“Chibur” – connected learning

 Educational Technology, Jewish Education, Projects  No Responses »
Aug 062012
 

Anastasia from Samara wrote about a tiny Torah scroll and a painted Pesach Haggada – her family’s heirlooms passed down through the generations.  Students in Bishkek researched the life of Boris M. Shapiro – a key contributor to the revival of Jewish culture in Kyrgyzstan. Sara from Chernivtsi created a family tree. Students in Odessa found out about their community’s historical synagogues and Jewish hospital. Elena from Dnipropetrovsk recorded recipes passed down in her family from her great grandmother Nechama.

These are all outcomes from the first year of “Chibur” – a World ORT educational project motivating young Jews in countries of the former Soviet Union, Baltic States and Eastern Europe to take an active interest in collecting and documenting their local and family histories.  Students have created highly informative individual and group blogs – which you can browse at chibur.ort.org – to record and share the stories of their Jewish communities and ancestry. Over 200 students from 13 schools – both ORT and non-ORT – were involved, with the best blogs winning prizes. In addition, 140 teachers from across the region attended training seminars designed to familiarize them with using historical research and blogging tools in their teaching.

What are the educational aims of Chibur? We want students to develop a sense of excitement about the revival of Jewish life in their countries. We want them to appreciate the importance of preserving their heritage. We want them to develop important “21st century skills”: using technology; conducting independent research; curating material; presenting findings in clear and attractive ways. And we want teachers to feel increasingly confident to support their students in all of the above.

Our plans for the second year involve extending the project to include Latvia and Czech Republic, as well as any other countries who are interested.

Challenges & Opportunities in Higher Education: an interview with Dr. Ephraim Buhks, Director of ORT US Operations

 Vocational Training  6 Responses »
Jun 252012
 

Dr Ephraim Buhks is the Director of ORT United States Operations.  In this interview post, he outlines his thoughts on:

  • the changing landscape of higher education in the USA
  • the challenges that this presents
  • how ORT colleges, both in the USA and worldwide, are well positioned to respond to these challenges

Could you provide some background to the current state of higher education in the USA?

There are approximately 6,700 higher education institutions in the USA. These institutions enjoy a significant amount of teaching flexibility, because they are not subject to any national education standards. However, if institutions wish their students to be able to receive government-sponsored financial aid, they must have accreditation – which is awarded by non-governmental agencies. Gaining accreditation is a very tough process: it can take 5 years for an institution to satisfy the 12 or so standards that are laid out. These standards include school management, instructor credentials, curriculum development and facilities. This accreditation system creates a hugely competitive environment and forces institutions to specialize by targeting specific student populations.

Annual tuition costs are high – $25,000 on average.  If you factor in accommodation, textbooks and laptops, costs are pushing $50,000. Clearly, families face great difficulties in finding this money. Many students work alongside their study. Parents and students take out large loans, which can amount to $0.5 million if you count graduate school. So student debt is very high, whilst at the same time, educational and employment outcomes are not very high. Only half of students taking a bachelor degree complete it within six years (the normal duration should be four years). The graduation rate at the largest state universities is even lower – around one third. And even if students do successfully graduate, they are finding it more and more difficult to find jobs. The unemployment rate for recently graduated students is close to 50%. Those who do secure employment will get paid at one third of what they could have expected five years ago.

Why are students graduating from US universities today finding it so difficult to find jobs?

There are three main reasons to account for this.  The first is the recession – economies worldwide are not generating a sufficient number of job openings. The second is globalization – the increasingly global competition for jobs in the USA means that even entry-level graduate positions are attracting well-trained professionals with practical work experience.  US graduates are doubly disadvantaged because they are receiving the wrong kind of education to make them employable – and this is the third reason.

Traditionally, the US model of higher education is based on a European liberal arts education. Students can actually spend more than half of their course studying subject areas unrelated to their major subject. The argument is that this system creates well-rounded individuals with well-developed critical thinking skills. It certainly employs a large number of History, English and Philosophy professors who encourage their students to discover themselves and follow their dreams. The problem with this is that there is no focus on job skills. Moreover, vocational training was practically eliminated from all college curricula, in favour of giving equal opportunities to all students in pursuing a liberal arts education. In the past, successful US companies would hire liberal arts graduates and put them on corporate training schemes for sales, marketing and banking positions. Not today – they cannot afford to, and anyway they have access to a globalized labour market.

So this is the major political, economic and social issue which we will face for many years to come: the role of higher education in skills training, job creation and maintaining the US as a competitive player in the global economy.

What other trends are emerging in higher education in the USA?

  1. Study abroad has become a major development. US colleges and universities have rushed to sign course exchange agreements with institutions overseas. Students now frequently spend a semester or a whole year studying abroad – based on the notion that a global economy puts international study and work experience at a premium. In addition, major US universities have opened campuses overseas – for example New York University in Bahrain. However, these expansions have not always been economically successful, given that the universities in question must compete with the low tuition costs of state-subsidized national institutions already set up in the country.
  2. Distance and online learning has become a mainstream way of teaching, often as part of a blended curriculum combining regular and online classes. Whilst this is undoubtedly the direction which education is taking, there are a number of questions about the quality of distance learning which universities have been providing and the large profits that they have been making.

