solve mathematical doubts with a click! | Schools - The Tribune

Remember maths "guide" book from the good old school days?, recommends The Tribune.

Photo: Image Istock

The one which always solved our doubts by explaining each and every step with minute details. In 2021, we have different apps which are helping students in a better way, where they can click their doubts and instantly can get the solution. Today, you can choose from learning tools that help you track formulae and learn algebra, to apps that let you solve equations by simply pointing the camera.

Here are 4 such apps that students can use:

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Source: The Tribune

Disability, access, and the virtual conference | Editor's Picks - OUPblog

After my first Zoom meeting of the pandemic, I found myself lying on the bathroom floor with my noise-cancelling headphones on, on the verge of a full-blown meltdown, writes Sonya Freeman Loftis, Director of English and Professor of English at Morehouse College.

Photo: ThisIsEngineering from Pexels

As an autistic person, I’ve always been hypersensitive to noise and to visual stimuli—but I hadn’t realized that a Zoom meeting with my colleagues could cause sensory overload. The number of images on the computer screen, the amount of movement in those tiny thumb-nail images, and the speed with which the images had moved, flashed, and changed—not to mention the obtrusive noise of malfunctioning microphones and noisy, socially-distanced households—had been enough to make me physically sick. Although many people tend to assume that an online event is automatically more accessible than an in-person event (after all, people can attend without leaving their homes), this isn’t always the case. Even when online events are more accessible, one of the lessons the pandemic has reminded me of is that the act of creating disability access can fundamentally change the nature of the thing that is accessed.

In writing my new book, Shakespeare and Disability Studies, I was interested in exploring disability access as art and in exploring disability access as a complicated (and complicating) multifaceted phenomenon. Disability access is rarely just a question of “Can someone with X impairment use Y?” but rather more often a question of “If we modify Y so that someone with X impairment can use it, how does it change the meaning, the experience, and the effect of Y?” Creating access for people with disabilities sometimes means fundamentally changing the nature of the thing that is made accessible, whether the thing made accessible is a Shakespeare play (“the play’s the thing”) or a Zoom meeting. When we change the nature of the thing made accessible, we don’t just create access and inclusion for people with disabilities—we often create a new kind of experience altogether. I continue to be delighted and inspired by the innovative works, events, and objects we create (whether knowingly or inadvertently) when we create access for people with disabilities. Sometimes those new works, events, and objects bear a resemblance to the inaccessible version from which they grew. At other times, they do not...

Disability, in our culture, is stereotyped as loss. Accessibility, in our culture, is deemed as always good, always a gain. It is also often misunderstood as simple and one-dimensional, as easy to understand and to explain. This year, for the first time ever, I will attend the Shakespeare Association of America without a support person. I will be independent. It is important, however, to think about the enormous cost of making the conference fully accessible to me. This act of access will fundamentally change the nature of what the conference is. 

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Additional resources 

Shakespeare and Disability Studies

Shakespeare and Disability Studies by Shakespeare and Disability Studies (Oxford Shakespeare Topics by Sonya Freeman Loftis, Professor of English, Morehouse College.

Source: OUPblog 

Introducing The Curiosity Academy, Stylist’s new digital learning hub | The Curiosity Academy - Stylist

Are you looking to find new hobbies, grow your passions and learn new skills? Introducing The Curiosity Academy, Stylist’s new learning hub for curious minds by Stylist Team.

Photo: Stylist Team

Over the past 12 months you have shared with us your growing passion for learning new skills – from candle-making and meditation to launching podcasts and perfecting public speaking. We know you have a thirst for knowledge in all areas of your life, and are curious to know more, do more and go further. 

You told us that your curiosity for learning isn’t just about lockdown life (although certainly that has fuelled a desire to learn for many) but about a new mindset – continuous learning is the answer to finding new passions and living life to the full.

With that in mind we are delighted to unveil The Curiosity Academy – a new digital space where you can access workshops, how-to guides, new research and learn the most up-to-date skills from the UK’s most in-the-know people.

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Source: Stylist

Buckle up for blended learning | Learning Delivery - Chief Learning Officer

Catie Bull, senior marketing manager at Intrepid by VitalSource says, Blended learning works, and not just as a pandemic-era means of getting by.

Photo: Adobe Stock

Most in-classroom training was, of course, put completely on hold last year due to safety restrictions posed by the global pandemic. Organizations and training firms that weren’t high on the digital maturity scale already had to do some hard and fast turns to meet the needs of their learners and clients remotely. But merely shifting eight hours of in-person training to eight hours of video conferencing quickly proved ineffective, and there simply was no single answer, no silver bullet when it came to learning technologies.

So, many organizations turned to a blended learning approach that has now become the new normal in our pandemic world. But what is it, exactly? How did we get here, how do you do it well and why is it so effective that experts think it’s poised to take over corporate learning for the long haul?

