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String Quartets to Marching Bands!  2023 Holiday Special, Part 5 show art String Quartets to Marching Bands! 2023 Holiday Special, Part 5

Ten with Ken (Video)

Once again, Ken Steele scoured the interwebs and collected more than 240 higher education holiday greeting videos (released as of December 21 2023). Setting aside the sermons, concerts, animated cards and talking heads, he shortlisted the best and presented them to a jury of marketing professionals in a 2-hour livestream on Eduvation Circles. A series of episodes will bring you all the fun of Ken’s annual collection of higher ed holiday greeting videos - It’s the next best thing to being there! In part 5, Ken looks at the best of 2023’s higher ed “Musical Performances,” from string...

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Holiday Goodwill!  2023 Holiday Special, Part 4 show art Holiday Goodwill! 2023 Holiday Special, Part 4

Ten with Ken (Video)

Once again, Ken Steele scoured the interwebs and collected more than 240 higher education holiday greeting videos (released as of December 21 2023). Setting aside the sermons, concerts, animated cards and talking heads, he shortlisted the best and presented them to a jury of marketing professionals in a 2-hour livestream on Eduvation Circles. A series of episodes will bring you all the fun of Ken’s annual collection of higher ed holiday greeting videos - It’s the next best thing to being there! In part 4, Ken looks at the best of 2023’s higher ed “Acts of Goodwill,” and other vids...

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Presidents Home Alone!  2023 Holiday Special, Part 3 show art Presidents Home Alone! 2023 Holiday Special, Part 3

Ten with Ken (Video)

Once again, Ken Steele scoured the interwebs and collected more than 240 higher education holiday greeting videos (released as of December 21 2023). Setting aside the sermons, concerts, animated cards and talking heads, he shortlisted the best and presented them to a jury of marketing professionals in a 2-hour livestream on Eduvation Circles. A series of episodes will bring you all the fun of Ken’s annual collection of higher ed holiday greeting videos - It’s the next best thing to being there! In part 3, Ken looks at the best of 2023’s higher ed “Holiday Parodies,” including plenty...

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Holiday Contests and Competitions!  2023 Holiday Special, Part 2 show art Holiday Contests and Competitions! 2023 Holiday Special, Part 2

Ten with Ken (Video)

Once again, Ken Steele scoured the interwebs and collected more than 240 higher education holiday greeting videos (released as of December 21 2023). Setting aside the sermons, concerts, animated cards and talking heads, he shortlisted the best and presented them to a jury of marketing professionals in a 2-hour livestream on Eduvation Circles. A series of episodes will bring you all the fun of Ken’s annual collection of higher ed holiday greeting videos - It’s the next best thing to being there! In part 2, Ken looks at the best of 2023’s “Holiday Shout-Outs,” “Holiday Hand-Offs,”...

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Merry, Bright & Furry!  2023 Holiday Special, Part 1 show art Merry, Bright & Furry! 2023 Holiday Special, Part 1

Ten with Ken (Video)

Once again, Ken Steele scoured the interwebs and collected more than 240 higher education holiday greeting videos (released as of December 21 2023). Setting aside the sermons, concerts, animated cards and talking heads, he shortlisted the best and presented them to a jury of marketing professionals in a 2-hour livestream on Eduvation Circles. A series of episodes will bring you all the fun of Ken’s annual collection of higher ed holiday greeting videos - It’s the next best thing to being there! In part 1, Ken looks at a sprinkling of "Festive & Bright" campus events and tree lighting...

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Third Spaces on Campus show art Third Spaces on Campus

Ten with Ken (Video)

Our 5-part series on Forward-Looking Facilities concludes with a look at the informal communal spaces on campus, in-between faculty offices and labs, or student dorms and classrooms. These so-called "Third Spaces" are home to some of the most valuable interactions between students, staff and faculty alike... In Part 5, "Third Spaces," Ken describes the gradual evolution of higher ed campuses from "introverted" retreats to more extroverted "collision spaces," where informal and serendipitous interactions can spark revolutionary ideas and unexpected illumination. These learning commons and...

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Active Learning show art Active Learning

Ten with Ken (Video)

Our series on Forward-Looking Facilities continues with more detail on the ways that pedagogical change, and particularly the adoption of active learning, has transformed classroom time and classroom spaces on campuses. In Part 4, "Active Learning," Ken looks at the way thousand-year-old transmission theories of education created the design of modern lecture theatres, while pedagogical research from UBC's Carl Weiman Institute has paved the way for new approaches. New classroom designs, from Oregon State University's "Phil Donahue" theatres-in-the-round to learning studios and SCALE-UP...

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Online & Blended Learning show art Online & Blended Learning

Ten with Ken (Video)

Our series on Forward-Looking Facilities continues with a look at post-pandemic adoption of online and blended learning delivery, and what 600,000 students tell us about their preferences for learning modality. In Part 3, "Online & Blended Learning," Ken looks at the decade-long inevitability of adopting blended delivery approaches, which have demonstrably better learning outcomes for students, and can save institutions millions on classroom facilities and operating costs. Years ago, Napster and Netflix demonstrated that "everything that CAN be digital, WILL be," and now that libraries and...

