Marion Ben-Jacob, Ph.D. Mercy College Dobbs Ferry, NY USA.

25
Enhancing Life-wide Learning and Sustainable Development via an Academic Course ICOLACE 2012 Marion Ben-Jacob, Ph.D. Mercy College Dobbs Ferry, NY USA

Transcript of Marion Ben-Jacob, Ph.D. Mercy College Dobbs Ferry, NY USA.

Page 1: Marion Ben-Jacob, Ph.D. Mercy College Dobbs Ferry, NY USA.

Enhancing Life-wide Learning and Sustainable Development

via an Academic Course

ICOLACE 2012

Marion Ben-Jacob, Ph.D.Mercy College

Dobbs Ferry, NY USA

Page 2: 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

Page 3: Marion Ben-Jacob, Ph.D. Mercy College Dobbs Ferry, NY USA.

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

Page 4: Marion Ben-Jacob, Ph.D. Mercy College Dobbs Ferry, NY USA.

Educational

Professional

Preparation via a required freshman course◦ Format◦ Exercises◦ Projects◦ Suggestions for enhancements

Evolving Environments

Page 5: Marion Ben-Jacob, Ph.D. Mercy College Dobbs Ferry, NY USA.

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

Page 6: Marion Ben-Jacob, Ph.D. Mercy College Dobbs Ferry, NY USA.

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

Page 7: Marion Ben-Jacob, Ph.D. Mercy College Dobbs Ferry, NY USA.

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

Page 8: Marion Ben-Jacob, Ph.D. Mercy College Dobbs Ferry, NY USA.

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

Page 9: Marion Ben-Jacob, Ph.D. Mercy College Dobbs Ferry, NY USA.

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

Page 10: Marion Ben-Jacob, Ph.D. Mercy College Dobbs Ferry, NY USA.

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

Page 11: Marion Ben-Jacob, Ph.D. Mercy College Dobbs Ferry, NY USA.

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

Page 12: Marion Ben-Jacob, Ph.D. Mercy College Dobbs Ferry, NY USA.

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

Page 13: Marion Ben-Jacob, Ph.D. Mercy College Dobbs Ferry, NY USA.

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

Page 14: Marion Ben-Jacob, Ph.D. Mercy College Dobbs Ferry, NY USA.

Standard methods◦ Reading Assignments◦ Required Papers◦ Required PowerPoint/Presentations

More Creative◦ Digital Stories – short video with voice-over ◦ Educational Games

Engaging Students

Page 15: Marion Ben-Jacob, Ph.D. Mercy College Dobbs Ferry, NY USA.

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

Page 16: Marion Ben-Jacob, Ph.D. Mercy College Dobbs Ferry, NY USA.

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

Page 17: Marion Ben-Jacob, Ph.D. Mercy College Dobbs Ferry, NY USA.

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

Page 18: Marion Ben-Jacob, Ph.D. Mercy College Dobbs Ferry, NY USA.

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

Page 19: Marion Ben-Jacob, Ph.D. Mercy College Dobbs Ferry, NY USA.

Pre and Post Course Assessment

Page 20: Marion Ben-Jacob, Ph.D. Mercy College Dobbs Ferry, NY USA.

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

Page 21: Marion Ben-Jacob, Ph.D. Mercy College Dobbs Ferry, NY USA.

Competencies needed for◦ Lifelong learning

◦ Life-wide learning

◦ Sustainable development

Conclusion

Page 22: Marion Ben-Jacob, Ph.D. Mercy College Dobbs Ferry, NY USA.

Changes happening at rapid rate and need to

be prepared; basic competencies are

profession-independent and goal-

independent.

Lifelong Learning

Page 23: Marion Ben-Jacob, Ph.D. Mercy College Dobbs Ferry, NY USA.

Setting goals that are based on research and

reality; critical thinking, information literacy,

oral and written competency.

Life-wide Learning

Page 24: Marion Ben-Jacob, Ph.D. Mercy College Dobbs Ferry, NY USA.

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

Page 25: Marion Ben-Jacob, Ph.D. Mercy College Dobbs Ferry, NY USA.

Are the foundation for success for the

individual and the global environment as well.

Basic Competencies