Education Mashups for the 21st Century
Value Added in Mixing and Overlapping Topics in Studies
Feb 14, 2009
Mashups are basically the combination of two or more traditionally unrelated subjects which allow a pupil to use their right brain to arrive at a more creative conclusion than more commonly found methods.
Thomas L. Friedman is virtually a household name today after the wild success of his books on the topic of globalization and free markets, most notably The World is Flat and Hot, Flat, and Crowded, both published byFarrar, Straus and Giroux, in 2006 and 2008 respectively Friedman writes an opinion column for The New York Times and varyingly opines on energy issues, the Middle East, developing nations, foreign policy, and education. He has been a leading proponent of mashups as a teaching concept.
In February 2008 writer Daniel Pink interviewed Friedman for The School Administrator, the magazine of the American Association of School Administrators. In the interview, which discussed new lines of thinking in education, Friedman discussed the value of mahups. "It’s those kinds of intersections that are going to produce the most innovative students," he told Craig.
Exposure to Ideas With an Open Conclusion
The idea of mashups is essentially to present open-ended problems to students and allow them to come up with their own solutions. This fosters an environment of problem-solving and critical thinking. While many Americans remember their primary academic experience as one of rote memorization, mashups allow that knowledge to be applied to a scenario that simulates real-world issues they will likely encounter as professional adults.
Georgia Tech and the Cross-Discipline Engineering Concept
Also in the interview with Pink, Friedman raised Georgia Technological Institute and its cross-pollinization efforts with its engineers. "The Georgia Tech model says your job is most likely not going to be a pure engineering job. Let’s say you work for CNN as a computer specialist. It’s very likely you will be asked to integrate different kinds of content with different kinds of technology platforms. If schools can actually produce people who are good synthesizers, they’re going to be more effective and innovative workers," said Friedman.
E-learning and Embracing of Mashing
On the education blog "Blackboard," blogger David Andrews discusses the intrigue mashups have generated in an 18 September 2008 post. Blackboard produces computer-based training software and is looking to mashups as a tool to more effectively interact with users. The designers hold that the mashups' popularity stems from three core traits:
- They are Alive
- They are Interactive
- They are Engaging
"Mashups can immerse you in the educational experience," Andrews writes. "They are current, up to date, and so consistently relevant...Because they are always relevant and immersive, and because they bring students into the learning process, mashups have the potential to be highly engaging."
Critics of the Trend
Some have labeled the mashup as a gimmick that favors clever branding to proven education.
In a March 2007 Wired magazine article, writer Oliver Paradis criticizes, "The truth is, mashup is a manufactured buzzword, and like any buzzword, it drips with tacky artificiality, marketing innuendo, and vague implications. I have lately observed the application of this metaphor to the most unlikely subjects, including art, video, laptops, cell phones, movies, sneakers, cars, toothbrushes, and who knows what else." Paradis was actually referring to mashup in the sense of software and application hybridization, which are very similar in nature to the educational contexts, but his disapproving views are shared among some staunch traditionalists.
In his November 2008 point paper "The Snowflake Effect," Wayne Hodgins, a Fellow and Strategic Futurist at Autodesk, Inc. writes on the power and simplicity of the maturing trend. But he warns that mashups need to be expanded beyond technologies into traditional media. He says the concepts are "unfortunately associated [too much] with technology...This perception is unnecessarily constraining the power of mashups. To realize their full potential, we need to see mashups as a very broad and overarching conceptual model."
Mashups are only beginning to see their potential on the Internet and in some classrooms and other learning environments. As Web 2.0 and new education trends emerge, the ever-innovating "flat" world will no doubt reveal new incarnations of mashing.
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