The Student is Center
Posted on January 5, 2012 by Blake Leath
Cock-a-doodle-do & Happy New Year to You!
This morning, five "articles for 2012" jumped out at me. Because I thought they might 'speak' to you, too, I have assumed the responsibility of "aggregator" by combining them into one PDF. (I have made zero efforts to modify, clean-up, or edit any of them, of course, so caveat emptor.)
I believe you will enjoy them.
Reading them in one brief swath, you will see a common thread: more and more, the Customer-Client-Student is CENTER. Not peripheral, but front-and-center.
Now, of course, this is a multi-millenia reality, but never as focused as today. The magnifying glass has found the sun, and the diffused light has become a laser beam. I can see the smoke and smell the sizzle.
The first article, "Physicists Seek to Lose the Lecture as a Teaching Tool" describes the transition from 'Sage on the Stage' to 'Guide on the Side.' In short, students who are required to answer questions and wrestle with reason via 'peer instruction' learn 3x more than those who sit idly by and listen to a professor pontificate. Historically (e.g., before Google... "BG"), the 'gathering of information' was the hardest half of learning, when compared to 'making sense of information.' Today, gathering information is easy--it almost happens passively, as we are immersed and awash in it hour by hour. This allows, therefore, professors to invest their time provoking, guiding and leading inquiry and understanding...rather than transmitting data. While this is no great epiphany, it will ultimately upend the teaching model as we've known it, challenging all of us to 'adapt or become extinct.' (Read it to see how the student, not the professor, should be at the center of the learning process.)
The second article, "The Seven Habits of Spectacularly Unsuccessful Executives" speaks to the importance of humility (respect), boundaries (character), curiosity (followership), receptivity to disagreement (retention), authenticity (vs. attention), reality (vs. hype) and change (vs. worshipping the past). It is an interestingly nuanced and subtle juxtaposition to Walter Isaacson's biography about Steve Jobs, describing why (perhaps) several of Jobs' core behaviors were exceptions--not the rule. (Read it to see a balanced view on market, customer, and leadership vision and strategy.)
The third article, "Five Resolutions for Aspiring Leaders" outlines simple-yet-transformative things you can tackle in 2012 to continue your professional development. (Read it to see how 'gaining knowledge,' not 'defending it,' will keep you front-and-center...and relevant in the months ahead.)
The fourth article, "What Americans Keep Ignoring about Finland's School Success" describes something I tackled in Cultivating the Strategic Mind: the value of cooperation rather than competition. Equity vs. Excellence. I know, I know, it sounds heretical! (Read it to see 'the bigger picture' and understand how--and why--putting EVERY student at the center of an educational process makes Finland a North Star.)
The fifth and final article, "Five Predictions for Higher Ed Technology in 2012" shows, by way of Stanford and MIT, that online learning is here to stay and, given that more and more college students are drowning in debt and questioning the value of diplomas in a soft economy, universities must find alternative delivery methods. From 'peer' and 'distance learning' to replacing bulky, back-breaking-backpacks full of anachronistic, outdated and overpriced textbooks with iPads and tablets, the future is here. And now. Once universities get their own act in gear, the dam will burst, the watershed will overflow, and those 'lockers' we all experienced from K-12 will be about as useful as a hitching post at your local watering hole. (Read it to see why, once again, the customer--aka student--is king.)