Video extras

I've gone back and watched all the video extras that were in the modules, because I'm pretty sure I missed a few the last 12 weeks as I was focused on reading the articles.  Something struck me as I watched-  there is a theme in many of the videos, and that theme is basically,' how we see education today is messed up'.

Not just that education is messed up.  Which is almost a given, considering the times we live in.  It's more than that-  it's how we conceive of it; how we imagine it, how we define it in our heads when we think of, for example, "a good college education."  

We think of places where you are supposed to go to big lecture rooms.  We think of professors who are going to walk in and lecture for an hour and then walk out.  We think of all-nighters cramming for a final exam, which is one of two or three interactions each student will have with the content.  

The video links we watched made me question all of that.  What is really good about that type of education, anyway?  What do people learn in college?  I think there is a prevalent attitude that college is set up in a certain way, and if that doesn't work for you, you might not be a good candidate to go to college.  If you can't eek out the ability to learn to read critically, to write with a clear argument, and to "learn how to learn" while you happen to be in lecture classes, you don't get much out of your college degree.  

What this leads me to thinking is that nothing should be sacred in education.  Everything can be and should be held up to a lens and considered.  Even the most sacred constructs we have, like what a classroom LOOKS like, should be examined.  What does it mean if a big lecture class has more drop-outs, more failures, and less learning, and less interaction than an online class?  Are we brave enough to look at data and what really works?  I'm not sure yet.