Bass Lectures

Sept 15, 2006

"Making Learning Visible"
(Online recording)

One of the consequences of the increasing emphasis on student learning in higher education has been to open up dimensions of the learning process that are elusive--if not invisible--in traditional assessments.

This is especially true of learning that results from emergent pedagogies, including those enhanced by new technologies.  One of the key challenges to making the best use of new learning environments is rethinking how we apply what we know about expertise and expert thinking to the design of the undergraduate curriculum. This presentation will address some of the ways that new technologies and new pedagogies might play a role in our general shift toward teaching for understanding, and explore some of the challenges of living up to a broadened definition of learning and expertise. 

“Thriving in an Era of Rapid and Relentless Transformation” (Online recording)

"Moore's Law" tells us that the storage capacity of digital memory will double at least every eighteen months.  Unfortunately, the same is not true of the human brain. How do we cope with the increasing disparity between the explosion of information and knowledge around us and the ability of the human mind to process and make use of it? What role does education play in helping cope with this rapid transformation?  What kind of learning matters most in the 21st century? How does a rapidly changing environment require us to change the ways we think about constructing and reproducing knowledge, especially if we are to thrive and not merely survive?  This presentation will explore these questions through images from popular culture and examples of multimedia learning projects undertaken by students at various universities.