On Thu, 14 Aug 2014 17:39:19 -0400, Ken Steele wrote:
A very long time ago as a preteen, I used to watch "educational
tv," which consisted of taped lectures from courses at the local
state university. I liked the history courses that explained the
development of the "red menance" and the "rise of nazism." I
liked the math courses on algebra and geometry. It was like
sitting in a college classroom, to which I aspired in my
1000-person East TN town.
I had a similar kind of experience but I grew up in NYC. I
believe most of people I grew up with didn't make it to
college, at least right after high school. Maybe later.
But I discovered quickly that most kids of my age never watched
such shows and would not watch them. They did not involve the
central issues of football, baseball, dodge ball, and the eternal
battle of dreamsicle vs fudgsicle. Most of them did not aspire to
going to college; it was maybe an expectation.
What I have seen is that students attend my university for a
combination of social and educational reasons. Getting jacked in
for efficent content injection is about as pleasant as a colon
exam. Minvera (and Stevie K) has missed out on one of the major
reasons why students attend an university, which is to figure out
possible life trajectories.
The cable show "Moring Joe" had on the author of the Atlantic article
that I link to below; one can watch the segment here:
http://www.msnbc.com/morning-joe/watch/college-upgraded--318407747935
The issue of the role of social factors as attractions to college
receives a little discussion here but nobody asked Graeme
whether there would be frats/soros(not the billionaire) at Minerva U
or toga parties. It is unclear whether Minerva would have a
serious football or basketball program -- what else are students
going to do with their weekends? Study?
Ken
(PS - Stevie. Yo Bro. Craik and Lockhart [1972]! That is as
close to "classroom magic" as one can get!)
Can't tell whether you're being sarcastic or not but you can't
discuss Craik and Lockart (1972) without pointing out that just
a decade later most memory researchers abandoned the
original notion of "depth" of processing leading to better memory
(the "picture superiority effect" and research by Douglas
Nelson of the "sensory-semantic model shows that sensory
processing can be as effective as semantic processing;
the problem with rembering words is that inferference effects
build up more quickly than with images but one can reduce
memory for images/pictures by using images that are highly
similar, such as pictures of a pen, a knife, a shovel, etc. --
semantic processing provides a way to make each word
or picture more *distinctive* which is more important in the
development of durable memories). Craik and Cermak (1979)
provide the different perspectives that arose from LoP
by the end of the 1970s -- processing *is* important not
in the way LoP presents it. For the "state of the art" in 1979,
see the following:
Cermak, L. S., & Craik, F. I. (1979). Levels of processing
in human memory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
There is a 2014 re-publication of this volume that is available
in preview mode on books.google.com; see:
http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=w2GLAwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA301&dq=%22Levels+of+processing+in+human+memory%22&ots=oaV_8griLP&sig=fVYY_ET_9Rntg-x1ZRYYlptIwtM#v=onepage&q=%22Levels%20of%20processing%20in%20human%20memory%22&f=false
-Mike Palij
New York University
m...@nyu.edu
On 8/14/2014 3:00 PM, Mike Palij wrote:
An article by Graeme Wood that is appearing in "The Atlantic"
(both paper and online) is titled "The Future of College?"
and it focuses on the for-profit online Minerva project which
is attempting to become an alternative to traditional lecture
format courses in college (it uses a seminar format). Here is
where you can access the online version of the article:
http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2014/08/the-future-of-college/375071/
Cognitive psychologist Stephen Kosslyn is playing a significant
role in the Minerva Project and I guess this will serve as guide
to what to do when a college professor no longer wants to
"lecture". By the way, Ludy Benjamin is quoted but identified
as an "educational psychologist". By that logic, I guess I'm
a clinical psychologist. But let's not forget the fundamental
driving factor for this project:
Mo money, (b-word)s!
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