Learners at the center

I have already mentioned the MITUPV Exchange project a couple of times and here you have a complete explanation. To put it in a nutshell, it’s like the ‘proto social network’ from 2000. Anyway, I’ve been participating in the project for 2 years and despite the effort, sacrifice and energy that requires, it’s really a rewarding project. I don’t want to provide a tainted or rosy summary of the project’s process. Indeed, it really depends on your students’ attitude and since they get graded on their work you never know if there’s anyone out there really enjoying the experience for the sake of it. I’ve faced different situations, e.g. a minority who won’t work on the project because it takes up time (I teach 2 groups, but there are more being taught by 2 colleagues) so they end up registering in less demanding groups; then a couple of cases every year in which students don’t take it seriously, but the rest work on the project, and sometimes intensely.

What I’ve noticed is that most of them are shocked at the beginning, not only because the final part of the project is to shoot a video on a free topic with a free perspective and therefore they realize they have to speak both languages (English and Spanish) while being recorded but also because this is a course on English for engineers…why would engineering undergrads be interested in a workshop or project focused exclusively on their creativity, their social networking skills and on multiculturality? I know deep within, and often times not that deep, they think it’s a waste of time, they think it won’t be useful. So part of the project is devoted to raise their awareness than they are more than engineers, that this is not the typical heat transfer or thermodynamics lesson in which teachers come, vomit their knowledge and go and they take notes, passively. And that’s when I realize all the harm current educational system has done since the day they stepped into school. Kids get in as multilayered artichokes and the system carefully but steadily removes that armor in their modelling process so that the outcome is a more or less homogeneous group of reactive cogs just concerned with grades (the final stage of cartesian instruction) and therefore just interested in those objects (e.g. materials, courses, activities, tasks, etc) that can help them achieve those grades.

But if you don’t surrender, and keep on working and giving them food for thought, you notice that the inherently human traits of inquiry, engagement, curiosity are still there, at least in some students, who then become learners. I know it’s worth the effort when you see that some learners really took advantage of the project, from a personal and or professional perspective, when they thank you for taking part in such a different approach. And even if they don’t, I know it’s still worth the sacrifice because I know that the experience will always be there. They might realize when they get the grade and, what’s more, a certificate from the MIT that will come handy for their empty cvs. Or when they’re older and look back in time. Or maybe never, and yet the imprint will be there.

They’re now uploading their videos to the MITUPV site and I’m embedding here some of their work (of course, with their permission). Here you have 2 of them, to start with (note: teachers don’t interfere, so never mind the mistakes).

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