Category Archives: Education

Education, Ideas

Designing a Bicycle Culture for the Greater Lafayette Area

I have started riding a bicycle more and more around #GreaterLaLa thanks to a lovely Jamis I purchased from Virtuous Cycles in Downtown Lafayette.

One challenge I am constantly faced with on this new adventure is the disconnect between bicycle and automobile culture.  Thankfully, a great of cycle-minded citizens exists, Bicycle Lafayette.  They are currently working to inform the public, among other admirable activities, with some recent spoke cards.

We are also working on a small zine to help expand upon the great work #BikeLaLa has done.  Now, more than ever, time and energy is needed to help make cyclists, motorists, and pedestrians mindful.

For legal and safety reasons, cyclists have to follow the same rules (IC 9-21-11-2) when using the same transportation systems (traffic lights, one-ways, stop signs, etc). I have been a good steward in this diplomatic missing, trying to help educate people on all sides; cyclists who fail to signal or stop, automobiles that don’t share the road, and pedestrians who ignore the world around them.

While putting away my laundry, I listened and watched Bicycle Culture by Design: Mikael Colville-Andersen at TEDxZurich.

A few takeaways for myself were:

  • While designing or redeveloping anything (especially transportation systems in Greater Lafayette), we need to study the desire lines (or desire paths) in order to meet the current needs of the community.
    • This could easily be accomplished with any tripod and modern camera that can take time lapse videos.
  • While cyclists need to follow the rules of the road, little consideration is given towards this, and other, alternative modes of transport.
  • Designers and engineers should work together on projects to satisfy a workable solution vs. a paper-only theory.

Education

Meaningful Feedback for Students, Teachers, Administrators, and Parents

Bill gates

A friend of mine, Brent Brewington, sent a link to Bill Gates’ latest talk, Teachers need real feedback, at TED. It was nice to hear some of the same ideas we discuss in our own department, being articulated in a similar fashion.

The basic thesis of Gates’ talk was that teachers can only improve themselves via feedback. Gates suggests student surveys and video recording analysis (gathered and analyzed by the teacher) as two methods for gathering this data. Once areas that can be improved are identified, a to-be-created network could be used by the teacher to watch other teachers who have mastered a particular lesson or concept to continue the improvement process.

I agree that self-reflection is perhaps the most powerful tool to improve oneself. The questions I anticipate coming from teachers regarding these two systems are:

  • Will the student surveys be used in any formal evaluation process and therefore affecting rating?
  • Who will have access to the student survey information?
  • Will anyone besides the teacher have access to the recorded video content?
  • How do we change the current school culture to include feedback as part of the daily routine?

A question of my own: How do we expand these types of feedback systems to the students, administrators, and parents? All parties involved in the educational process would be better served by meaningful feedback and periodic moments self-reflection. Maybe would could expand the already State mandated moment of silence to include such personal insight?

I know we have proposed using a student survey system similar to those found in universities, but now we have a reference of Bill Gates supporting our idea.  The next steps for us will be to try and identify some teachers who would be willing to participate in a pilot of both these types systems.