How are ORT US Operations’ colleges succeeding in this environment?

ORT US Operations has colleges in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. We offer affordable two-year college degree and certificate programs, with skills training and job placement assistance. The average job placement rate is 85%.   Places at our colleges are in demand – our enrolment has doubled over the last three years.

Our program expansion is focused on service industries with well-paid entry level jobs. We have targeted the areas of healthcare, renewable energy, computer game design and the paralegal profession.

It looks like our approach is in line with the thinking of President Obama and his administration. Despite a number of inevitable funding cuts affecting the higher education sector, the President has announced an initiative to increase the proportion of the adult population who go on to higher education from a third to half. Significantly, the most important role will be assigned to community colleges offering two-year programs, in particular skills training programs.

Given the backdrop to education in the USA which you have sketched out for us, what are the opportunities for World ORT and national ORT organizations?

World ORT has something that most large colleges and universities can only dream about: an international presence. In today’s world, global education is at a premium. Study abroad, international student programs (see, for example, the English and Science Summer School) and foreign language courses combined with on-line teaching elements could all be added or incorporated into ORT national programs. ORT US Ops would welcome ORT students from many countries to study at ORT colleges in the US.

It is gratifying to note that the ORT model of skills-based and vocational training – developed more than a century ago – is still in high demand today. World ORT should build its future programs on this model. Its expertise in high-level technologies is already being, and will increasingly be, sought out by multinational companies. The new industrial world – countries like China and India – could become the next area to focus our energies on.

I would be delighted to answer questions from any blog readers, and would certainly love to work towards developing cooperative programs with World ORT and ORT national organizations.

Interview with Lydia Abel & Debbie Staniland, ORT CAPE South Africa

 Educational Technology, Pedagogy, Projects  No Responses »
Jun 122012
 

Next stop: South Africa. I caught up with Lydia Abel – Director – and Debbie Staniland – Development Manager – from ORT SA CAPE. ORT SA CAPE is a part of ORT South Africa, and works with young people and educators from disadvantaged communities in the Cape Town region.

What are the distinctive educational challenges that you face in the Cape Town region?

Young people living here come from a very low educational base. Most children come from very poor homes, where they receive very little educational input. Parents themselves are often illiterate. Given that many parents often have to work very long hours, perhaps away from home, a number of young people are raised by their grandparents – who are likely to be even less educated.

Linked to the first challenge is the issue of language.  The everyday language spoken in the region is a colloquial mixture of local dialects.  This offers little opportunity for young people to develop proper language skills. If their ability to speak in their mother tongue is limited, it is extremely difficult for students to acquire the skills necessary for learning English as a second language. They will only hear English spoken in the couple of lessons they have at school in the morning. Even then, many of the teachers themselves are not proficient English speakers.

The size of classes is very problematic. There are never less than 40 children in a class, often more than 50. Schools are often stretched beyond capacity because they are loathe to turn away local children who would otherwise have to travel large distances to another school. In addition, there is no money available to government sponsored schools for employing teaching assistants. As a result, one teacher is left responsible for controlling a classroom of 50 energetic young people – not an environment conducive to serious learning. Another difficulty within the school system itself is that children can only spend one extra year in any phase (collection of year groups) of the school. This means that they are moved up beyond their capabilities, resulting in real problems when they get older and yet still lack basic literacy and numeracy skills.

A further challenge is that the regional authorities do not like outside organizations coming in to support teachers in the classroom – for example, to provide expert advice or to teach model lessons. This is because a new and very structured curriculum has been implemented across the region, with little room for outside input. This is a shame because the huge pressures on the schooling system necessitate teachers going beyond conventional pedagogical methods and thinking outside of the box. A little bit of outside help might just prove to very helpful.

Given these numerous challenges, where do you start? What areas of work has ORT Cape been focusing on?

One of our most important projects is running educational after-school clubs. Life at home, and the educational opportunities – or lack of educational opportunities – which children have at home, make a huge difference to their educational attainment. Children who go home from school in the afternoon to nothing are massively disadvantaged.

In response to this need, we offer constructive educational programs which take a community-wide approach. Reading and maths support programs are staffed by retired teachers and university students, who will be able to continue this work after our involvement finishes. It is crucial that we aim to make our programs sustainable in the long-term. We also encourage mothers to join their children at these clubs. Owing to high unemployment and seasonal work in the rural areas we work in, mothers are often at home with little to gainfully occupy them. By coming to these clubs, they can improve their own literacy and numeracy skills, as well as building confidence to offer more learning opportunities to their children in their own homes.

Of course, in addition to the young people and their families, we must work on upskilling teachers as well. To that end, we provide training in English and maths teaching. In order to have the biggest impact possible, we our concentrating our efforts on reception class teachers – who can positively influence students at the earliest stage of their school careers. In terms of raw numbers, we have over a period of 5 years delivered accredited training to over 300 teachers. We have also set up professional support networks for teachers.

A lot of your educational programs make use of robotics. Why is this?