Following, let’s dive into blended learning — or “the digital blend,” “the blend” — whatever you prefer to call it. In fact, a digital learning leader at a national restaurant chain says, “I think that pretty soon we won’t call it ‘blended learning’; it’ll just become ‘learning.’...

In conclusion

Blended learning works, and not just as a pandemic-era means of getting by. It appeals to the new “in the flow of work” means of learning that has arisen due to the increase in remote or remote-hybrid workplaces, and there’s no going back to just classroom-based one- or two-day trainings. Classroom will likely replace some of the VILT components of the blend, but it will remain a blend of synchronous and asynchronous, online and virtual and live, face to face and self-directed, and so on. As the restaurant chain digital learning leader enthuses, “It’s an exciting 10 years coming. Buckle up!”

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Source: Chief Learning Officer 

Academic Minute: After-School Academics Amid Remote Learning | Quick Takes - Inside Higher Ed

Today on the Academic Minute: Pawan Dhingra, professor of American studies at Amherst College, discusses whether after-school education is helping or hindering children in this era of remote learning, as Doug Lederman, editor and co-founder of Inside Higher Ed reports.

Learn more about the Academic Minute here.

Download Episode   

 

Source: Inside Higher Ed

 

The Ultimate Skill Data Handbook | Handbook - Degreed blog

Get ahead of disruption. Stay ahead of competitors by Degreed blog.

Download the Skill Data Handbook

Most HR, talent, and learning professionals are looking for new ways to be data-driven and strategic about people development. 

The good news is that your people are generating valuable information every day about the skills they’re building and how they relate to your larger organization. So how can you access this information? It starts with skill data.

This handbook will teach you the basics of skill data by simplifying common terminology, providing use cases, and answering FAQs. Here's what else you'll learn:

• Different types skill data
• Where skill data comes from
• The difference between good and bad skill data
• Where skill data should be stored
• Examples of how skill data can be used

The true secret to being data-driven is not just about accessing data. It’s about understanding how to collect, analyze, and use it effectively so you can bridge the gap between learning initiatives and your organizational goals. It sounds daunting, but this guide keeps it simple. 

Download the Skill Data Handbook 

Source: Degreed blog

How to Structure Your Online Class for Inclusion: Two Principles for Fostering Engagement, Part 2 | Online Student Engagement - Faculty Focus

Jenae Cohn, PhD writes and speaks about digital pedagogy and online teaching and learning and Courtney Plotts, PhD writes and speaks about culturally responsive teaching and community building explains, A sense of community fosters a sense of belongingness and is critical to student engagement. 

Students attend video call with discussion chats and emojis on computer
Photo: Faculty Focus

Principle #1: Build community to foster engagement online 

Building a sense of community is a first step in ensuring that students are engaged in their classes, especially for historically minoritized students (Pacansky-Brock et. al 2020; Plotts 2019; Brown and Burdsal; 2006, Rovai and Gallien; 2005; Tu & Correy, 2002). To structure a class that includes everyone and promotes student engagement, we need to think about what goes into building a community and what that can look like when teaching online. 

The Council For At Risk Student Education and Professional Standards Accreditation (2020) provides evidenced-based standards for building a sense of community, student engagement, course introductions, assessment, group projects/group development, and experiential learning. The following recommendations are based on those standards.

A strong sense of community begins with faculty designing and planning for the sense of community in the course. In order to build a strong sense of community within an online course, instructors should start by identifying the type of community they want to create...

Many offices on your campus may be involved in efforts to engage students in their online university experience, like the 

• Campus library
• Disability services
• Teaching and learning centers
• Technology services
• Multicultural centers
• Career centers
• Counseling and psychological services

When we help students become aware of these networks and resources, we can reinforce students’ sense of belonging not just in our own online classes, but in the university as a whole.

Read more... 

Related link

How to Structure Your Online Class for Inclusion, Part 1

Source: Faculty Focus

Leveraging Mobile Technology to Achieve Teaching Goals | Teaching & Learning - EDUCAUSE Review

Near-ubiquitous mobile-device ownership and widespread internet connectivity offer opportunities for mobile learning to take center stage during the coronavirus pandemic and beyond. ___________________________________________________________

Introduction

The sudden move to remote online instruction, coupled with social justice issues plaguing the United States, has forced college and university instructors to grapple with what it means to be a good teacher in socially distanced, unpredictable, and emotionally charged circumstances by Mindy Colin, Instructional Consultant at UC Santa Barbara, Samantha Eastman, Instructional Design Consultant at UC Riverside, Margaret Merrill, Senior Instructional Design Consultant at UC Davis and Alex Rockey, Instructional Technologist Instructor at Bakersfield College.

Photo: emojoez / Shutterstock.com © 2021

As instructional designers, we have noticed an undercurrent in our interactions with new and experienced university instructors that indicates they are doubting their teaching skills, confronting uncomfortable questions about their roles, making pedagogical decisions on the fly, and trying to use technologies that were once only written into science fiction novels. While the move to remote teaching has been challenging, it has also provided an opportunity to reenvision pedagogy. As colleges and universities have collectively moved online, teaching and learning professionals can leverage mobile learning (m-learning) to inform and facilitate effective teaching in a virtual environment.

