Post One: Trends in Education
TedEd offers an interesting selection of short videos to help students learn.
FEB. 29, 2020: I’ve been thinking a lot about trends in adult education lately — partly because I’m teaching full-time this semester and partly because I’m taking a course called Foundations of Adult Education. Both require me to think outside the box, to think beyond the type of education I received many (many) years ago.
When I was attending journalism school, there was a saying: “journalism students do it in 1:30 or less.” It was supposed to be funny, but it also spoke to a truth about television journalism. One minute and 30 seconds is the maximum amount of time you can expect a viewer to stay with your news story. Any longer than that and you risk viewers tuning out or, even worse, turning the channel.
Perhaps this is why the concept of microlearning really speaks to me. As outlined in the article Microlearning is the New Black, microlearning is based on the belief that people learn best when information is presented one small chunk at a time. Why? “In the year 2000, the human attention span was 12 seconds,” the article explains. “In 2015, it amounted to just 8.25 seconds. No wonder that microlearning is looked to with hope to create effective learning.”
Microlearning can be delivered in traditional classrooms as a series of very small units. Alternatively, it can be delivered via short videos of no more than fives minutes each. There’s even a website devoted to these lessons called Ted-Ed, which builds on the popular Ted-Ex phenomenon. The main point is that each lesson is devoted to just one idea or concept. In the case of videos, students could watch these mini-lessons on their own time — when and as needed, just as they would with YouTube tutorials — applying the lessons immediately. Students could also go back to the videos again (and again), as needed, given they are short, specific and accessible. In theory, this should encourage better retention of information.
Interestingly, microlearning ties in to what my learning partner, Rebecca, is investigating as a trend in education: online learning and, specifically, video conferencing. Both trends try to address the different needs and demands of today’s students and make use of modern technology to do so.
Online courses reflect the growing reality that many adults are unable to take courses in traditional ways, which require them to attend a class at a specific day, time and place each week. Why should students have to take a day off work or drive two hours to take a class? Why shouldn’t they be able to take a class with the best available instructor, even if that instructor lives in a different city, province or even country? Technology makes this possible.
Video conferencing allows students, no matter where they are, to get together in a virtual classroom with their instructor. They can hold group discussions, just like they would in a traditional classroom. They can be separated into “break-out” rooms for smaller group discussions. They can watch videos together or talk to a guest speaker. These lessons also can be recorded and shared online for students who can’t make the call, so they can watch them on their own time. In fact, all information can be shared online — if the instructor so desires — saving virtual conferencing as a way for students to show they’ve taken in the information and critically understand it. This can be done in large groups or one on one, depending on the individual needs of the students. In some cases, students may interact more with instructors this way than they would in traditional classrooms, it’s just done virtually.
