Last night I hosted the Big Beacon twitter chat, Joy in Engineering. After introductions to welcome participants from the engineering community (including professional engineers, engineering students and engineering educators) in the US, Canada and Puerto Rico, the topic was served up: This 1st day of May we're looking at the 1st point in the #BigBeacon manifesto: A Whole New…
Joy in engineering. That's right - joy in engineering. It might seem like a strange topic or an unlikely pairing. But the first point on the Big Beacon manifesto states that in order be an engineer who is appropriate to our time, equal to keeping pace with technology and solving the next generation of challenges: A Whole New Engineer finds…
An earlier blogpost (here) argued for authentically discussing the emotional phenomena of education transformation with emotional language in place of the usual rational code words of educational discourse. That post discussed Brene Brown's work and offered her TED talk on the Power of Vulnerability. This post continues in the spirit of giving us permission to access the right hemisphere of…
There is widespread talk about transformative change in engineering education. A variety of visions of what engineering and engineering education should become have been put forward, and governments the world over have thrown or are throwing millions if not billions of dollars to change engineering education, but as the French put it so nicely, plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose--the…
I was giving a short workshop to PhD students at the National University of Singapore on Thursday, and the title was Mastering the Leadership, Organizational, and Emotional Challenges of a Career in Teaching or Research. This particular offering was two, three-hour sessions covering the noticing, listening, questioning (NLQ), and story reframing skills that are necessary for the PhD to augment…
Big Beacon is a movement to transform engineering education. We recognize that the status quo will not go easily, but go it must! The Big Beacon Manifesto states: Engineering education... is a joyful, trusting process that delights in serving student aspirations, learning, and growth, unleashing the potential of each individual. What are your thoughts on better serving our students to reach their potential? Invitation. Please join…
Invitation. Students, educators, engineers, and employers, lend us your tweets by joining a #BigBeacon twitter chat at 8pm, Wednesday, 3 April on Twitter (hashtag: #BigBeacon). Join me, Dave Goldberg, Big Beacon founder and president, for a lively discussion of the Holistic Engineer and Holistic Engineering Education. All are welcome to just listen or to contribute your thoughts. How to do a twitter…
Since joining up with The Big Beacon to discuss how A Whole New Engineering Education can produce A Whole New Engineer in the future, I have been thinking a lot about my own engineering education experience. Studying engineering is not just about academic rigour - though there is plenty of that! It's also about an identity; being a member of…
The earliest engineers were renaissance thinkers and visionaries. In the tradition of Leonardo daVinci, many were gifted artists as well as technical experts. Creativity as it appears (or doesn't) in engineering education and professional practice today is up for discussion on the Big Beacon Twitter chat tonight! Join us for the #BigBeacon Twitter Chat 2/27/2013 8PM EST. We'll explore these…
Women are significantly underrepresented in engineering, and this will be our topic for the 2/20/2013 8PM EST #BigBeacon Twitter Chat. Our discussion will include such topics as stereotypes and bias. What is a Twitter Chat? Learn more here. Pre-Reading Why So Few: Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Additional Reading Generation STEM: What girls say about Science, Technology, Engineering, &…