I totally agree with Jeff Jarvis’ points in the above video. Education today is a 19th century system struggling to cope in a 21st century world- it’s like using a steam engine to commute to work today. It has become apparent to me, that in Letran’s walls, teachers “stamp out students all the same way with only one right answer each… And so, that assumes that all the knowledge flows from the [lecturer], if you don’t feed it back, you’re wrong- you fail.” Its a system that kills the students drive to explore, to argue.
Inside the classrooms, discussions are always one sided- why would Letranites ask questions? Why would they argue? Not only is there zero incentive to do so, but I think arguing with the professor has been indirectly forbidden. How? Peer pressure can be a problem, or a teacher might have embarrassed someone asking a stupid question. Maybe the curriculum does not stimulate a students brain enough for them to ask any questions. In my opinion, more interaction is needed- we are training computer scientists here, and like the scientists of other fields they need to discuss and argue and experiment in order to challenge the norms and discover new things, eg. non-routine problem solving.
If you can compare side by side the curriculum of Letran (or even the other Universities in the Philippines) and MIT’s OpenCourseWare, Academic Earth, or even Youtube EDU, you’ll begin to see another problem. On all of the courses offered, their online equivalents are almost always better. Its more interactive, up to date and free. You can learn more online in a weeks worth of videos, than spending four years in a Philippine university.
As Jeff above said, the good stuff are already out there. We have to stop this culture, of standardized testing and standardized teaching.
PS. More good points from the video: Quizzes and Exams @8:46, Google did not spring from the lectern @10:45, We have to stop this culture… @12:30
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