Near-ubiquitous mobile-device ownership and widespread internet connectivity offer opportunities for mobile learning to take center stage during the coronavirus pandemic and beyond.

Mobile learning: Using portable computing devices (such as iPads, laptops, tablet PCs, personal digital assistants [PDAs], and smartphones) with wireless networks enables mobility and mobile learning, allowing teaching and learning to extend to spaces beyond the traditional classroom. Within the classroom, mobile learning gives instructors and learners increased flexibility and new opportunities for interaction.^Footnote1

Contemporary m-learning definitions and discourse focus on using technologies that support the mobility of learners and teachers and that are based on constructivist and learner-centered pedagogies that promote individualization, flexibility, and communal engagement with content regardless of whether a course is online or face-to-face. To benefit from affordances like these, Yu (Aimee) Zhang, CEO of WEMOSOFT in Wollongong, Australia, recommends using m-learning in formal higher education to supplement face-to-face or online classes.^Footnote2 Near-ubiquitous mobile-device ownership and a stable combination of agile technological infrastructure and widespread internet connectivity offer opportunities for the key affordances and strategies of m-learning to take center stage during the coronavirus pandemic.^Footnote3 That is not to say that all students (or instructors) have fully equitable opportunities to access tertiary education through mobile devices—as the pandemic has revealed—but it does emphasize the current collective ability among colleges and universities to maintain a somewhat reasonable level of instructional continuity—something that would not have been possible just ten years ago.^Footnote4

Takeaways

While the use cases in this study are all unique, span disciplines, and largely represent m-learning within face-to-face courses, m-learning strategies could also help to guide instructors' pedagogical balancing act during emergency remote teaching and beyond. This study demonstrates the variety of ways that m-learning technologies can help instructors in their ongoing efforts to become better teachers:

• Build and maintain classroom community by creating safe spaces that allow for peer interaction as well as anonymity.
• Increase student interest and motivation by providing multiple means and opportunities for participation.
• Illustrate concepts or topics more clearly.
• Develop students' emotional, cognitive, and technology-based skills for their future careers.
• Increase engagement by having students use their mobile devices to generate, collect, and analyze data.
• Identify and adapt to gaps in student learning.
• Facilitate a more efficient feedback cycle for student learning.
• Get through basic concepts more quickly, allowing students more time to engage deeply with complex concepts.

Although our study focused on faculty members' experiences, research on student perspectives demonstrates that m-learning benefits students in similar ways (by creating safe spaces for peer interaction, increasing student interest by offering multiple opportunities to participate, and supporting students who increasingly rely on mobile technology).^Footnote18 

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Source: EDUCAUSE Review

How Leonardo da Vinci Made His Magnificent Drawings Using Only a Metal Stylus, Pen & Ink, and Chalk | History - Open Culture

The modern artist has what can seem like an unlimited range of materials from which to choose, a variety completely unknown to great Renaissance masters like Leonardo da Vinci, published via Core77.

How Leonardo da Vinci Made His Magnificent Drawings Using Only a Metal Stylus, Pen & Ink, and Chalk
Photo: Open Culture

Few, if any, can say, however, that they have anything like the raw talent, ingenuity, and discipline that drove Leonardo to draw incessantly, constantly honing his techniques and exploiting every use of the tools and techniques available to him.'

 

Leonardo da Vinci's Drawing Materials
 

 

What were those tools and techniques? Conservator Alan Donnithorne demonstrates Leonardo’s materials in the video above, with examples from the holdings of the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle. Leonardo “drew incessantly,” the Royal Collection Trust writes, “to devise his artistic projects, to explore the natural world, and to record the workings of his imagination.” He used metalpoint, a method of drawing on coated paper with a metal stylus; pen and ink, with pens made from a goose wing feather; and, after the 1490s, red and black chalks.

Leonardo produced thousands of drawings during his lifetime“many of them of extreme beauty and complexity,” says Donnithorne, “and it’s incredible to think that he produced them using these very simple ingredients.”...

The artist’s “prodigious skills” are evident among his many shifts in style and subject and we see even in utilitarian illustrations how “he overturned so many conventions and sometimes mixed his media to wonderful effect.” Leonardo’s choice of media was hardly expansive compared to the dizzyingly colorful aisles that greet the budding artist at art supply stores today. But what he could do with a stylus, goose-quill pen, and chalk has never been equalled. Learn more about how he used his materials in Donnithorne’s book, Leonardo da Vinci: A Closer Look, published on the 500th anniversary celebrations of Leonardo’s death.

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Additional resources

Leonardo da Vinci: A Closer Look

Leonardo da Vinci: A Closer Look by Alan Donnithorne, former head of paper conservation at the Royal Collection Trust.

Source: Open Culture