Blended learning combines face-to-face and virtual instruction through the use of online learning technologies. Post-secondary students attend lectures in real-time, either virtually or in person, and this is accompanied by online learning activities completed outside of class time. These blended classrooms can help support the educational needs of university students. When combined with traditional instruction, a […] … learn more→
What is ‘blended learning’ and how can it benefit post-secondary students?
Why blockchain could mean fewer hassles for students and workers proving their credentials
Microcredentials — attestations of proficiency in a specific skill or knowledge base that are certified by an authority — can provide evidence of a person’s skills to employers. While microcredentials are becoming more popular, the concept is hardly new: A driver’s licence or the St. John Ambulance certificate could be considered as microcredentials, attesting respectively to a person’s driving […] … learn more→
Nobel prizes most often go to researchers who defy specialization – winners are creative thinkers who synthesize innovations from varied fields and even hobbies
Experts often recommend that people specialize in one field of work or research to maximize their chances of success. Yet our recently published research indicates that successful innovators take a broader path. We looked at the careers of Nobel Prize winners, who are arguably among the most innovative people in the world. We found that they are unusually likely to be […] … learn more→
Who is afraid of feminist and anti-racist studies at university?
“Moral panic”: this was the expression used 50 years ago by the sociologist Stanley Cohen when observing the disproportionate coverage by the British media of some fights that took place on the beaches between young people of the counter-culture of the 1960s , rockers and mods. In his book Folk Devils and Moral Panics (never translated into French), the […] … learn more→
Ecological transition in school: education, buildings and school environments
The ecological transition is on everyone’s lips, both internationally and in the European Union and the countries around us. In Spain, an ad hoc name has even been created for the ministry, before Environment, which indicates the current focus of its mission: Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge . Although an ecological transition does not depend only on a ministry, but […] … learn more→
Building a second brain – for academic writing
I always feel the need for more information, at the same time as feeling completely overwhelmed by what I already have. What I’m describing is a weird (highly privileged of course), 21st century form of anxiety… But perhaps you can relate? Certainly, a lot of people wrote to me after my most recent post on […] … learn more→
To foster real change universities need to stand beside Black professors, not condemn them
The past couple of weeks have seen wall to wall coverage of Queen Elizabeth’s death. Many media outlets took to eulogizing the Queen with effusive praise of her service and duty. But not everyone saw her and the insitution she headed in the same light. Many took to social media to discuss the Queen’s role in Britain’s imperial project, […] … learn more→
Why are some people more resilient than others?
One of the most important questions that researchers and those of us who deal with children, adolescents and young people ask ourselves is why there are people who, although they grow up in hostile and insecure environments or have been exposed to traumatic events, such as child abuse or other contexts of violence, they overcome […] … learn more→
“The other side of words”: Validism
The word ableism is a French translation of the term “ableism”, deriving from the word “able” (capable, in French). The concept of ableism includes discriminatory behavior against people with disabilities. There are several clues about the origins of this concept . Most tend to originate within the civil rights movements for people with disabilities between 1960 and 1980, in the United States. […] … learn more→
South African universities need to better support doctoral supervisors
South Africa’s government has ambitious plans for doctoral education. The country aims to increase its output to 5,000 doctorates annually by 2030. In 2013, the figure stood at 2,051; by 2019 it was up to 3,445. It also wants 75% of all academics employed at universities to hold a PhD by 2030. In 2019, that figure was just 46%. […] … learn more→