Kids find robotics fun! They get excited about making things and using computers. Practical, hands-on activity stimulates young people, particularly teenage boys who are traditionally very difficult to engage.

Drawing on engineering, electronics, and bio-engineering, robotics teaches young people how to think and solve problems. They have to plan, design, make, assess and improve on their designs. They also write up and present what they have done. Therefore they are using and developing a whole range of cognitive processing skills.

We make sure that the activities in our robotics workshops and clubs link to concepts in maths and science, like vectors or acceleration, which are difficult to illustrate in poorly-equipped school laboratories. Using robotics is not only cost-effective but also encourages active learning.

The final important point about this is that we run our robotics workshops and clubs on a socially inclusive model. The programs are funded so as to be self-sustaining. As a result, for every child who pays, we are able to sponsor a child who cannot pay.  We provide lunches – including both kosher and halal food – to ensure that everyone gets the same whilst they are with us. Given that robotics activities require teamwork and cooperation, we have found this to be an excellent way of encouraging young people from different racial, religious and financial backgrounds to not only mix and get to know each other, but also to really work together for a constructive purpose.

Design for Life

 Hatter Seminar, Pedagogy  No Responses »
Feb 072012
 

At the last Hatter Seminar, we were fortunate to have Professor Kay Stables as our keynote presenter. Kay is Head of the Department of Design at Goldsmiths College, University of London and has worked as a teacher, researcher, author and international consultant in the field of Design Education.

Prof Kay Stables at Hatter seminar, Nov 2011

One of the ideas that was most interesting to me was the distinction in many educational systems between teaching Technology for developing CAPABILITY (being able to harness and use the tools of technology) or to develop technological LITERACY (being able to understand, evaluate and critique technology).

In Kay’s view, good design education is all about bringing together these two approaches.

“Critical design that asks carefully crafted questions and makes us think, is just as important as design that solves problems or finds answers … there is a need now, more than ever, for a form of design, let’s call it critical design, that questions the cultural, social and ethical implications of emerging technologies.” (Dunne & Raby, 2005)

Teachers in schools and universities should be encouraging and empowering learners to become more aware and think more critically about design. If students only produce what they think their teacher wants or expects, they will be reluctant to take risks or use their creativity. The “designerly” way of thinking on the other hand lends itself perfectly to collaborative, problem-based learning and can be applied easily to learning that crosses curricular boundaries.

How do we nurture innovative designers?

The sorts of thinking skills and processes that we are talking about developing here have value beyond preparing students for careers in Design. In fact, looking at the world with a “critical design” or “designerly” approach equips students with a set of highly transferable skills that can be applied to almost any context.

How to create a curriculum to deliver this learning, and how to assess a student’s progress along this journey? Well, one possible solution being piloted by World ORT in schools in Israel is  ”Assessment in My Palm” – a project that exploits technology that is readily available to all students to track and manage their development.

 

How to produce developers rather than consumers

 Pedagogy  1 Response »
Jan 302012
 

One of the most thought-provoking sessions at Wingate 2012 was the presentation given by Dr. Neil Hopkin – Executive Head Teacher at Rosendale Primary School.  Neil promotes personalised learning and effective use of ICT in the classroom through his blog and on Twitter.

Neil shared with us the criticism of the UK’s ICT curriculum recently made by the Chief Executives of Google and Microsoft: we are producing consumers of technology, rather than developers of technology.  I could not agree more: my first ICT lesson as an 11-year-old involved learning how to use Microsoft Word, and I never ever went on to learn the process by which it was developed!  Michael Gove, the UK Secretary State for Education, recently acknowledged this problem in his speech at BETT about proposed changes to the ICT curriculum.

This wider point made by Neil was that the educational system is too focussed on specific subject content, and not focussed enough on developing skill sets and an understanding of how these skills can be applied in the world.  As a result, he advocates a system where:

  • Students negotiate their own timetable based around skills-building – rather than being presented with a set timetable structured by subject.
  • Teachers move around the classroom, working with groups of students and making key interventions – rather than lecturing from the front.
  • A range of ICT equipment is available in each classroom for students to use as they see fit – rather than being restricted to using the equipment in a dedicated lab.
  • Gaming is embraced in the classroom – rather than banned as a distraction from the “serious business” of education.

Having worked as a classroom teacher myself, Neil’s presentation left me with a number of questions:

  • How do we overhaul the current system of teacher training to effect a shift from “teacher as performer/spoon-feeder” to “teacher as facilitator”?  Could teachers actually end up being side lined in their own classrooms?
  • How can teachers maintain comprehensive assessment records in this new world?  What would assessment look like full-stop?  Neil talked about involving students in their own assessment – as a part of the learning itself.  Fine up to a point, but could this mean that teachers fail to take proper responsibility for the process?
  • Neil’s approach seems well-suited to the primary school setting he works in, but how suitable is it for high schools?  Is there a danger of watering down learning if subjects are not taught rigorously and separately?
  • Is the model of education Neil advocates transferrable to countries outside of the UK?  For example, how dependent is it on fast wireless internet access and expensive portable devices?

Answers on a postcard please!

Harris Lorie

World ORT Education Department