Comments on: Agile learning, Agile Software development and the Mobile Internet http://www.toolsandtaxonomy.com/2010/07/13/agile-learning-agile-software-development-and-the-mobile-internet/ If we want to get more for less then we have to do things differently Sun, 23 Jan 2011 13:29:10 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Dick Moore http://www.toolsandtaxonomy.com/2010/07/13/agile-learning-agile-software-development-and-the-mobile-internet/comment-page-1/#comment-646 Dick Moore Sun, 23 Jan 2011 13:29:10 +0000 http://www.toolsandtaxonomy.com/?p=152#comment-646 Simon I like the whole barbell analogy, considering education as a set of personal investments works form me! The only issue I have with that is that all too often the long term investments are not ‘owned’ by student. That being said, tutoring to my mind is a terrific example of an agile method. A good tutor will establish specific areas of need, and a individual / personalised path to deliver a set of short term goals with adaptable exercises solid formative assessment and constant feedback that allows a student to monitor their progress. Does it matter if the goal is passing an exam rather than developing a deep understanding, well to my mind the answer is no, in all but the most mechanical of subjects we can expect a deeper understanding to develop from repetition and it’s for the summative assessment to assess the level of understanding. Setting short term achievable / mini goals that are achievable and providing feedback is intuitively a “good thing “to do especially for those students that respond to validation. How might it be made more agile, well in my opinion ensuring that the student has a strong voice in student their goals. Simon
I like the whole barbell analogy, considering education as a set of personal investments works form me! The only issue I have with that is that all too often the long term investments are not ‘owned’ by student.
That being said, tutoring to my mind is a terrific example of an agile method. A good tutor will establish specific areas of need, and a individual / personalised path to deliver a set of short term goals with adaptable exercises solid formative assessment and constant feedback that allows a student to monitor their progress.
Does it matter if the goal is passing an exam rather than developing a deep understanding, well to my mind the answer is no, in all but the most mechanical of subjects we can expect a deeper understanding to develop from repetition and it’s for the summative assessment to assess the level of understanding.
Setting short term achievable / mini goals that are achievable and providing feedback is intuitively a “good thing “to do especially for those students that respond to validation.
How might it be made more agile, well in my opinion ensuring that the student has a strong voice in student their goals.

]]> By: simonwalsh http://www.toolsandtaxonomy.com/2010/07/13/agile-learning-agile-software-development-and-the-mobile-internet/comment-page-1/#comment-645 simonwalsh Sat, 22 Jan 2011 17:29:16 +0000 http://www.toolsandtaxonomy.com/?p=152#comment-645 I am trying to understand this concept and wonder if agile learning could supplement a student’s academic learning in between: 1. what is provided in their school and 2. what is provided by their private tutor. Whilst some students can study independently, generally those that struggle at GCSE level for example cannot. Therefore I believe that many students take a barbell strategy towards passing their exams. The schools provide the main core of learning, the student does very little independent study, and then they use a private tutor to help them revise and reinforce what was covered at school. If we were to provide a system by where a student and their mentors (teacher\parent\tutor) could set mini goals that represent their areas of weakness, mapped to suitable asynchronous learning resources, the student could then add a new approach to learning: hence filling the gap in the barbell. Do you think this could be considered a valid application of the principles of agile learning? I am trying to understand this concept and wonder if agile learning could supplement a student’s academic learning in between:
1. what is provided in their school and 2. what is provided by their private tutor.

Whilst some students can study independently, generally those that struggle at GCSE level for example cannot. Therefore I believe that many students take a barbell strategy towards passing their exams. The schools provide the main core of learning, the student does very little independent study, and then they use a private tutor to help them revise and reinforce what was covered at school.

If we were to provide a system by where a student and their mentors (teacher\parent\tutor) could set mini goals that represent their areas of weakness, mapped to suitable asynchronous learning resources, the student could then add a new approach to learning: hence filling the gap in the barbell.

Do you think this could be considered a valid application of the principles of agile learning?

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