New College Will Have No Majors or Classes
Think back to your college classes. I don't know what your experience was like, but for me, it involved a lot of sitting in a huge room with a hundred or so other students and we'd listen as our professors would drone on and on and we'd take notes with glazed over eyes and hope that our brains absorbed enough for us to ace our tests.
While I went to a typical college, I also went to a technical college where I learned about broadcasting and it was amazing. We still had lectures, but the bulk of our learning was through hands on doing. I retained so much more by being able to learn through doing than I did through a lecture setting.
While some people learn through lectures and notes, others learn better through hands on. If you've got a student who retains more through hands on learning, this might interest you.
A professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is stepping down from her position and she's starting up a new type of university- one that doesn't have majors, classes, or lectures.
Christine Ortiz is the Dean at MIT and she has a theory that students will thrive at her school, which will be driven by project-based learning instead of book-based or lecture-based learning.
Students who attend this school will work on projects that they have the most passion for and then they will learn only the things they need to get the project done. Pretty much like real life.
I've said for years that I believe when people are excited about something, they soak up as much knowledge about it as they can and knowledge grows knowledge. So, why not try to foster excitement in people rather than sit them in classrooms where they're forced to learn things they have no interest in and won't apply to their real life?
[via NextShark]