Weeks 1-2 (January 28-February 12): Introduction and Foundations
“The” history of schooling and YOUR history of schooling. Teaching and learning in popular culture. What is science fiction and what does it tell us?
Weeks 3-4 (February 13-February 26 (First Paper due)): Education as Cultural Marker
Schooling in culture and culture in schooling. Education and ethics and ethos. The culture of schoolchildren.
Weeks 5-6 (February 27-March 12): Learning to Learn
Learning styles. Self-reflection and meta-learning. Eportfolios. What about THIS course?
Weeks 7-8 (March 13-March 26 (Second Paper due)): Learning to Ask
Google-Fu and the massive collective brain. Just-in-time learning and the encyclopedia of everything. We are wikipedians.
Weeks 9-10 (March 27-April 16 (CUNY Spring Break is March 29-April 5)): Technology Changes Us
Future forces affecting education. Cyborgs, artificial intelligence and intelligent artifice. Machines in your life.
Weeks 11-12 (April 17-April 30 (Third Paper Due)): Who Are We? (What is Human?)
Homo homini lupus. Our ancestors and us. Is there a homo novo? Would you want your sister to marry a cylon if they were really in love?
Weeks 13-14 (May 1-May 14): Why Are We? (Why Learning? and Why Literature?)
The sophists and jiu-jitsu. Job skills and the liberal arts. Literature and pulp and movies and films (and the question of genre).
Week 15 (May 15-May 21 (Final Projects due)): Reflecting and Projecting
Summing up and Envoi. Planning “the” future of education and YOUR future of education.