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The Fluid Future of Work show art The Fluid Future of Work

Ten with Ken (Video)

Our series on Forward-Looking Facilities continues with a closer look at the new work experience of staff and faculty, and how that will reshape work-life balance and the nature of work – on campus and off - in what is going to be a very fluid future. In part 2, "The Fluid Future of Work," Ken looks at the fluidity and ambiguity facing PSE in the years ahead, employee appetites for remote and hybrid work, and the implications for office design and space. He emphasizes that mental wellness is a growing concern for students and staff alike, and that sleep deprivation is an often-overlooked...

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The Post-Pandemic Campus show art The Post-Pandemic Campus

Ten with Ken (Video)

Season 7 of Ten with Ken opens with a 5-part series looking at Forward-Looking Facilities, and the ways that campus design and architecture have responded to the lessons learned during the pandemic. In part 1, "The Post-Pandemic Campus," Ken reviews the turbulence and shifting context we've all learned to expect, and warns that the future will be even more fluid, thanks to climate change, extreme weather, zoonotic viruses and more. COVID19 thrust our society, and our institutions, a full decade into the future, forcing us to adopt technologies and remote approaches to work and learning,...

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More Episodes

Children are natural born scientists, with an insatiable curiosity and desire to experiment – but studies have demonstrated that somehow, through years of formal education, most teenagers lose their enthusiasm for science. By the time they are applying to college, less than a quarter say they remain very interested in science, which they consider “complicated” and “difficult” rather than “fun” or “inspiring.” (See the findings of the CFI’s “Canadian Youth Science Monitor” at https://www.innovation.ca/sites/default/files/news_items/Jun-7-2010-ipsos.pdf).

 

This week, Ken chats with Bonnie Schmidt, founder and president of Let’s Talk Science, about the importance of keeping young people engaged in STEM fields, and some recommendations for science teaching at the primary, secondary, and tertiary levels.  She emphasizes that “what’s happening at K-12 is actually THE most important economic driver for this country.”

 

Since 1991, Let’s Talk Science has mobilized more than 26,000 college and university students to bring experiential, hands-on STEM activities to some 5 million elementary and secondary school students.  LTS provides web tools, governance, resources, guidance and support for the student teams at no charge. “We love bringing science to life!”  (For more information, check out http://letstalkscience.ca)

 

LTS has been leading Canada2067, an ambitious initiative examining international trends in STEM education, and mapping future directions for the next 50 years.  (Check out their resources at https://canada2067.ca) Canada2067 brought together Grade 9/10 students, millennials, parents, teachers, industry and non-profit organization leaders, and policy makers across the country, and there was considerable agreement on some general principles, including:

 

RELEVANT: To keep students of any age engaged with course content, it has to be clearly relevant to their daily lives.  

 

EXPERIENTIAL:  Hands-on, group activities have been a key component of the Let’s Talk Science program for decades.  (We explored the importance of experiential learning in this episode: https://youtu.be/DU1gRLZeEIo).

 

INTERDISCIPLINARY:  Bonnie emphasizes that the best way to create relevance for students is to move towards “an interdisciplinary, issues-based” approach to teaching, addressing big global challenges from multiple perspectives. In Saskatchewan, for example, there are some interesting experiments in multidisciplinary senior-level science courses. But colleges and universities will need to accept those interdisciplinary credits, and higher ed instructors need to revisit the tradition of “teaching how we were taught.”

 

TEACHER PD: “We’re not investing enough in our teachers,” Bonnie laments, at any level of education. Teachers need resources, training, and time to develop lessons and share best practices.

 

PARENTS: “Parents are the #1 influencer of the students taking optional credits at high school,” and it’s crucial that parents urge their children to persist in STEM subjects even when they are challenging, to keep higher ed doors open.  Parents also need to keep an open mind about non-traditional teaching approaches, such as experiential or inquiry-based learning.

 

“The world is undergoing such transformation right now,” Bonnie says, that we need to reconsider how we teach STEM in primary, secondary, and tertiary classrooms. Memorization is a far less important part of learning. We need accelerated ways to upskill and reskill displaced workers, and more pathways between universities and colleges.  “We’re all recognizing that change is needed,” Bonnie says. “I have never actually seen the stars align with a desire to change in education at all levels that I’ve seen in Canada over the last 5 years.”

 

Bonnie Schmidt holds a PhD in Physiology from Western University, was identified as one of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40, is a member of the Order of Canada and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. She has chaired numerous national science education committees and task forces, and served on the board of governors of Ontario Tech University and the board of directors of the Ontario Genomics Institute.

 

Special thanks to Let’s Talk Science, who hosted Ken as keynote at the Digital Literacy Summit in Toronto in late January 2018, and provided the videographers for this interview.

 

Next time, 10K travels to Mount Royal University in Calgary, to check out the latest in makerspaces and immersive VR at the Riddell Library and Learning Centre. To be sure you don’t miss it, take a moment to subscribe at http://eduvation.ca/subscribe/ 

 

And if you would like to host 10K at your campus, more information is available at http://eduvation.ca/twk/site-visits/