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