U of O Watch mission, in the words of Foucault...

"One knows … that the university and in a general way, all teaching systems, which appear simply to disseminate knowledge, are made to maintain a certain social class in power; and to exclude the instruments of power of another social class. … It seems to me that the real political task in a society such as ours is to criticise the workings of institutions, which appear to be both neutral and independent; to criticise and attack them in such a manner that the political violence which has always exercised itself obscurely through them will be unmasked, so that one can fight against them." -- Foucault, debating Chomsky, 1971.

U of O Watch mission, in the words of Socrates...

"An education obtained with money is worse than no education at all." -- Socrates

video of president allan rock at work

Showing posts with label classroom. Show all posts
Showing posts with label classroom. Show all posts

Monday, March 18, 2013

On technology in the classroom at U of O, and on paternalism


Drop the iPad and get back to basics, says University of Ottawa professor Cameron Montgomery
--Ottawa Sun, March 17, 2013

U of O Granting Program Gives $80 000 / year for Clickers, etc.
--Student's-Eye-View, December 20, 2011

On the sacred space of the university classroom
--Activist Teacher, October 3, 2009

"The University of Ottawa is till fine-tuning their new online policy, and expects to release their findings by the end of the year." --Sun article, March 17, 2013

Findings? Some profs want to close in-class student laptops on demand, as in paternalistic control of in-class behaviour of adult students who are suppose to have the academic freedom to optimize their own learning as they see fit...

U of O Watch looks forward to the U of O's "findings" on this delicate question of student adaptation to dreadfully boring classes delivered by PowerPoint slides.

The student union has been waiting for the University's "findings" for a full year:
Student union letter
--SFUO, April 2, 2012