A tiny college based on socratic dialogue on great books has been ranked in some list as worst college in US, prompting editors at newspapers to send reporters out for a story. The Guardian filed this report, which emphasizes the unique and dramatically non mainstream approach of Shimer college. Shimer, with less than 100 students presently, seems to be as focused on critical thinking as a college could possibly be.
In an age where information is available as a DIY activity, and college is less relevant as a place to go to access facts, places like Shimer point the way to a different model of DIY learning, where the involvement of the student in his or hers own education is paramount. Learn by thinking/ doing, IOW.
The Shimer model of reading the great books might benefit from additional resources beyond the written word though, while keeping the emphasis on socratic dialogue as learning MO.
Recognizing that we can learn from great video clips as well as from great written works seems to be important in an age where video is apparently surpassing print as a core communication method.
Whether the source material is written or embedded in video clips, the engine of learning is the socratic dialogue part, where critical thinking is the means of engagement with the content and with others in a SLC. It is here where cloud tools can really shine; creating platforms for dialogue with multiple concurrent aspects.
What are those multiple concurrent aspects? PSA would like to know what a maximized SLC would look like, how it would work, and what would it include in the way of “moving parts”.