Syllabus

Hacking Higher Education

Exciting innovation is happening in the area of higher education. This class will ask students to look at ways to reinvent higher education to increase its accessibility and exceed the current quality of the experience. Students will survey current experiments such as Udacity, Khan Academic, O’Reilly, Code Academy, Meetups, TED Talks, General Assembly, Hackerspaces. Guest speakers working in this space will join the class discussions. Students will create the working parts of an educational institution including curriculum, scheduling, lectures, discussions, community and assessment using such tools as blogs, video streaming, architecture and budgets. ITP disrupt thyself.

Format:

Each students need to post homework ahead of time so we can review it more quickly at the beginning of class.  Then we will eat a brown bag lunch in class, typically with a guest.  I am working on scheduling the guests.  Students need to have watched a video or read something from the guest ahead of time.  This will allow the guest can be part of the discussion rather than having to present.  In the last part of class the assignment will be presented along with some technical suggestions for accomplishing it.

 Objectives:

    1. Rethink the value and the methods of higher education.
    2. Become current on experiments happening in this space.
    3. Develop working prototype of your own school.

Schedule:

    • Week 1:  This Moment  1/28

      • Review structure and organization of the class.
      • Discussion: What is happening now and why? Have we been here before?
      • Lunch: Anya Kamenetz
      • Assignment: Research and experience some new method of higher education.  Begin forming an idea of the school you want to make.  Please post under Research and Ideas Category
      • Reading/Viewing for next week: Co-Working to Urban Campus, Tour GA Tuesdays and Thursdays at 5pm.  902 Broadway, 4th Floor.

    • Week 2: The Curriculum 2/4

      • Review research assignment.
      • Discussion:  Can a blog replace an administrative staff?
      • Lunch: Brad Hargreaves from General Assembly
      • Technical: WordPress Plugins, Google Sites, Google Course Builder
      • Assignment: Create a web site for originating (unconference), structuring, staffing, scheduling, advising, enrolling, give and getting materials, submitting assignments, feedback on assignments, payment, visualizing progress.  Please post the link with category “Massive Productivity”
      • Reading/Viewing for next week: Salmon Khan

    • Week 3: The Content 2/11

      • Review curriculum assignment
      • Discussion: Lectures should almost certainly move online.  What should keep and cast off from traditional lectures?
      • Lunch: Shawn Van Every  Online Video 101, Kinect
      • Technical: Streaming Video, IP Cameras, Wowsa server (instructions in email)
      • Assignment: Create a streaming video of a lecture.  Please post results under category “Content Commodified”
      • Reading/Viewing for next week:  parlor   vialogues Piazza  Scoop It   ClassroomSalon   edmodo  gaggle soundcloud

    • PRESIDENTS DAY NO CLASS 2/18

    • Week 4: Conversation 2/25

    • Week 5: Motivations and Outcomes 3/4

      • Review of conversations assignment.
      • Lunch Nicholas Bergson-Shilcock from Hacker School
      • Discussion:
        • How to get students to work hard and finish.  Motivation, intrinsic, playful, meaningful, making, competence, flow.
        • How to get students to believe in your school and the world to believe in your students.  Reputation accreditation, validation, competence vs credit hour. Jobs, careers, callings.
      • Assignment: Devise a system for keeping students motivated or for publicly assessing achievement.  For example a recommendation system (LinkedIn), a transcript or portfolio system  (Pathbrite ), an public relations campaign to establish credibility (Ads in Subway), a motivating syllabus or daily schedule (ITP courses,TYJT)
      • Reading/Viewing for next week: Catarina Mota, Visit a Hackerspace (eg NYC Resistor has an open night every Thursday from 6 pm to 10 pm. Contact Catarina) Guy Kawasaki

    • Week 6: The Community 3/11

    • SPRING BREAK  3/18

    • Week 7:  The Physical Space 3/25

    • Week 8: Economics 4/1

    • Week 9: Research 4/8

      • Review of economics.
      • Discussion: As things are delivered a la carte, central authorities loose discretion to cross subsidize long term or unprofitable but important work.
      • Lunch:  Ellen Jorgensen from Genspace
      • Assignment: Look into crowd sourcing models of funding, Interesting Meetup

    • Week 10: Final Projects in Progress 4/15


    • Week 11:  Final Projects in Progress 4/22

       

       

    • Week 12: Final Presentations 4/29

      • Present Final Projects

 Evaluation:

  • 20% On-time Attendance and Participation 
  • 10% Blogging
  • 40% Assignments
  • 30% Final Project