Social Media at University

As I said in the post before, reality is way ahead institutions at the moment. The outburst of social media is obliging universities to regulate its use in campus. Interestingly enough, the first reactions from students have been complaining about censorship.

The case of Sam Houston State University (SHSU) is eloquent. Certainly the “Occupy Wall Street” mood is behind the naïve street actions done by SHSU students reported in this article from The Chronicle of Higher Education. Freedom of Speech is mixed up with utter freedom of one side in the story, no doubt about it.

Nevertheless, it is interesting to read the manual of Social Media Policy and Procedures of SHSU draft (click here) because we all will be involved very soon in problems of that sort.

Learning in the Digital Age

Picture taken from "Mutuas Palabras"

The question is not what is going to change in the digital age, the question is what has already changed and we have not noticed.

One of the most important changes are in education. We all have changed our approach to knowledge but universities and educational institutions. Maybe the best opportunity in the new world that is taking shape is to overcome a bit the mechanical way of thinking the industrial era imposed, being a bit more creative. The "Battery Model" (Shön) of learning is over. Welcome the Reflexive Mode of learning. This CHE's article is in the right direction.

Faculty Salaries in USA

USA has the best education: it pays better. Follow the link.

2010 Ranking of Doctoral Programs in USA

A very interesting tool that compares doctoral programs in USA has been launched by The Chronicle of Higher Education. It is extremely easy to compare how long does it take to get a doctoral degree in architecture at Columbia and compare it to Cornell or Harvard. The link takes strait ahead to the tool.

Collaborative Education or Eco Buddhism?

An image from Avatar, the film, taken from the Eco Buddhism Blog

The RAL (Reflexive Architecture Laboratory) is a design studio like any other but collaborative oriented. The result is that for the first time students start talking about ethics, tolerance, objectiveness in judgement, etc. Design itself has been even better than before at the RAL. It is incredible that this pedagogic technique has been ingnored for so long. The Chronicle ofHigher Education puts it this way:

Distributed and collaborative learning, with its emphasis on mindfulness, attunement to others, nonjudgmental interactions, acknowledgment of each person's unique contributions, and recognition of the importance of deep participation, can't help but foster critical thinking skills and greater empathic engagement. In that sense, collaborative learning transforms the classroom into a laboratory for empathic expression, which, in turn, enriches the educational process.

The article is by Jeremy Rifkin, the same author of The Empathic Civilization (this links to a good article extracted from the book) . I have no doubt about the effectiveness of collaborative applied to architectural education. In a wider political scope I am not so sure. John Gray, for example, thinks Rifkin's empathy becomes naive when it gets too green.

By the way, Rifkin says it was "Jane" Abercrombie at the University College London Hospitals who started this kind of education in 1950's. What about Vigotsky then?